Teacher pay hikes alone can't fix education. We need a 'big idea' to help kids do well.

Sen. Kamala Harris recently proposed an average $13,500 raise for teachers — the first major teacher salary initiative from a presidential candidate in  two decades. The proposal is a response to teachers’ growing political clout. Other candidates will have to navigate this clout in their own ways as they move forward. 

But the public education system that teachers and  three-quarters of voters want cannot be had through salary increases alone. A decade-long school funding crisis has affected almost every aspect of school operations and student learning. This requires a bigger fix.

Teachers have been clear about this. Striking teachers in Oklahoma, for instance, emphasized the deplorable conditions in schools — overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating textbooks and districts so under-resourced that they reduced the school week to four days. Teachers refused to go back to work until the state also addressed those issues. In January, teachers in Los Angeles focused on the role charter schools have played in undermining traditional public schools.

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Teachers aren’t just adding a layer of spin onto their own self-interests. Studies have long shown that several factors other than salary affect teachers’ employment decisions. Geography, student demographics and the conditions under which they teach — class size, support staff and facilities — tend to be more important than salary. Past salary reforms have done little to fix teacher shortages and quality issues in high-need communities because they ignore these other factors.

Improving school conditions and, most important, student outcomes require us to confront how much — or how little — we spend per pupil. States can, for instance, mandate teacher salary raises, but those raises lead to larger class sizes and cuts in student support services when states leave their other funding policies in place. 

Those funding policies have been a disaster in recent years. Through 2015, 29 states were still spending less on education than before the recession — as much as a third less. Teacher protests helped close that gap in several states, but gaps still persist in many others. And just getting back to even is not enough anyway.

Feds need to start over and rethink funding

Research shows that huge swaths of schools throughout the southeast and southwest need anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 more per pupil for students to just achieve “average” outcomes. In Mississippi, for instance, school districts serving the poorest students are $17,000 per pupil short of what they need. In Arizona, the shortfall is nearly $20,000 per pupil. The rest of the nation is better but not immune. The neediest districts in Michigan and Washington are roughly $9,000 and $10,000 short, respectively. 

These schools need high quality pre-kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds. They need guidance counselors, nurses and social workers to respond to kids’ individual needs and aspirations. They need smaller classes and interventions for struggling students. They need updated technology and safe facilities. 

Delivering those opportunities requires a change to the status quo of unequal and inadequate overall school funding. To do that, the federal government needs to start over again, not just add teacher programs.

The federal government started pumping money into public education in the 1960s, targeting money solely at poor students. The program continues today under the name  the Every Student Succeeds Act, and has vastly broadened. Today, the federal government spends $15.8 billion a year on supplemental services for low-income students and an additional several billion on more general programs. But the way it distributes those funds is irrational at best — a vestige of an era long past.

Time for US to consider what students need 

The neediest states and districts no longer get the most funds. Instead, the funding formula has become a state and school district entitlement system. Everyone gets a little something, even if no one gets what they need or deserve.

State funding systems are even worse. They privilege wealthy districts and largely ignore everyone else. On average, states spend  $1,000 more per pupil in districts serving the wealthiest students than they do in districts serving the poorest students. The federal government tacitly signs on, never leveraging federal funds to meet student needs or force states to change the way they behave. 

In the season of big ideas, public education desperately needs one. Teacher salary increases are much needed and deserved, but they are not that big idea. They are the first obvious step in addressing mass dissatisfaction in the teaching profession.

To ensure equal and adequate educational opportunities for all students — the thing that teachers and the public really want — we have to think about what students need to succeed and commit to funding systems that meet those needs. This includes teachers and a lot more. While conceptually simple, this is something that the richest nation in the world’s history has never stopped to do.

Derek W. Black is a law professor at the University of South Carolina. Follow him on Twitter: @DerekWBlack