The Future of Kindergarten

 A standout kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year, according to a top research economist in a recent New York Times article, The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers. The number comes from “the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers. This estimate doesn’t take into account social gains, like better health and less crime.”

The fundamentals you learn in kindergarten will help build the base of your education and may affect the rest of your life, according to the article.

“Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds,” the article reports. “Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.”

How much more were these above average learners making? About $100 a year beginning at age 27. The reason for this increase could be, according to the article, because “Good early education can impart skills that last a lifetime — patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. The tests that 5-year-olds take may pick up these skills, even if later multiple-choice tests do not.”

Moreover, the research found that class size, peers and most importantly, teachers were all contributing factors to the success of a student in kindergarten.

The likelihood of a kindergarten teacher’s salary even coming close to $320,000 is close to nil. However, as stated in the article, even a small increase in pay and support can make a huge difference.