Michael Podgursky

Author

Author Website: http://economics.missouri.edu/people/podgursky.shtml

Author Bio:
Michael Podgursky is Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri – Columbia, where he served as department chair from 1995-2005. His research focuses on the economics of education. He has written many articles in the area, with a primary focus on teacher labor markets and teacher compensation. He serves on the board of editors of Education Finance and Policy, Peabody Journal of Education, and advisory boards for various statistical agencies and research institutes, and is a co-investigator at the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the Urban Institute and the National Center for Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University, two national research centers funded by the Institute on Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.

Articles

Pensions Under Pressure

Charter innovation in teacher retirement benefits

SPRING 2018 / VOL. 18, NO. 2

Choosing the Right Growth Measure

Methods should compare similar schools and teachers

SPRING 2014 / VOL. 14, NO. 2

Fixing Teacher Pensions

Is it enough to adjust existing plans?

Fall 2011 / Vol. 11, No. 4

Teacher Retirement Benefits

Even in economically tough times, costs are higher than ever.

Spring 2009 / Vol. 9, No. 2

Golden Handcuffs

Teachers who change jobs or move pay a high price

Winter 2010 / Vol. 10, No. 1

Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys

The peculiar incentives of teacher pensions

Winter 2008 / Vol. 8, No. 1

Let the Market Decide

A 1962 RAND Corporation study on teacher pay described teacher salary schedules in the following way:

Spring 2001 / Vol. 1, No. 1

Fringe Benefits

There is more to compensation than a teacher’s salary

Summer 2003 / Vol. 3, No. 3

Quality Curricula

Public Education as a Business: Real Costs and Accountability by Myron Lieberman & Charlene K. Haar

Summer 2004 / Vol. 4, No. 3

Is There a “Qualified Teacher” Shortage?

WASHINGTON—As American schools reopen, a 15-year effort to “professionalize” the job of teacher is running up against a strong counterforce—the urgent need to fill classroom vacancies. — Christian Science Monitor, August 26, 2002 The headlines in those early years of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were consistently alarming. “As Standards Rise, Too Few Teachers,” was […]

Spring 2006 / Vol. 6, No. 2

Blog Posts/Multimedia

Why Teacher vs. Non-Teacher Pay Comparisons Are Misleading

Pension benefits for public school teachers (and most public employees) are far more generous than for private sector professionals.

08/12/2016

School Administrators and Teacher Pensions

School reformers need to understand that on the issue of pension reform, labor and management are likely to be on the same side of the bargaining table.

08/05/2013

Making Mountains Out of Molehills? Let the Reader Decide

A recent “Policy Memorandum” from the Economic Policy Institute by EPI researcher Monique Morrissey is sharply critical of our article “Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys.” Morrissey has a number of critiques of our articles, but the main one, as the title suggests, is that our metaphors are inappropriate, and there is nothing at all “peculiar” about the structure of retirement incentives in teacher pensions.

10/01/2009

The Teacher Pension Cost Gap Continues to Widen

In the Spring 2009 issue of Education Next, Robert Costrell and I presented data on the growing gap between employer pension costs for public school teachers and employer pension costs for private sector managers and professionals. This gap continues to widen.

09/14/2009

Education Next

Education Next is a journal of opinion and research about education policy.

Author