How Arkansas aims to boost teacher quality and gender equity

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' education reform bill, the LEARNS Act, will profoundly change public schools, authors say.

Authors: In public schools across the country, women do the teaching and better-paid men do the leading.

Writers: In the 1800s, both teachers and principals tended to be women, partly because people considered women more suited to working with children.

They say raising minimum teacher pay from $36,000 annually to $50,000 will have profound impacts on teacher quality and gender equity.

Robert Maranto is the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and a former school board member. Josh McGee is associate director of the Office for Education Policy and a faculty member in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. The opinions expressed here are theirs alone..

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