Sanders warns of ‘absurd’ low teacher wages fueling public education crisis

A pair of public school teachers warned a key Senate committee on Thursday that low teacher salaries in the United States are fueling nationwide workforce shortages and damaging the country’s education system, which is also under constant fire from right-wing lawmakers seeking budget cuts. federal investments in schools and abolishing the Department of Education.

“The number one reason teachers leave the profession is pay,” John Arthur, an elementary school teacher in Holladay, Utah, told members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at a hearing convened by Sen. Bernie Sanders. I-Vt.).

“The main reason why parents don’t want their children to become teachers is the pay,” Arthur added. “So the most important solution to addressing the problems we face must be to increase teacher salaries.”

“The situation has become so absurd that four – one, two, three, four – hedge fund managers on Wall Street made more money last year than every kindergarten teacher in America.” —Sen. Bernie Sanders

In written testimony submitted to the Senate panel, Arthur argued that low teacher wages, a chronic lack of resources and extreme stress, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, are at the heart of the workforce crises affecting an overwhelming majority of U.S. school districts. a threat to the entire public education system.

“We cannot maintain a healthy, effective public school system if so few parents want their children to be in my and my friends’ classrooms,” Arthur’s testimony reads. “We cannot continue to run our public education system on the backs of saints and martyrs. We must raise wages to the level where we can successfully recruit and retain the talent we need to effectively educate all children, regardless of zip code.”

A teacher at Philadelphia’s third-largest elementary school, Gemayel Keyes, echoed Arthur, noting during Thursday’s hearing that low wages and significant student debt have forced him to work part-time and left him with “the American dream of home ownership.” denied.

“We need to invest in our teachers, but we also need to invest in our paraprofessionals,” Keyes said. “If we underinvest in pay and working conditions and misalign job responsibilities and expectations, the shortage of paraprofessionals will increase, just as the pipeline of teachers has decreased. I must also acknowledge and fully acknowledge that my job as a teacher would be impossible without my paraprofessional staff.”

Watch the full hearing:

According to the latest data, the average salary for beginning teachers in the US is $44,530, and nearly 80% of the country’s school districts pay a starting salary of less than $50,000. Teachers in about 30% of U.S. school districts have starting salaries of less than $40,000 per year.

The national average teacher salary is $69,544, and significant recent pay increases in some states have not been enough to keep up with inflation.

According to a Pew survey released earlier this year, only 15% of K-12 teachers are extremely or very satisfied with their pay, and 68% say their job is “overwhelming.”

“Student absenteeism is at an all-time high and teacher shortages are at crisis levels in most states,” William Kirwan, vice chairman of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, told the Senate panel. “Our students are not performing well on international tests. Alarm bells should be ringing throughout the country.”

Sanders, the lead sponsor of legislation that would set the minimum annual salary for teachers in America’s public schools at $60,000, said during his opening statement at Thursday’s hearing that “public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed for decades and perhaps most importantly Still, undervalued.”

The senator added that while there are “many reasons” why U.S. public school teachers leave their jobs every year, twice as often as in comparable countries, “one of the biggest reasons is the extremely low wages that teachers receive.”

“Unbelievably, the average public school teacher in America makes almost $100 a week less than he or she did 28 years ago, after adjusting for inflation,” Sanders said. “Meanwhile, due to a lack of resources and tight school budgets, approximately 80% of public school teachers are forced to spend their own money on classroom supplies without being reimbursed.”

“The situation has become so absurd that four – one, two, three, four – hedge fund managers on Wall Street made more money last year than every kindergarten teacher in America,” Sanders continued. “Public school teachers should not be forced to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. They should not be forced to live on food stamps.”