Paper part 1

At least 24,470 schools in the United States are failing to meet the federal requirements set by President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. Contributing to this unacceptable number of deficient schools are many struggling educational institutions in the city of Memphis. There are a vast amount of factors that assist to the serious problem of failing schools including poverty and the lack of parenteral involvement. However, no matter what the underlying problem is, there's one thing that everyone agrees is vital to prosperous schools, great teaching. "It's not only intuition that tells us that teachers matter; research shows that teachers have a greater impact on student achievement than any other educational factor." (1) The children in America are our future leaders of the world and teachers are crucial to their success. If the children are our the future, it only seems logical that their mentors should be fully qualified for the job and are paid justly. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Memphis or in other areas of the country. For example, nationwide figures from 2006 show that middle school teachers make an average $49,470 a year compared to an Orthodontists who make an average of $176,900. Surely the ones that are responsible for building the future leaders of the world their foundation of knowledge should be provided with a better income than the ones that put metal on teeth for superficial purposes. Given the choice between crooked teeth or being illiterate, I don't think it's hard to figure out which is more important.

It’s no secret that people aspire for high paying jobs. When forced to choose between a career involving your passion with a low salary or a high paying job that you’ll hate the rest of your life, sadly most practical people choose the later. “Due to low salaries, little professional support, and poor working conditions, impoverished schools and school districts are likely to employ the most inexperienced teachers as well as suffer from the highest teacher-attrition rates.”(2) Why would someone choose to work at a demanding ball-buster career, such as teaching, that requires an extreme amount of dedication when the pay is lower than a librarian's yearly salary (3)? Some of those who choose the profession of teaching, despite the ridiculous low pay, find themselves struggling to make ends meet.