Rita Hammer, chapter 2, question 4

I was particularly interested when the author talked about incentives. One example that creates significant issues was the incentives of teachers when considering their salaries. The amount to which teachers get paid is based off of experience and years of schooling, rather than performance. Wheelan says "this uniform pay scale creates a set of incentives that economists refer to as adverse selection." The teachers with the most talent are often times suitable for other areas of work, offering more pay. "The brightest of students are the least likely to choose education as a college major." Because of this, the people who educate future innovators are becoming people who weren't smart enough to do something else. Do we want these people teaching children who are someday going to have to solve global issues? This is where Wheelan points out the issue of paying all teachers the same amount of money. Not to mention, that it screws over well performing teachers who stay in the field simply because they love what they do. Wheelan says, "None of this proves that America's teachers are being paid enough." People are opting out on a necessary career in our society due to the lack of pay. Overall, the issue is that teachers are not being paid enough, and they shouldn't all be paid the same amount of money because essentially some are way more valuable than others when considering performance.