Science And Technology Tuesday: Too Little-Too Little

The State of Idaho is considering giving science and math teachers a whopping 3.75% premium for teaching in these tough-to-recruit subject areas:

A Senate panel has approved a bill that would raise math and science teacher pay in the hope of attracting more of those educators to Idaho.

The measure would cost the state around $2.8 million and would raise pay for those teachers by 3.75 percent.

That's a raise of just over $1,000 for a teacher earning $30,000 a year.

The pay raise wouldn't come until the teacher had been working at least five years, a time lag that some critics say would weaken the measure.

It passed the Senate Education Committee yesterday after a debate.

If all the state of Idaho pays its beginning teachers is thirty grand per year, I'm not suprised that there's a teacher shortage in those critical areas.

Heh. I wonder how many aspiring teachers would be willing to change their majors and head north in order to collect Idaho's $100 per month (less taxes) bonus? And before you begin cashing those checks, better not forget that five-year time lag... ---------------------------------Entries to this week's edition of The Carnival Of Education are due tonight. Get details right here; see our latest posts over there.