The teaching penalty.
A proposed congressional bill to raise teacher's salaries.
Tomorrow, Thursday, is the last day of school before the holiday break in the district I retired from ten years ago.
Tomorrow is also expected to see the arrival of a brutal winter storm hitting Chicago with up to ten inches of snow, fifty mile an hour wind gusts and wind chills of -25 degrees.
If schools aren’t canceled it will make for one brutal drive home.
It will be bad not just for teachers, of course. It will be tough on everyone hitting the road tomorrow or trying to get out of town.
It just a fact of life for those of us who live in Chicago. Some Chicagoans see it as a point of pride. It is a sign of our toughness.
Many teachers will be working right up until Thursday or Friday before one or two weeks of holiday break.
I often have to remind my non-teaching friends that winter break is not a paid vacation. In fact, teachers do not get any paid holidays off. Teaching contracts and pay are for a specific number of days. Mine was for 185, not including school holidays.
Basically I was working a per diem. No pay for winter, spring or summer breaks.
And then there is the teaching penalty.
Teachers earn lower weekly wages and receive lower overall compensation for their work compared tosimilar college-educated peers, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Teachers earn 76.5 cents on the dollar compared to those with similar college degrees and experience.
In 2020-21, the average national salary for public school teachers was $61,600.
But teacher salaries vary from state to state and even within a state. Teachers in Illinois who live downstate make far less than those in the Chicago area.
Of course the cost of living varies widely as well. But for many teachers across the country a teaching salary can’t pay the rent.
Teachers in Mississippi earn the lowest salary in the nation at $46,000.
Still, a national average of $61,000 is pathetic, resulting in nearly 20% of teachers needing to work a second job just to make ends meet. Raising the starting salary would up the average quite a bit.
When Bernie Sanders was running for president in 2019 he argued for a $60,000 national starting salary for teachers.
Now a member of Congress, Representative Federica Wilson, Democrat from Florida has introduced a bill that would offer grants to states and school districts with the aim of increasing the minimum K-12 salary to $60,000.
Wilson has said that the bill comes out of her concern that we are losing ground on getting teachers in the classroom. One report estimates the nation had around 36,500 teacher vacancies at the start of this school year.
I suppose the bill is a good start, although I have doubts about it actually getting through Congress. And offering grants to states has it limitations.
I also think $60,000 isn’t enough even though it’s $20,000 more than the $40,000 Illinois legislators enacted as a base salary in this state a couple of years ago.
If legislators really want to address the growing teacher shortage it will take a lot more dollars.
At least enough dollars to end the teaching penalty.
But it will take more.
Like freeing teachers to have more to say about curriculum, instruction and assessments.
Like ending right to work laws that keep teachers from having the right to unionize and bargain collectively.
My art is on Instagram @klonskyart.