Teacher: ‘I love my students, I love my job, and I feel fulfilled. But I’m broke.’

Jiggyfly

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Teacher: ‘I love my students, I love my job, and I feel fulfilled. But I’m broke.’

By Valerie Strauss November 5 at 11:00 AM


Teachers have long been underpaid — and just how much was underscored in a recent study which found that the difference between what teachers and comparable public workers earn is larger than ever. Among the key findings:

Average weekly wages (inflation adjusted) of public-sector teachers decreased $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, from $1,122 to $1,092 (in 2015 dollars). In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.
For all public-sector teachers, the relative wage gap (regression adjusted for education, experience, and other factors) has grown substantially since the mid-1990s: It was ‑1.8 percent in 1994 and grew to a record ‑17.0 percent in 2015.
[Teachers aren’t paid enough? It’s worse than you think.]

Here is a personal story of one teacher and how she and her family are affected by her profession’s low salary base. She is Rachel Wiley, an elementary school teacher in Washington state and a member of Teachers United, an organization of teachers in Washington state that is funded by the Gates Foundation. This appeared on the organization’s website of Teachers United and I was given permission to republish it.



By Rachel Wiley

I am 29 years old. I have two children, ages 10 and 8. Anyone with a decent grip on basic math can figure out that means I was a teen mom.

When I was 18 years old, I learned that I was pregnant with my first child. I was a new college student, had a part-time job at a local retail store, and was scared to death. How would I support a child? Would I end up on welfare? Was I destined to become another statistic? I was faced with a choice: should I leave school and get a full-time job, or should I continue in school, knowing that a degree would ultimately (I thought) mean higher wages and better quality of life.

I decided that there was no way I was going to allow my circumstances to determine my fate. Despite the grim outlook for teen moms, I determined that I was going to be different. I wanted my kids to look up to me, to see that if you work hard and stay focused, you can achieve your goals.

I stayed in school, eventually graduating with my AA. I transferred to the University of Washington at Tacoma and earned a bachelor’s degree. Then, I decided to become a teacher. My heart told me that in spite of the low wages and the astronomical costs of a graduate degree, that teaching was my calling, and it would all work out somehow.


Making ends meet

Fast forward six years. Never for one moment do I regret my decision to become an educator. It feels to me as though this work is the most important work I could ever do. I love my students, I love my job, and I feel fulfilled. But I’m broke.

I am lucky compared to some. I make enough that I was able to buy my own home. I can afford groceries each week. I have running water, electricity, and both my husband and I have working (ish) vehicles. We make it. But just barely. Each month, as I sit down to budget, I am discouraged. I feel as though I have failed in some ways.

I do all I can to save money: I find coupons, discounts, rewards cards, and garage sales. I go without so that I can provide for my kids. I decline invites to parties because I know it will mean purchasing gifts, and that’s just not in the budget. I struggle with the realization that after all of my hard work, I still can’t get ahead. I have nothing in savings. My husband’s car is in need of serious repairs and breaks down on a regular basis, but we can’t afford to take it in to get fixed. My student loan debt is increasing exponentially because of interest, and it’s all I can do to make my minimum monthly payment.

Why wanting increased compensation isn’t whining

Is it whining, or complaining, to say that after six years in college I deserve more? I don’t think so.

I work more than my contracted school hours every week. I grade papers nightly, I lesson plan, I provide feedback, I track student data. I do all of this on my own time. My district does provide TRI money (locally funded, capped amount of money for work beyond the contract hours), but it’s just not enough to cover the hours I put in outside of the school day.

I know that it was my choice to become a teacher. I could have earned my master’s degree in just about anything else and would be making much more. This is an increasingly popular choice for most young professionals, and a contributing factor to the teacher shortage we are currently experiencing. The answer shouldn’t be to tell those who love their career and love their students to leave for a higher-paying job or shut up about it already.


Why can’t we be compensated fairly? According to a recent study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, “The teacher pay penalty is bigger than ever. In 2015, public school teachers’ weekly wages were 17 percent lower than those of comparable workers — compared with just 1.8 percent lower in 1994 (Allegretto and Mishel 2016). This is a reality we face as educators.

Many people say that we should just find a different job if we want to make more money. But at what real cost? Some things are about more than money. If effective educators leave to find better paying jobs, the real loss is for our students. Standards are more rigorous than ever, and students need high-quality teachers to support their learning and ability to meet these standards.

The answer can’t be to desert the profession and abandon our students. We need to pay more to recruit and keep effective teachers in public education. It’s not even about what we owe to our teachers, it’s about what we owe to our students. It’s about investing in the future of our diverse democratic society, of which we want our students to be thoughtful and productive members.

How much is that worth?
 

Jiggyfly

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Think teachers aren’t paid enough? It’s worse than you think.

By Valerie Strauss August 16


Everybody knows that nobody goes into teaching to get rich, but teachers don’t expect to be penalized for their chosen profession. A new study finds that what is called the “teacher pay penalty” — the difference between teachers and comparable public workers — is bigger than ever.

In 2015, the weekly wages of public school teachers in the United States were 17 percent lower than comparable college-educated professionals — and those most hurt are veteran teachers and male teachers.

The study was done by Sylvia Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel and published by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Mishel, a nationally recognized economist, is president of EPI and helped build it into a premier research organization focused on U.S. living standards and labor markets. Allegretto is an economist at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. She co-authored two editions of The State of Working America while working as an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

Average weekly wages (inflation adjusted) of public-sector teachers decreased $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, from $1,122 to $1,092 (in 2015 dollars). In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.

For all public-sector teachers, the relative wage gap (regression adjusted for education, experience, and other factors) has grown substantially since the mid-1990s: It was ‑1.8 percent in 1994 and grew to a record ‑17.0 percent in 2015.

The relative wage gap for female teachers went from a premium in 1960 to a large and growing wage penalty in the 2000s. Female teachers earned 14.7 percent more in weekly wages than comparable female workers in 1960. In 2015, we estimate a ‑13.9 percent wage gap for female teachers.
The wage penalty for male teachers is much larger. The male teacher wage gap was -22.1 percent in 1979 and improved to ‑15.0 percent in the mid-1990s, but worsened in the late 1990s into the early 2000s. It stood at ‑24.5 percent in 2015.

While relative teacher wage gaps have widened, some of the difference may be attributed to a tradeoff between pay and benefits. Non-wage benefits as a share of total compensation in 2015 were more important for teachers (26.6 percent) than for other professionals (21.6 percent). The total teacher compensation penalty was a record-high 11.1 percent in 2015 (composed of a 17.0 percent wage penalty plus a 5.9 percent benefit advantage). The bottom line is that the teacher compensation penalty grew by 11 percentage points from 1994 to 2015.

The erosion of relative teacher wages has fallen more heavily on experienced teachers than on entry-level teachers. The relative wage of the most experienced teachers has steadily deteriorated—from a 1.9 percent advantage in 1996 to a 17.8 percent penalty in 2015.

Collective bargaining helps to abate the teacher wage gap. In 2015, teachers not represented by a union had a ‑25.5 percent wage gap—and the gap was 6 percentage points smaller for unionized teachers.

Here’s the full report:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/16/think-teachers-arent-paid-enough-its-worse-than-you-think/?tid=a_inl
 

L.T. Fan

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Go to the private sector for more money. Anyone who works for a tax based system will have to understand that a lot of others are also in line for the tax dollar. There isn't enough to go around so make the jump to a system that creates their earnings and will likely reward their employees who are productive. This dialogue has been going on for years.
 

boozeman

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There is little to no incentive to getting into teaching. No wonder our educational system is failing.

If you want to start talking about "living wage", you start at jobs like this, which actually matter more than someone plunging a toilet.
 

boozeman

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Go to the private sector for more money. Anyone who works for a tax based system will have to understand that a lot of others are also in line for the tax dollar. There isn't enough to go around so make the jump to a system that creates their earnings and will likely reward their employees who are productive. This dialogue has been going on for years.
And then you lose the best qualified for the job. And get shit for teachers. Sounds like a winner.

Oh well, you work for a tax based system. Leave. Let's get someone dumber and with less passion than you.

I see and speak with the teachers that teach my kids, and I have tried both public and private schools and I am absolutely appalled.
 

L.T. Fan

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And then you lose the best qualified for the job. And get shit for teachers. Sounds like a winner.

Oh well, you work for a tax based system. Leave. Let's get someone dumber and with less passion than you.

I see and speak with the teachers that teach my kids, and I have tried both public and private schools and I am absolutely appalled.
If your desire is to go with the money there is no other option but to go where the money is. That's how capitalism works. If your passion is elsewhere bravo but live with your choice.
 

boozeman

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If your desire is to go with the money there is no other option but to go where the money is. That's how capitalism works. If your passion is elsewhere bravo but live with your choice.
Many have passion. This is not about chasing money. It is about having a real wage that you can live on. And sometimes it is not an enormous amount of money.

I will never forget going to a chain restaurant and having my son's third grade teacher unexpectedly ending up as our server. She was humiliated and I was angry for her. She was an excellent teacher.

Funny, we were still capitalists 20-30 years ago, right?
 

1bigfan13

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Oklahoma teachers are near the bottom of US rankings when it comes to teacher salaries. Therefore, the best and brightest from the state typically leave for Texas, Colorado, and other nearby states just so they can make a decent living.

There's a State Question on this year's OK election ballot for salary increases for teachers. I voted in favor of it and hope it passes. Otherwise the OK school systems will be stuck scraps/leftovers. You get what you pay for.
 

Kbrown

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Many have passion. This is not about chasing money. It is about having a real wage that you can live on. And sometimes it is not an enormous amount of money.

I will never forget going to a chain restaurant and having my son's third grade teacher unexpectedly ending up as our server. She was humiliated and I was angry for her. She was an excellent teacher.

Funny, we were still capitalists 20-30 years ago, right?
The sides have de facto stances they jump to on these issues.

I really think it is compiled on a flow chart somewhere.

"Essential public employee asks for living wage" -----> "Find different job. Platitudes about capitalism."
 

Jiggyfly

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If your desire is to go with the money there is no other option but to go where the money is. That's how capitalism works. If your passion is elsewhere bravo but live with your choice.
So then who teaches in this scenario?

I really don't understand how you turn this into a simple treatise about capitalism did you not read any of the actual articles?
 

L.T. Fan

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Many have passion. This is not about chasing money. It is about having a real wage that you can live on. And sometimes it is not an enormous amount of money.

I will never forget going to a chain restaurant and having my son's third grade teacher unexpectedly ending up as our server. She was humiliated and I was angry for her. She was an excellent teacher.

Funny, we were still capitalists 20-30 years ago, right?
I hear you but the system operates on limited funding and that is the way it is. If you can come up with a solution I am sure a lot of people will be thankful but it's about money and how it is distributed. Tax based systems simply have limitations and there is little than can be done to change short of increasing the tax base.
 

L.T. Fan

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So then who teaches in this scenario?

I really don't understand how you turn this into a simple treatise about capitalism did you not read any of the actual articles?
Yes. Did you read what I wrote. The bottom line was money.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Many have passion. This is not about chasing money. It is about having a real wage that you can live on. And sometimes it is not an enormous amount of money.
What is considered a living wage work over a 9 month period? Just curious? You'd think if the pay was that horrible that we would see teaching shortages across America. I know a lot of teachers pick up summer jobs or do summer teaching over the summer break. Which frankly they should. I don't have any children in school, so I don't really deal with that first hand. The teachers in my area though seem to be surviving just fine. They own houses, drive cars and aren't failing to earn a living wage.
 

L.T. Fan

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So then who teaches in this scenario?

I really don't understand how you turn this into a simple treatise about capitalism did you not read any of the actual articles?
You are missing the point. It not a matter of fairness or equity it is a system that is entrenched and is all tied to money. Personal ideologies are just that but it won't solve the root cause of the problem.
 

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Oklahoma teachers are near the bottom of US rankings when it comes to teacher salaries. Therefore, the best and brightest from the state typically leave for Texas, Colorado, and other nearby states just so they can make a decent living.

There's a State Question on this year's OK election ballot for salary increases for teachers. I voted in favor of it and hope it passes. Otherwise the OK school systems will be stuck scraps/leftovers. You get what you pay for.
That's great. That's also what it takes to change things
 

Cowboysrock55

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Average weekly wages (inflation adjusted) of public-sector teachers decreased $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, from $1,122 to $1,092 (in 2015 dollars). In contrast, weekly wages of all college graduates rose from $1,292 to $1,416 over this period.
So wait, $57,000.00 per year isn't a living wage anymore?
 

Jiggyfly

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You are missing the point. It not a matter of fairness or equity it is a system that is entrenched and is all tied to money. Personal ideologies are just that but it won't solve the root cause of the problem.
What does any of that have to do with the question I asked?

Once again you are ignoring what people are actually concerned about QUALITY TEACHING and babbling about stuff that does not matter.

Do you care about the quality of the teachers.
 

Jiggyfly

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What is considered a living wage work over a 9 month period? Just curious? You'd think if the pay was that horrible that we would see teaching shortages across America. I know a lot of teachers pick up summer jobs or do summer teaching over the summer break. Which frankly they should. I don't have any children in school, so I don't really deal with that first hand. The teachers in my area though seem to be surviving just fine. They own houses, drive cars and aren't failing to earn a living wage.
It's not 9 months it's closer to 10 months and these days teachers have to get training and do lesson planning during the summer.

And what type of jobs do you think you cn get over the summer that up your yearly income that much?

And yes people can do everything you listed but after all of that they have nearly no savings.
 
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Cowboysrock55

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K-5 teacher overload: Too many trained, not enough jobs
Emma Beck, USA TODAY 11:14 a.m. EST February 19, 2013
But shortages remain in math, science and special education.

elementary school classroom
(Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Experts say colleges and universities don't make the effort to match supply and demand
Budget cuts, hiring freezes and delayed retirements are shrinking the pool of positions
There were 1,708,057 elementary school teachers in 2010, a decrease from 1,774,295 in 2009
The nation is training twice as many K-5 elementary school teachers as needed each year, while teacher shortages remain in the content specific areas of math, science and special education.

Illinois trained roughly 10 teachers for every one position available, according to an estimate by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a Washington based research and policy group.
In New York, about 6,500 childhood education specialists were trained in 2010 to fill the projected demand of 2,800 in 2011, according to the state's education department and labor bureau.
Public elementary schools in Cherry Hill, N.J., average 400 to 600 applicants for one full-time position; the numbers are up to 400 for work as a long-term substitute, said George Guy, the principal for A. Russell Knight Elementary School.
NCTQ president Kate Walsh says the market is "flooded with elementary teachers" because universities and colleges don't make the effort to match supply and demand as other professions might do. Dean Donald Heller of Michigan State's College of Education says it is true that MSU does not coordinate with the state regarding how many elementary school teachers are needed. But the school produces teachers for a nationwide market, not specifically for Michigan, he countered.

The National Center for Education Statistics reported there were 1,708,057 elementary school teachers in 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, a decrease from 1,774,295 in 2009.

"For those coming out of college, getting a full- time position immediately is not going to happen," Guy said.

A combination of state budget cuts, hiring freezes and teachers delaying retirement has shrunk the pool of open elementary teacher positions, Guy said. New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie slashed $828 million in 2010 for K-12 school funding in an effort to balance the state's deficit. In Cherry Hill, 70 non-tenured positions were cut; Guy says the district still hasn't recovered.

The future elementary teacher job outlook may not be as bleak. A 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates a 17% increase in teacher employment from 2010 to 2020, citing higher enrollment and decline in student-teacher ratios. The growth is expected to be concentrated largely in the South and West, the BLS reports.

Though the oversupply of elementary education teachers persists, shortages remain in math, science and special education. Content certification in these low-staffed areas requires additional credits and hours, a discouragement for some to pursue the endorsement, said Doug Peden, the executive director of the Ohio based American Association for Employment in Education.

The Clark County School district in Clark County, Nev., presently holds 36 math vacancies, 22 science vacancies and 92 special education vacancies out of a force of 17,000 teachers, the district's press secretary, Melinda Malone, said.

The Richland School District Two in Columbia, S.C., has similar perennial shortages for math, science and special education teachers. "We have been able to fill our vacancies… However, each year we must work diligently to find suitable applicants," said Karen Lovett, the school district's executive director of human resources.

Greater communication between universities and school districts would help level supply and demand, said Richelle Patterson, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association, a labor union that works to advance public education. "If the districts (students) want to work in have no turnover, then school districts should translate that information to (university) preparation programs," she said.

_______________________________________________

I think part of this is a supply side as well. If you have too many people with teaching degrees, it suppresses wages.
 

L.T. Fan

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What does any of that have to do with the question I asked?

Once again you are ignoring what people are actually concerned about QUALITY TEACHING and babbling about stuff that does not matter.

Do you care about the quality of the teachers.
The quality of the teachers is one topic closely followed by outcry of why they are not compensated as they should be. That is two parts of the same discussion. The passion ideology is fine but artists are passionate and musicians are passoniate as well but that doesn't automatically equate to being properly compensated. Teachers are in a field that unless it is a private system they are locked into a predetermined pay scale. No one is making a case that they shouldn't be better paid it's a matter of distribution of available funds. It is fine to be devoted and passionate but there is another issue in play so that can't just be ignored.
 
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