New Mexico should have $4 million teachers

Many in the teaching establishment, especially among the unions, mistakenly call Rio Grande Foundation and other education reformers “anti-teacher.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rather, we view teachers as being not altogether different from the rest of us. We respond to incentives to perform well or work harder and our talents generally fall along a bell curve: some are awesome, most fall in the middle, and some really stink. We believe that a freer market in education (as opposed to the socialized model found in the US) would both encourage excellence and allow for greater earning opportunities by top-performing teachers.

I found this story about a teacher who earns $4 million in South Korea to be fascinating. He engages in a wide variety of entrepreneurial and innovative behaviors that allow him to do quite well financially. He also operates in at least a sector of the South Korean education sector that is open to such activities.

New Mexico in particular and the United States (to the extent that the federal government remains involved in education) should embrace reforms including digital learning and the profit motive that enable in-demand teachers to earn serious money like this gentleman in South Korea.