Raising teachers’ pay has bipartisan support
Having met and fallen in love through their careers as special education teachers, Natalia Sandoval and her husband tried to make it work as long as they could. But after a while, they could no longer get by on two teacher salaries while raising two sons in Hawaii, not to mention paying back the student loan debt they’d accumulated so they could train to work with students with disabilities.
Shortly before the pandemic, Sandoval’s husband, Joseph, traded in the career he loved for one that would keep their family afloat: as a worker on the docks. It helps pay the bills and may even allow them to buy a house one day, but it’s hardly as rewarding, said Sandoval, who knew from an early age growing up on Oahu that she wanted to be a teacher, specifically in special education.
“I stay because I really enjoy working with the kids . ... And I like supporting the families more than anything because it’s a very difficult world to navigate,” Sandoval said.
But veteran teachers like her and Joseph are often forced to decide whether the job is worth the sacrifices. “We’re just surviving, not thriving.”
Teacher pay is again in the news, with both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders vowing to raise educators’ salaries in their addresses to the nation on Feb. 7. Lawmakers in a number of states, both blue and red, have introduced or passed legislation boosting educators’ salaries over the past year or so.
A bill before the U.S. House would incentivize states to raise teacher pay, setting a minimum salary of $60,000. And Sen. Bernie Sanders, the new chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, will soon introduce similar legislation.
Raising teacher pay has become an issue of rare bipartisan consensus, suggested Bernie Sanders, who said the issue will be a top priority.
“We’re in the midst of a major crisis in education, and if we are going to have the best educational system in the world – which we should have, which we must have – we’re going to have to very much change our attitude toward teachers,” Sanders said.