The Economic Way of Thinking 13th Edition by David Prychitko, Peter Boettke, Paul Heyne

Exercise 13

Should high school history and English teachers be paid as much as science and math teachers?
(a) Suppose that a school district pays all high school teachers with the same years of experience the same salary, regardless of teaching field, and that this produces a surplus of history and English teachers, and a shortage of science and math teachers. Would this create a case for salary differentials?
(b) How could the problem of concurrent surplus and shortage be solved without paying science and math teachers more than history and English teachers?
(c) Why has the policy of identical wages in fact produced shortages of science and math teachers, along with surpluses of history and English teachers in many school districts? What factors have contributed on the demand side? On the supply side?