Cover Story
Salary Squeeze

Across the nation, many educators still need second jobs to pay the bills.

NEA member Christopher Johnson rises every morning at 5:30 a.m., as the morning light spreads through his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. At 6:15, he climbs into the yellow school bus parked outside and starts the diesel engine.

Then, after picking up 60 teenagers, Johnson pulls up in front of West Mill-brook Middle School and the kids troop off to class. Johnson parks the bus--and follows them in.

By 7:30, Johnson is teaching, guiding his 7th graders through the mysteries of pre-algebra. The rest of Johnson's day is equally busy. After teaching math and science all day, he drives his 60 students home, then becomes a student himself, taking graduate courses at North Carolina State University.

In his spare time, by the way, Johnson runs a mentoring program for students at West Millbrook.

Johnson, of course, would rather his schedule not be this hectic. He'd love to get up a little later and leave the driving to someone else, but that's a luxury Johnson can't afford. After six years, his teaching salary is just $30,000.

"I drive the bus to pay for my home and my car," says Johnson, whose second job pays $10,000 a year.

It's teachers like Chris Johnson who'll determine whether America keeps its high tech edge, and many local people appreciate that fact--and Johnson's dedication. He's the school's teacher of the year, and a local TV station has honored his mentoring program. But Johnson's dedication and skill have not won him a good salary.

The same could be said for NEA members all across America. Johnson is just one of an army of moonlighting educators who find themselves collecting tolls or calling Bingo to make ends meet. Teachers, notes the Educational Testing Service, make significantly less than other college-educated Americans with comparable academic preparation.

For 30 years, teacher salaries have barely kept pace with inflation, even though the economy depends more and more on educated workers.

Average teacher pay has risen just 8.6 percent over inflation since 1970, a mere third of a percent per year. Over those same years, the percentage of teachers with master's degrees has doubled and average teacher experience is up five years.

Most education support personnel--men and women who are essential to keeping schools running smoothly--face even a tougher salary squeeze.

Other countries don't squeeze their educators. America's major competitors pay teachers more, relative to average incomes in their countries, than teachers in the United States.

Some nations even pay educators more in absolute terms. South Korea, says the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pays mid-career teachers 30 percent more than the United States.

NEA affiliates all across America are currently fighting to reverse these trends. One example: Christopher Johnson's NEA state affiliate, the North Carolina Association of Educators, has won passage of a four-year program to raise salaries to the national average.

Indeed, Chris Johnson probably wouldn't still be teaching today if it hadn't been for the annual $3,000 raises this new program has delivered.

"Last summer, I looked into other professions, but with the raises, I stayed in," he said. "Three years ago, I would have had to leave."

NEA Explores New Ways to Determine Pay

Over the past year, a number of NEA local affiliates have been exploring new frameworks for compensating teachers and other school staff, as part of their efforts to promote professional development and get more funding into their school systems.

Last fall, NEA President Bob Chase asked the members of the NEA Professional Stan-dards and Practices Commit-tee to review these developments and to report back to the NEA Representative Assembly, which meets this July in Chicago.

Watch future editions of NEA Today for more on the debate over approaches to compensation.

The Struggle for Fair Compensation: How NEA Affiliates Are Winning Raises

America is beginning to think its teachers should be getting raises--and NEA is spreading that word to lawmakers and education officials across the United States.

A recent national public opinion poll, conducted for NEA by a respected, bipartisan team of pollsters, found that voters now rate education the nation's top issue, more than twice as important as taxes (38 vs. 17 percent).

The same poll found that the public considers increasing salaries is an important approach to improving schools.

These poll findings made headlines in papers throughout the nation, and NEA is working hard to make sure that the nation's political leaders get the message.

Many already do. Vice President Al Gore, for instance, has made increased school funding a central plank in his campaign platform. His program, if enacted, would earmark federal dollars for higher teacher salaries, with increases as high as $10,000 for teachers in high-poverty areas.

NEA affiliates are making three key points as they work to mobilize public support for higher pay.

First, the nation is in the midst of record-breaking prosperity. If not now for decent pay, when?

Second, the nation faces a devastating teacher shortage.

"We can no longer get teachers on the cheap," says Education Secretary Richard Riley, who estimates that America will need 2.2 million new teachers over the next decade.

Third, other professions pay far more for similarly qualified people.

But good arguments alone rarely carry the day. And that's why NEA affiliates are pulling out all the stops to elect pro-education candidates and reach out to parents and other groups for support.

In Pawling, New York, an extraordinary effort has led to a remarkable contract for both teachers and ESP.

For years, Pawling had the lowest teacher salaries in its county. Finally, teachers and teacher aides in the Pawling Education Association decided enough was enough. Activists in the 115-person local descended on a school board meeting with an informational picket. Supporters helped follow up with more picketing, car signs, petitions, and a steady stream of letters to the local newspaper.

The parent role was key.

"It made us feel so good when the parents joined us," said guidance counselor Karen Nolan. "We felt we weren't crazy."

The eventual result: a five-year contract with raises averaging 40 percent.

In Texas, the legislature gave teachers $3,000 raises after a hard campaign led by the Texas State Teachers Associa-tion. TSTA President Ignacio Salinas Jr., himself a legislator, offers this advice: "Educate legislators, don't just lobby them. Don't assume they know what's happening in your classroom."

Chris Johnson's state, North Carolina, moved from 38th to 29th place in NEA's salary rankings last year. North Carolina Association of Educators Presi-dent Geraldine McNeill says NCAE's support for high teaching standards has strengthened its hand.

Thanks in significant part to NCAE efforts to help candidates for National Board certification, North Carolina now has more nationally certified teachers than any other state. NCAE members get heard when they argue that teacher quality will sink without higher pay.

"A third of us are eligible to retire," McNeill says. "Parents realize you can pay now or pay later. My own daughter fell behind in sixth grade because she had no math teacher for half a year."

North Carolina teacher salaries are now approaching the national average, but, to attract enough Chris Johnsons to the profession, salaries must go substantially higher, in North Carolina and across the nation.

Q & A
Salaries: An Economist's View

Jared Bernstein is a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The former deputy chief economist at the United States Department of Labor, he spoke recently with NEA Today.

Are teachers underpaid?
Most teachers are underpaid at least $5,000 a year, based on their education and skills, even taking into account summers off.

Why aren't teachers paid more?
Society undervalues what they do. As our economy moves more toward free markets and away from the idea that government can play an important role, the one thing that defines value is productivity. But measuring teacher productivity is very difficult because every aspect of society--poverty, for instance--has an impact on learning.

Another factor is gender discrimination, since teaching has traditionally been a female profession.

What do low salaries for educators mean for the nation?
The primary consequence of these low salaries is an undersupply of skilled persons. The idea of leaving teaching to sympathetic-hearted people to supply the labor for schools has proven to be the wrong path, especially in an economy in which salaries are climbing sharply for other educated workers.

What will it take to raise salaries?
A strong union is really important, because when you're trying to define the worth of what you're doing, in a climate where the market economy is idealized, you need articulate spokespersons.

Also, we need to restructure how education is financed. The fact that districts depend on property taxes is a formula for inequity. It's easy to find schools where we would all love to send our kids, and others where we would be horrified. Poor schools pay low salaries, so the lack of quality is reinforced.

For Better Pay, Alliances Pay Off

Things didn't look good for NEA members in Omaha last September. Contract talks on the pay hike they were seeking seemed to be dragging endlessly.

But the Omaha Education Association turned that bad situation around, and how it did demonstrates a principle used by many successful NEA affiliates: Don't go it alone!

Teachers in Omaha had a strong case for higher pay. With nearly half of the current staff set to retire over the next decade, the district needs to attract new teachers.

That will be difficult. Test scores in Omaha may be high, but Omaha salaries are only slightly above the Nebraska average--and the state ranks 43rd in the nation.

"I've got this year's bills, but last year's salary," as one teacher, Geri Wilson, put it.

Omaha's NEA local affiliate pressed these points in some 100 hours of negotiating with school officials, but made little real progress.

That's when the teachers decided to add pressure to logic and reasonableness.

OEA organized a rally at a Board of Education meeting, hoping to turn out 400 people and show the board teachers meant business.

"We didn't want to slap the board members, but we did want to raise their awareness," says OEA President Liz Rea, a high school teacher.

OEA's crowd prediction proved way off. More than 1,200 educators and local residents showed up.

"Omahans do not want mediocrity for their children," Rea told the board to cheers. "They want quality."

Rea's words packed more punch because she was clearly speaking out on behalf of Omahans, not just teachers.

The people packing the board chamber that night included members of local unions representing nurses, security guards, secretaries, and painters.

Their appearance was no coincidence. OEA has been cooperating with other unions for years. Last spring, teachers took part in a rally for an AFL-CIO organizing drive.

The crowd at the board meeting also included parents, students, and two state senators. OEA is active in politics and in an Omaha community coalition. The local even publishes a community newsletter.

All that spadework paid off at the Board of Ed rally and in a steady bombardment of E-mails, letters to the editor, and calls to radio talk shows that kept the heat on afterwards.

The result: a one-year contract with average raises amounting to 5.6 percent, far above those of recent years.

Her local, says OEA's Rea, will be back for more.

"We're not there yet," she says, "not by a long shot."

Average Salaries of Public School Teachers, 1998-99