Teachers should be paid more money to reverse the high turnover in the field, and substitutes who replace them in the classroom should be state certified like regular instructors, said high school students throughout the Baltimore region.
“Teachers are woefully under paid,” said Geoffrey Burgan, president of the Student Government Association at Atholton High School in Columbia.
Geoffrey said he knew a teacher at Pointer?s Run Elementary School in Clarksville who had to take a second job to make ends meet.
“As if teaching elementary school isn?t hard enough, she hadto find another job,” he said.
For the current school year, the average starting salary for a Maryland teacher is $38,778, according to Maryland State Department of Education. In the Baltimore region, a teacher with five years of experience earns about $43,000.
State officials should also do a better job of recruiting teachers in order to have smaller class sizes and to keep them in the field longer than five-year average.
“Our first period English class is overcrowded,” said Sera Havrilla, a senior at Centennial High School in Ellicott City.
Joe Gisriel, a senior at Towson High School in Baltimore County, was upset after his favorite physics teacher, Craig Swanson, left the teaching field to take a higher paying job.
“It?s actually kind of disappointing when you get to know and like a teacher like Mr. Swanson,” Joe said.
When teachers are away from the classroom, substitutes are not always imparting knowledge to students.
“They?re usually very nice, and they pass out a worksheet, but I?ve rarely encountered a substitute who actually taught something,” said Geoffrey, from Atholton high school.
Maddie Steinberg, a senior at Towson High, agreed.
“We end up watching pointless videos or doing busy work that are in no way connected to what we are doing,” she said.
Amy Beers, a senior at Centennial High whose family moved to Howard County from Canada based on the school system?s stellar reputation, said she was surprised to learn that there aren?t statewide certification standards for substitutes.
“There should be,” she said.
