More than half of all American teachers work outside of their full-time teaching job to make ends ... [+]
A year ago, I went out to dinner with colleagues to a cute outdoor restaurant in downtown Manhattan. The waitress came over to get our order, and we struck up a conversation. It wasn’t a few minutes later that she told us she was moonlighting at the restaurant. Her day job: NYC Public School teacher. She couldn’t earn enough to support her family, so she waitressed when she could. Including on school nights. She was tired, and she had no choice.
She wasn’t alone. More than half of all American teachers work outside of their full-time teaching job, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with 17% working outside education, including driving Uber, gardening, retail, and, yes, waitressing.
“Have we as a nation stopped to ponder ‘What would we do without teachers?'" Congresswoman Frederica ... [+]
“Have we as a nation stopped to ponder ‘What would we do without teachers? What would our children do without teachers?’”, Representative Frederica S. Wilson, Democrat in Florida’s D24 and a former teacher and principal, asked me. Because of the pandemic, she shared, “the world finally saw what we’ve known for years: Teachers are heroes.” But what hadn’t caught on, at least not until recently, was that they “deserve compensation that reflects their contributions to society.”
53% of teachers reporting feeling burnt out every or almost every day.
Research shows that public K–12 teachers are paid 20% less than the average college-educated person working in a non-teaching sector, despite working 52 hours during a typical school week. It comes as no surprise, then, that they are the most burnt-out professionals, with as many as 53% of teachers reporting feeling burnt out every or almost every day. Over the past decade, teacher job satisfaction has fallen from 39% (down from a historic norm of 50-60%) to just 12%. And more than 36,000 teacher vacancies went unfilled this past school year, with nearly a third of current teachers thinking about leaving.
“I remember repeatedly reaching into my purse to ensure my students had enough money for the bus fare home,” Congresswoman Wilson recalls of her life as a teacher. “I vividly remember buying a student’s dress for her grandmother’s funeral. We do all these things because we care profoundly for the children. And our teachers don’t just deserve our gratitude, they deserve a livable wage.”
Teachers, who work 52 hours during a typical school week, are paid 20% less than the average ... [+]
In a March 2023 report, McKinsey found that salaries were the highest-rated factor for teachers who have left or are planning to leave (at 42% and 48%, respectively). On the flip side, “raising salaries across the board is the best way to attract and retain a talented and diverse workforce”, a recent large-scale survey by Educators for Excellence found.
With teacher shortages making headlines in every state, Congress has acted, putting forward The American Teacher Act. With bi-partisan support, including the sponsorship of Rep. Wilson, the Act, if passed, would support states to set and meet a minimum teacher salary of $60,000, a target that districts from Dallas and Houston to rural Oregon have been adopting locally. It would offer an optional, four-year grant that states could apply to to cover the difference between current salaries and what they would spend if offering the minimum $60,000 salary. States would have four years to build the infrastructure to sustain those salary levels. This would cost, on average, about $1 billion per state per year, a staggering price tag until one takes into account that estimates of teacher attrition put the cost at $8.5 billion per year (and this on top of the human costs in lost learning and opportunity for our students).
The American Teacher Act would raise minimum teacher salaries to $60,000.
The bill’s Republican co-sponsor, Congressman Fitzpatrick, of Pennsylvania’s First District, explained to me that his support stems from what he’s hearing from constituents, that “the teacher shortage, in Pennsylvania and across the nation, is a true crisis”, and the clarity that “the best way to reverse it is to increase minimum teacher salaries so we can pay all teachers more.”
The Teacher Salary Project, a nonprofit that spearheaded the campaign with the documentary film American Teacher, narrated by Matt Damon, has been advocating for paying teachers what their complex and essential work deserves for over two decades. With the First Lady a teacher herself, and the President calling for raising teacher salaries in his State of the Union, and with schools facing shortages worse than they’ve ever seen, the stars have aligned for a dramatic shift, and support for increasing teachers’ minimum salary is gaining steam: 80% of voters, including 67% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats, are in favor.
In years past, you may have sent a bouquet of flowers, a scented candle, or a card to the teachers in your life. This year, give teachers what they really want: a livable salary. Sign on to the Teacher Salary Project’s Teacher Appreciation Week letter. With the income they need and deserve, our beloved teachers could stop working second jobs and buy themselves the bouquet.
