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Michael Podgursky on Reforming the Compensation of Educators

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Learn more about William McKenzie.
William McKenzie
Senior Editorial Advisor
George W. Bush Institute

In this video, Michael Podgursky takes his expertise in the economics of education and applies it to how educators are compensated. Podgursky, who...

In this video, Michael Podgursky takes his expertise in the economics of education and applies it to how educators are compensated. Podgursky, who teaches economics at the University of Missouri, contends that teacher payment systems have unintentionally become dysfunctional.

Podgursky is the author of one of the series of scholarly papers that the Bush Institute commissioned to examine how schools can work more productively.  His paper doesn’t stop with explaining the problems, however. He shows how school districts can operate more efficiently. As Podgursky explains in this video, that starts with something as basic as deciding how many teachers a district actually needs.

Of course, it won’t be easy getting districts to change their practices. But changes in how they compensate teachers are one way districts can start to operate more efficiently.