A Masters degree provides a much-needed salary bump though; a new teacher in Philadelphia with only a Bachelor's can expect to earn a whooping $45k/yr. If you are living in Philadelphia (or worse, paying for a car and insurance to commute into Philadelphia...) and just got done paying for four/five years of school, 45k/yr is not exactly pleasant. That isn't how we treat members of society that we respect.
This is not true in at least some (I suspect 'many') US states. Pennsylvania for instance requires a minimum of a Bachelor's degree: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pa_...
A Masters degree provides a much-needed salary bump though; a new teacher in Philadelphia with only a Bachelor's can expect to earn a whooping $45k/yr. If you are living in Philadelphia (or worse, paying for a car and insurance to commute into Philadelphia...) and just got done paying for four/five years of school, 45k/yr is not exactly pleasant. That isn't how we treat members of society that we respect.