Money helps, but teachers need more
Earlier this month, Congress introduced the American Teacher Act — a policy to establish a federal minimum salary for K-12 public school educators. The new law would ensure a minimum annual salary of $60,000 and would include mandatory annual salary increases that account for inflation.
The average starting salary for teachers in the 2020-2021 academic year was $41,770, according to a National Education Association report. Boosting pay would be a promising step forward to improving public education, which has historically struggled to attract and retain top talent.
However, as a former classroom educator, I can say with certainty that increasing pay isn’t enough to address the challenges that public K-12 education faces.
From 2016 to 2019, I taught middle school math in the working-class city of Chelsea, Mass. Many of the kids in my class were students of color and came from immigrant backgrounds. The opportunity to build their confidence in mathematics and to prepare them for college, vocational school and the general workforce was incredibly rewarding; I saw my impact in the classroom every single day.
Unfortunately, my career as a teacher was unsustainable. The physical, mental and financial stressors took their toll on me. I spent 60 hours each week creating lessons, grading papers, contacting student family members and guardians, and overseeing school activities. Yet, despite the added responsibilities, my salary over the three years as a classroom educator barely increased — from $45,000 to $52,000.
Since local taxes are linked to public school funding, my school district was at a disadvantage compared to those of wealthier communities and struggled to provide basic classroom amenities for its students. I had to use my own money to make sure that all of my students had the pencils and notebooks they needed to do their classwork.
Eventually, like many teachers, I reached a breaking point. Wanting more financial autonomy and shorter hours, I took a managerial role overseeing and training K-12 educators in Los Angeles. My new job paid me over 25% more than my teaching salary.
As a manager, I oversaw roughly 20 educators, rather than over 100 middle school students. My lifestyle improved vastly as I worked 40 hours per week, rather than 60. Middle management was far less intense than teaching. I received reimbursement for transportation and office supplies and had a flexible schedule. During the pandemic, the educators I oversaw were more stressed than I was, particularly as many were pushed back into the classrooms before adequate COVID-19 protection and guidelines were set.
Now, I am a master’s candidate at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, whose graduates make around $160,000 annually. As part of the recent exodus of teachers looking for opportunities outside of education, I feel guilty for leaving the education field, especially at a time when it needs people like me the most. According to the Wall Street Journal, from February 2020 to May 2022, around 300,000 teachers and other school staff members left the education field. The pandemic staffing shortage has left America’s kids in need of teachers more than ever.
However, I do not regret prioritizing my health and sense of worth. And I am not alone.
Almost 25% of educators shared that they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the school year in a 2021 Rand Education and Labor survey. Moreover, according to the Economic Policy Institute, classroom educators earn around 24% less than their college graduate counterparts. According to a recent Merrimack College and EdWeek Research Center survey, only 46% of teachers said that they feel respected by the general public. Based on a survey conducted by the California Teachers Association and the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, workload burnout and political attacks are major contributors to California teachers’ dissatisfaction with their profession.
The introduction of a federal bill to raise teacher pay is a promising start, but more needs to be done to save our education system.
We need to reinvent school funding models to serve our low-income school districts. The American Teacher Act would incentivize states and school districts to establish a starting salary of $60,000 by the 2024 to 2025 academic year, but the amount set aside to fund the program has yet to be specified.
Ultimately, states and school districts will be responsible for covering the federal minimum teacher salary. Most school districts will find this requirement difficult without reducing overhead. This will force teachers who remain to pick up the slack.
We need to reduce teachers’ workloads, not saddle them with more work for moderately higher pay. We also need to improve teacher onboarding and improve the public reputation of the teaching field.
Without these changes, the federal compensation mandate is only a temporary stopgap to address the challenges experienced by our public school system. Systemic changes are needed if we want to positively change the current status quo. Until then, the disarray in our public schools will continue unabated.