What can the president do about teacher salaries?

Question

Which candidate for president will likely do something about the low salaries teachers get, and what exactly can they do?

Answer 1

The president, regardless of party, can do nothing, absolutely nothing because this is not even a statewide issue, but a local issue.

  The president, even if they decide to get involved in local issues, cannot by law do anything as his only option is to make his desires known to congress, and then it's their decision to make, accept or reject his ideas.

Galaxie Girl is right on  regarding teachers salaries.

  The city of Cleveland Ohio has about the highest pupil to dollar ratio of any city around, yet, our schools are the worst in the state, so money is not the answer, just an excuse.

Answer 2

NY State Teachers are paid through property taxes which are the highest in the country. Teachers also are paid way above the median income for NY and receive a pension of 80% of their last 3 years salary and health care. 90% of the School budget goes to the union, so why is Obama wanting to raise their salaries?

My Ex-girlfriend made 80K plus health care and no state income tax. Her pension will pay her over 90K per year, no tax and health care (retirement age of 55). That is worth millions. Check out a retirement planning site and see how much you'd have to save. Obama is pandering to rhetoric. Again.

I...got you twice: More rhetoric. The Liberals in this country thrive on it. Incomes are up (over 50K median), we are losing 150,000 jobs per year to Free trade, yet we lost even more before free trade to a changing economy. Freed trade has increased our economy by 50%, Canada the same and Mexico over 45%. They will point to a 12% poverty rate that includes new immigrants, but ignore the statistics that show most of them move up quickly.

Answer 3

Well the Democratic Party and the unions have been in love with each other for decades so if that's your concern you'd vote the Democratic party, however each State gets their funds differently so...

Answer 4

1) Public schools are not the business of the federal govt.  That's why they are run by the states.

2) California has the highest paid teachers, and yet we're near the bottom in terms of quality of education.  I seriously doubt paying teachers more will magically improve kids' test scores.

Answer 5

They can push an agenda that gets more federal funding to states for the purpose of funding schools.

However, teachers in my school district make upwards of $80K / year.  I think they are doing just fine.  Even the city school teachers make $40-60K.  

and they get 3 months vacation a year!  COME ON!

Answer 6

If McCain becomes president and they are poor teachers (I've had many of them in my day), he'll find them a new line of work, meaning they'll be unemployed and unable to find a job.

Great strategy.

Answer 7

Bob Barr would privatize it and not have the government involved with teaching.