Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices And Small Salaries Of America's Teachers

Do teachers really have it easy?"Teaching would be the greatest job in the world-if money didn't matter.""I told the girl I was dating I wouldn't mind teaching and she said, 'Don't waste your talent on that.' ""The schizophrenia is an issue: are you a professional or are you not?""I actually had to get a note from my doctor saying I needed to be excused to use the restroom during the day.""I threw in the towel and decided, it's a noble profession but I don't have time to be noble right now."Dave Eggers, acclaimed author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, son and brother of teachers, co-founder of writing centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Brooklyn, and passionate education advocate, joins forces with teacher Ninive Clements Calegari and journalist Daniel Moulthrop to examine a national scandal that affects us all. Many teachers today must work two or more jobs to survive; they can't afford to buy homes or raise families. Why are they paid so poorly? How is this related to student achievement? And how can we find ways to treat them like the professionals they are?Teachers Have It Easy examines how bad policy interacts with teachers' lives. Interweaving teachers' voices from across the country with hard-hitting facts and figures, this book is a clear-eyed view of the harsh realities of public-school teaching, without any chicken-soup-for-the-soul success stories. With a look at the problems of recruitment and retention, the myths of short workdays and endless summer vacations, the realities of the workweek, and shocking examples of how America views its teachers. Teachers Have It Easy explores why salary reform may be the best way to improve public education and examines how innovative compensation plans can transform schools.