County schools must bring teachers’ pay into the 21st century

Conditions have changed rapidly in the teaching profession over the past two decades. Once a desirable profession that came with a healthy dose of autonomy and creativity, some financial stability, and basic safety is now a radically different occupation.

Florida’s legislative mandates, drafted oftentimes by nonacademics, force us to implement costly, rigid, and sometimes experimental instruction in the classroom every year. This has drained much of the academic freedom and imagination that once made our jobs attractive and fulfilling. Teaching has evolved to be more aptly described as a testing profession: diagnostic tests, pretests, post-tests, test reviews, tests, tests and more tests.

The financial stability once afforded to educators with a clearly defined salary schedule vanished more than a decade ago. In its place, we experienced years without raises causing a subsequent increase in our economic instability. I’d invite readers to try to buy a home on a teacher’s salary in Palm Beach County.

Safety issues facing our students and teachers at school have never been greater. We knowingly enter our workplace every day aware that we may shot at, stabbed or beaten while protecting children. I struggle with how the loss of life of students and teachers has become so commonplace.

In 2018, there were more than 20 school shootings across the nation in just the second semester. That’s an average of more than one per week. Everyone agrees that more resources must be allocated to school safety and mental health services.

This is not to seek sympathy, but rather to shine a light on the reality that the lack of autonomy, the economic instability, and potential bodily harm have combined to make the pursuit of teaching undesirable to the average American and make the profession much more costly.

Since 2010, enrollment in college teacher prep programs plummeted 42 percent nationwide coupled with teachers retiring early. This decrease has led many to conclude the inevitable: We are faced with a critical teacher shortage in our nation.

One solution is rooted in economic law. If there is a shortage in the labor market, increasing compensation will encourage more people to stay longer or to enter the market. We must keep our children safe at school, and we must invest in high-quality education and educators. JUSTIN KATZ, WEST PALM BEACH Editor’s note: Katz is president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association.