Briana MacDonald's Low-Wage Life Proposal

Education is one of those essential things necessary in life to be successful and advance yourself in the workplace later on in life. It’s a right for everyone to be educated, and learn as much as possible so that they can better their lives. Unfortunately though, many kids go without education, or receive shoddy educations because of school-systems that lack proper funding, and have teachers who don’t receive a reasonable pay for their essential work.
I have found myself lucky enough to have attended a highly prestigious private school in Minnesota from kindergarden to twelfth grade, and received one of the best educations in the entire state. The teachers, unlike most, were able to earn suitable wages due to tuition, donations, and other contributions that many public schools and other private schools don’t have. Due to the school, the teaching and the education I received, I already have a head-start in the world and future workplace.
However, a high percentage of the United States won’t find themselves in that same position, especially the teachers. Teachers are an essential part to producing smart, educated citizens that will continue to advance and contribute to our society. They provide an essential service to our nation that generally gets overlooked and underpaid. It’s interesting how doctors, lawyers, and other professions earn millions of dollars a year, while the teachers who teach our youth and prepare them for the future educational system and workplace get left in the dark with almost nothing.
Yes there are other jobs that are necessary for the United States to function that also get overlooked and underpaid, and without them we would find ourselves in trouble, but teaching is such an vital component in producing well-educated citizens that they deserve to be paid more than they are receiving right now.
In the book written by David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Shipler investigates the inside look on the working poor of America, and draws attention to the realities of low-wage jobs. In one of his chapters he talks about a woman named Christie, who worked at a YMCA child-care center and “did a job that this labor-hungry economy could not do without,” (39). Although she provided an extremely important service, that almost every working parent needs, she received so little money that she could not even afford to put her own two children in a child-care system in the place she worked.
It makes sense though that teachers and educators should be paid more than their low-wages right now because of the service they provide to America. They are doing important work that hugely benefits not only the youth but society as a whole. A good education will help and allow children to raise themselves out of poverty when they are older and escape the cycle, because without a good, solid education, you can’t really expect to go anywhere in life.