Letter: Pay is the main factor driving teachers out

Monday, Aug. 20, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

This is in response to Dave Newton's Aug. 15 letter to the editor. I acknowledge that there are plenty of reasons why teachers leave the profession, but to conclude that the "other reasons" trump the salary issue strikes a hollow chord with me.

At the school where I teach, I am happy as a lark with the environment, my site administrators and especially my outstanding colleagues. Because of poor teacher salaries, however, and especially because of what that is doing to the teaching profession here in Clark County, I have considered private-sector job offers that often come my way.

Also, although "other factors" may do a fairly decent job of explaining why existing teachers leave the profession (and I'm not completely conceding this point), it does a much weaker job of explaining why so many college students never consider going into teaching in the first place.

In short, as the old saying goes, "When someone says, 'It's not about the money,' guess what? It's probably about the money." This is especially true in the current circumstance, in which the Clark County School District is short hundreds of teachers each year.

Gregory Grant, Las Vegas