Book Description

Today most districts have unified salary schedules, which provide for only two kinds of pay differentials. They provide one set of salary steps for years of teaching experience and another set of steps for total amount of college credits. We urge that communities consider the adoption of a third set of steps for types of training -- so that district officials can offer higher salaries for some kinds of training without simultaneously being compelled to pay higher salaries for all teaching skills. Outside the teaching profession, there are wide salary differentials for various types of training. Average incomes in 1959 were $14,000 in the medical sciences, $11,000 in physics, and $8,000 in meteorology. Similarly, income variations exist for lawyers and ministers having the same amount of education and experience. In other words, it is characteristic of these professions and of professions generally not to have unified salary schedules. Is teaching different from other professions so that it requires an unprofessional salary structure. We think not, and we believe communities should no longer accept uncritically that kind of salary schedule.