The Bill's Come Due

Because of low pay, increasing numbers of teachers and support professionals are moonlighting or just struggling to get by—and many are leaving public schools altogether. Time for a change? Educators say you bet.

By Dave Winans

Imagine yourself a Broken Bow (Nebraska) High School student returning home after a weekend exploring the region's dramatic Sandhills, expansive farmland, winding rivers, and hand-planted forest. Parched, you approach Broken Bow's roadside sno-cone stand, where behind the counter stands BBHS social studies teacher Kirk Petit, "making the world happier, one sno-cone at a time."

Most Broken Bow High students contain their shock. But some kids, being kids, utter the obvious: "Don't they pay you enough as a teacher, Mr. Petit? How many jobs do you have?"

Too many. In his chosen profession, Petit, an 11-year veteran with a master's degree, makes $39,527, has endured two pay freezes, and struggles to feed and shelter his three children, ages 2, 5, and 6. On top of a grueling day of planning, teaching, grading, and track/cross-country coaching at the high school, Petit puts in another seven-day, 30-hour week stocking shelves and ringing up sales at an ALCO discount store during the school year. Come summers, he's dealing sno-cones for extra cash.

Educators like Petit know they shouldn't have to choose between serving the public and enjoying a standard of living decent enough to raise a family. Yet far too many do. Drawn by their desire to mold young minds, teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) too often are forced to swallow subpar wages in the bargain.

NEA has set out to change that with a new salary initiative to win a $40,000 minimum salary for every teacher and an "appropriate living wage" as starting pay for all ESPs. The campaign aims to establish NEA as the national advocate and "go-to" organization on professional-level pay for public education employees—through research, negotiator training, and partnerships with state affiliates bargaining or lobbying for better pay.

"If we in NEA don't start talking about professional pay now, we're never going to do it," argues Bill Raabe, director of NEA Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy. "We've got to talk about this issue in every forum, not just where it's comfortable."

Ample Room for Progress

As teachers and ESPs across the country can attest, NEA's salary goals are ambitious, given the gap between the goal and salaries nationwide. Union researchers have found that the U.S. average for beginning teacher salaries in 2003–04 (the latest year for which data are available) was $30,496, and that 70 percent of all NEA ESP members today earn less than $25,000.

The salary gap between teaching and other careers starts early. For example, the latest employer survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers documented an alarming gap between average starting pay for teaching and that for professions such as accounting ($44,564) and software design/development ($53,729).

Talk to ESPs and to teachers like Petit, and you'll learn firsthand how members working long hours to help public school children are so poorly compensated that they struggle to provide what their own families deserve.

"Educators should be adequately compensated—so they don't have to worry about paying bills while teaching other people's kids," says Washington State Teacher of the Year Tamara Steen, a middle school English and art teacher in the predominantly Latino agricultural community of Mabton. "Some young teachers are really struggling—their children even qualify for a free and reduced-price lunch—and I know classified employees [ESPs] who clear just $500 to $900 a month after health insurance is taken out of their checks. It shocks me!"

Utah grounds supervisor Roger Pate, who works in the Alpine district, seconds the motion. Every school employee, he says, should have the right to "spend time at home with his or her own kids, without Mom and Dad working for extra income at one of the 'Marts.'"

The fallout from low pay is much more than a matter of teachers and ESPs having to stretch their paychecks a little further. Low pay for public school professionals has serious consequences for public education, for the profession, and, ultimately, for the kids who depend on teachers and ESPs in their classrooms, in the cafeteria, and on the school bus.

Low Salaries 'A Turnoff'

Consider: Who in the future can be lured into an occupation with wages that start low and fail to keep pace with comparable careers? Many young teachers and NEA Student members say they've watched other promising young people show an initial spark for teaching—but then fall by the wayside.

Robin Musch, a first-year elementary special education teacher in St. Francis, Minnesota, recalls education program classmates at the University of South Dakota who switched majors rather than face a career of paltry paychecks and second jobs.

"One decided to become a nurse because she'd get paid more," Musch notes, "and another who wanted to be a biology teacher—he was passionate and loved working with kids—decided to become a doctor instead. Some people would ask me, 'Is going into education all you want to do? Don't you want to do something with your life?'"

When he was in college, South Carolina fourth-grade teacher Mark Joseph heard a similar tune from childhood friends: "Why do you want to go into teaching? There's no money in it."

As an African-American—in a nation where 40 percent of schools have no teachers of color—Joseph knows he's a role model for his multicultural group of students, getting them to "see African-American males in a positive light and changing negative stereotypes." But he doesn't have enough company—and low pay is one of the reasons.

"Far fewer students of color are pursuing education today; other, better paying careers are open to them," notes Segun Eubanks, director of NEA Teacher Quality. "'Teachers leaving over pay' is an issue for almost every young teacher of color I talk to."

The same could be said about the teaching profession as a whole. Simply put, it's hard to hang on to quality folks if you don't pay them enough. "Turnover is highest where teacher pay is lowest," says Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, whose fiscal agency has documented the economic impact of teacher turnover. Strayhorn reports that nearly 37,000 teachers leave Texas classrooms each year, "taking their skills to better-paying jobs or simply quitting."

It's a Texas-sized problem—but hardly limited to the Lone Star state. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that some 20 percent of new teachers leave the field within their first year, and nearly twice that number leave within three years. Hot issues such as high workload, student misbehavior, and sparse planning time may feed the newbie turnover rate, but poor pay figures right in there. Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers Susan Moore Johnson and Sarah Birkeland write that policy makers must recognize that what teachers earn, in the beginning and throughout their careers, "determines who considers teaching, who gives it a try, and who ultimately stays."

Pay drives ESP career choices too. From his vantage point in Utah, where districts often convert full-time ESP positions to so-called "hourly" slots—without pay or benefits—Roger Pate stresses that employers need to rethink and reward ESPs' unique role, from spotting troubled kids to "freeing up teachers to do what they do well."

Promising Building Blocks

Clearly, there are compelling reasons to hike educator salaries—and considerable room for growth to reach the goals of NEA's salary initiative. Fortunately, there are some promising building blocks, including these steps forward:

Montana The Helena Education Association (HEA) and district bargained Montana's highest teacher minimum—a one-year, $7,000 jump to $30,000—and a new $65,000 maximum, instantly changing the depth and scope of the district's applicant pool and reversing a teacher outflow. It all happened, explains HEA President Larry Nielsen, "because we and the district are now equal partners who agree that the district's number one asset is educators; they're the primary factor affecting student achievement. The confidence level of our members is way up!"

New Jersey By mid-summer, New Jersey Education Association local affiliates had negotiated minimum teacher salaries of $40,000 or more in 58 percent of the state's school districts, from both the wealthiest areas to the poorest regions (for more, see page 27).

Hawaii Following an intensive media campaign spotlighting the state's high teacher turnover, the Hawaii State Teachers Association bargained a statewide contract earlier this year that will, in the 2006–07 school year, boost entry pay for credentialed teachers to $39,900, create a $53,000 average, and boost the top salary to $73,000.

New Mexico In 2003, NEA-New Mexico worked with coalition partners, including business leaders, to pass education reform legislation with a three-tier teacher licensure system and mandated minimums. A second-tier teacher—who has completed an approved mentoring program and three years of teaching on the first tier—is guaranteed at least $40,000 in the 2005–06 school year. The legislation also guarantees a $12,000 minimum salary for education assistants.

Pennsylvania In rural central Pennsylvania, the 145-member Lewisburg Area Education Association (LAEA) negotiated the highest teacher minimum in a 16-district region, going from $38,611 this school year to $39,633 in 2007–08. "Both parties agreed this would help the district and our Association attract and keep the highest qualified candidates," says LAEA President Susan Overdorf, a seventh-grade math teacher.

Struggling ESPs can draw inspiration from classroom aides in Pleasantville, New Jersey, who recently boosted their starting pay to $20,741, and from paraeducators in Ithaca, New York, who bargained a 50 percent hike in their minimum on the heels of a 2001–02 "living wage" campaign involving outreach to the community and area unions. ESP/Ithaca President Debbie Minnick, a Title I math teaching assistant, reports that this settlement "stemmed para turnover" and moved many of her members out of second jobs (and even soup kitchens) and into better living quarters. "Now they feel like they have a career and feel a sense of pride in their union!" she concludes.

Such victories depend on members willing to fight to be paid what they deserve. Nebraska's Petit has prepared testimony on his pay predicament for state legislators and urges fellow NEA members to advocate for professional, competitive pay.

He notes that many educators share his economic struggles, but fail to discuss them with colleagues or people beyond school walls. A big, big mistake, he says.

"Teachers don't use their voice, their greatest strength, and don't realize they're not paid what they're worth," he says. "If educators...just gathered together their collective voice, they could really have a big impact."

Photos: David Toase, Dale Folkerts, Bob Ervin, Don Farrell, Amber Wilkes, John Ebelt, and Steve Wilson

You Bet You Can

Through a gutsy statewide initiative, New Jersey educators are bargaining better salaries—and stability for the kids.

Gaze east from urban Pleasantville, New Jersey, and—badda-boom—there's the Atlantic City skyline. You'd expect Lady Luck to visit teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) in Pleasantville and, until recently, she did—tempting them with Atlantic City's better starting teacher pay and union-scale casino wages.

Talk about turnover. If any district needed, and didn't have, staff stability, it was struggling, multicultural Pleasantville. But that started to change in May, when members of the Pleasantville Education Association (PEA) ratified a contract with the district that boosts the minimum teacher salary to $41,918 and accelerates the starting pay of classroom aides by $7,034 to $20,741 in 2005–06.

Bargaining was no picnic; the parties are still debating staffing and other issues. But the bottom line is that educators can now stay and survive in Pleasantville, thanks to contract gains such as progressively higher "columns for advancement" for secretaries and food service workers, a $4,500 pay adjustment for teachers who teach a sixth period, and full due process rights for all ESPs.

The other bargaining dividends: staff unity and stability. Classroom aide Nelson Cavalier reports that teachers and aides are working together better than ever. Besides that, "No one is leaving now!" adds PEA President Jean Hovey, an eighth-grade teacher at Pleasantville Middle School. "When people are comfortable and happy where they work, the students do better."

Fortunately, Pleasantville's progress isn't an isolated tale. As of mid-summer, New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) local affiliates had negotiated starting teacher salaries of $40,000 or more in 58 percent of the state's districts.

Nope, there's no Miracle Gro pushing the Garden State's bumper crop of good contracts. NJEA just planted the seeds early.

Back in 2001, NJEA launched a "$40K—Right Away" campaign to win "professional, competitive" starting teacher pay in every district. It's a soup-to-nuts program with components such as comprehensive bargaining goals for local negotiators (including "extra percentage increases for ESP groups"), strong salary research and training assistance to local affiliates, and even a member-funded "Pride" campaign to improve the public's perception of public education.

But above all, NJEA's salary initiative hinges on member mobilization. In Pleasantville, that meant:

Building unity. Teachers and ESPs merged their separate locals into PEA and then drafted contract proposals incorporating the best provisions of the old teacher and ESP agreements. "Unity gave us power," stresses school secretary Regina Whaley.

Involving everybody. PEA members formed a huge, highly representative Action Committee, separate from the bargaining team, that planned rallies, informational picketing, and community outreach—assuring parents that the district's after-school program would not be disrupted during contract talks.

Communicating constantly. The bargaining committee never kept teachers and ESPs in the dark; PEA even enlisted no fewer than 30 folks to prepare individualized salary packets in advance of the contract ratification vote.

Some parting advice from NJEA salary strategists: Build a pay initiative—with both clear goals and a "we're-worth-it" attitude—and the members will come. And come to believe. Through NJEA-run salary workshops, veteran educators are learning that higher starting pay puts more money in the pot for future raises and maximizes everyone's career earnings.

The best payoff of all: At bargaining tables across New Jersey, district negotiators and school boards are now acknowledging the need for a $40,000 minimum to attract the "best and brightest" teaching applicants. And, yes, compete with other NJEA-organized districts.

—D.W.

A Tale of Two Professionals

Pay gap hits home in Tennessee

Karen White and Angelitti Bradley are tight—buddies going back 20 years through their affiliation with the Friendship Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. And, the way the federal government sees it, they have more than just gospel songs in common.

 Their occupations—White is a teacher, Bradley a nurse—require comparable training and skills, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Compensation Survey. Yet nationally, nurses make far more in weekly wages ($942) than elementary teachers ($811) like White, says a report by the Economic Policy Institute.

 The chronic low pay takes its toll on teachers—in their checkbooks and in their psyches. "It makes me feel unappreciated," says White. "We're training future nuclear physicists but we'll never see that kind of money!" When it comes to the issue of low teacher pay, White and Bradley are singing from the same hymnal. "Everyone knows teachers should be paid more, so I still don't understand why they don't make the money," says Bradley, who does her part by voting for better school funding whenever she has the chance.

Below, a snapshot of the pay gap—and its impact.

Photos: Tom Briglia

Salary Resources on the Web

Try out the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) Family Budget Calculator  to figure out how to survive in your region. What income do you really need to make ends meet? The costs of goods and services vary across the nation, so this calculator customizes the budgets for every U.S. community—more than 400 in all.

Check out NEA's latest report on average teacher salaries nationwide, Rankings & Estimates: Rankings of the States 2004 and Estimates of School Statistics 2005 ( , 1MB, 129 pp.).

Learn more about EPI's study showing how teacher pay lags behind  that of comparable occupations—even though professional skills and responsibilities are remarkably similar.

Find out the real definition of a "living wage"—and how to get an ESP living wage campaign off the ground  in your district.

Get up to speed on the impact of low pay on the profession  and the need for a diverse workforce.