For Teachers, the Money Keeps Getting Worse
When classroom jobs were female college graduates’ best option, U.S. schools could skimp on wages. To fill vacancies now, districts and state legislatures need to offer competitive pay.
As kids and parents settle into another school year, principals and superintendents in districts across the country are still scrambling to fill vacant teaching positions. The severity of the shortages varies from state to state; across urban, suburban, and rural districts; and from one subject area to another. The number of unfilled positions is greatest in high-needs schools, such as those with high poverty rates or a disproportionate number of students with learning disabilities or English-language deficiencies.
If past experience holds true, many vacancies in September will morph into permanent shortages that continue throughout the year. In Arizona, for example, a survey conducted in December 2017—months after class started—by an association of public-school personnel administrators in the state reported nearly 2,000 vacancies. When kids are expecting routine, consistency, and continuity, many face the opposite. On a day-to-day basis, schools make do by casting around for substitute teachers, asking other teachers to work more, deploying nonteaching staff, or even taking a “warm body” approach that allows just about anyone to fill in. The absence of permanent qualified teachers harms student achievement and depletes school budgets. It also adds to the frustrations that led to a remarkable series of local and statewide teacher strikes last year.
To address teacher shortages, policy makers at the national and local levels have proposed more extensive recruitment efforts and looser certification rules. But a deep look at the numbers suggests that such tinkering will only achieve so much. Teachers, on average, are paid significantly less than similar college graduates. According to research that my colleague Lawrence Mishel and I published this year, the pay disparity has reached a record high.
For decades, school districts essentially had a captive labor pool. But even as discrimination against women has decreased in law, medicine, finance, and other professional fields, the United States has continued to pay public-school CONTINUE READING: Pay Teachers More, Because Women Have Other Options - The Atlantic
