Matt Gray Columnist

Last week, the Tucson Unified School District sank to the level of desperation. Facing a $4 million budget deficit, the district asked its teachers to work for free. A memo circulated to employees explaining that unless they responded by giving up at least a day’s wages, some of their peers might be laid off. Your money or your job: tough choice.

Of course, the situation is not entirely TUSD’s fault. While general election voters approved a $235 million bond package to help the district build and repair schools, they refused to allow the district to override its maintenance and operations budget. At the same time, student enrollment numbers are lower than expected. Fewer students in the classroom mean fewer dollars from the state. However, no matter what the cause, this is just one more example of our society’s inability to keep its promises to public school teachers.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, teaching is one of America’s top two most-trusted professions (nurses are first). Yet according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, education majors receive one of the least valuable college degrees available. Nationally, the average beginning teacher makes slightly more than $30,000. In Arizona, that number drops to slightly more than $27,000. The list of occupations that have higher starting salaries than that is much too long to print.

Of course, statistics aren’t necessary to show the devaluing of the teaching profession. Just compare the mental reaction when someone says she’s going to be an electrical engineer (wow, that’s impressive), with the response when a colleague mentions he’s an education major (oh, that’s nice).

It gets worse. Besides being underpaid, teachers have also been targeted by the recent wave of federal education reforms. If a teacher does not hold a degree in the subject that he or she is teaching, the school will soon be forced to send a letter home to the students’ parents explaining that the teacher is “unqualified.” Ignoring for the moment that many of these teachers are actually very qualified, it would be easy to explain these situations to parents without insulting the teachers. But then the policy makers couldn’t strut around claiming to be “holding schools accountable,” and who doesn’t love that?

What is the end result of all of this mistreatment? Many of the best and brightest college students don’t even consider studying education. In addition, almost a third of the brave souls who become teachers leave the profession within the first three years. Apparently, those who stick around are so dedicated to helping our children that they are willing to be insulted and underpaid in the process. However, just because they are willing to let us take advantage of them doesn’t mean that we should.

We need a fundamental shift in the way we treat teachers. The first step is easy. It’s time to put our collective money where our collective mouth is. All teachers deserve to be paid like the hard-working college graduates they are. Yes this will be expensive, and yes it will require sacrifice. But it will be anything but impossible.

This week, the president asked the American people to spend $80 billion more on military operations in Iraq, which will bring total defense spending this year close to half a trillion dollars. While people disagree on the war, most Americans are willing to pay this high price because national security is such an important priority. It’s time that education received the same attention.

In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court said, “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments.” More than 50 years later, it’s time we start acting like it. When news gets out that a school district like TUSD isn’t going to be able to pay its teachers their already low salaries, alarms should ring across the country. Political and social leaders should be working around the clock to remedy the problem.

Instead, the Arizona community has met the situation with a collective yawn. Leaders aren’t discussing the problem, and news outlets aren’t reporting it. It’s just one more insult added to a long line of injuries. The time has come for change. It’s time to start treating teachers with the respect they deserve. Then one of society’s most trusted professions will finally be able to start trusting society again.

Matt Gray is a second-year law student. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.