Unlike the recent release of Wall Street CEO compensation, which made every news report, the publication in the Chronicle of Higher Education of faculty salaries created nary a newsworthy ripple. We know college professors aren’t pulling down the big bucks, so their salaries are of no interest to us. Yet in some countries, college teaching is a profession as revered as doctors, lawyers, and financiers, and salaries are comparable to those professions. That doesn’t happen in the United States, where education — even at the university level — is looked upon as a right and not a privilege. Consequently, teachers at all levels are treated like public servants (even in private institutions) more than experts whose wisdom is highly valued.

For the past two years, states have either frozen or cut the budgets of public universities as they generally have in school systems K-12. We pay lip service to education and argue over what tests to administer and at what levels, but when it comes to making teaching a desirable profession for the best recent graduates, the United States is not making headway.