Tone deaf DeVos disrespects educators in South Carolina - Education Votes
Tone deaf DeVos disrespects educators in South Carolina
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos demonstrated her apathy toward underpaid educators yet again during a visit to Nephron, a South Carolina pharmaceutical company, on Thursday.
While the purpose of DeVos’ visit was to call attention to a Trump administration initiative, “Pledge to America’s Workers,” she failed to mention during her speech that 650 current and retired teachers are
employed at Nephron because they need the additional income.
Nephron is one of around 250 companies nationwide that have joined the Pledge to America’s Workers program.
As DeVos highlighted the initiative, which is intended to “educate, train, and reskill American workers from high-school age to near-retirement,” she ignored the reality that hundreds of teachers are forced to work part-time jobs just to make ends meet.
These teachers employed at Nephron are not working to reskill, but instead to keep themselves and their families afloat.
South Carolina
ranks 48
th out of 50 in states in terms of average starting teaching salaries, and 40
th in average teacher salary. Due to these low wages, it is no surprise that many South Carolina teachers have had to take on second or third
jobs to supplement their income.
Educators working multiple jobs are not unique to South Carolina;
one-fifth of teachersnationally work more than one job.
