WASHINGTON – John Arthur can only work as a public school teacher because his wife earns much more than he does.
Arthur – the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year – testified Thursday at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about the challenges facing public school teachers.
Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds a national certification, cited pay as the main reason teachers leave the profession and parents do not want their children to become teachers.
“The No. 1 solution to the problems we face has to be to raise teacher salaries,” says Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that despite his work as an educator, he also works an additional part-time job.
The special education teacher spent most of his career as a teacher’s aide in education. When he took that position, the starting salary was $16,000 and the maximum salary was $30,000.
“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.
Minimum wage for teachers
Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, an independent politician from Vermont, introduced a bill in March 2023, which would be a Annual base salary of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.
“We understand that the children and young people of this country are our future and that there is indeed nothing more important than providing a quality education to all of our young people. And yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed and – perhaps most importantly – underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.
“Compared to many other professions, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which has only been exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.
According to Sanders, 44 percent of public school teachers will leave the profession within the next five years. He cited “extremely low teacher pay” as one of the main reasons for the massive teacher shortage in the United States.
For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of the country’s public K-12 schools documented problems recruiting teachers, according to a report released in October by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Maryland sets $60,000 minimum
However, a minimum annual salary for teachers of $60,000 is not far from the norm in all states.
In Maryland Blueprint for Maryland’s future increases the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 per year by July 2026.
William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year master plan, passed in the Maryland General Assembly in 2021, “addresses all aspects of educating children from birth through high school graduation, particularly the recruitment, retention and compensation of highly qualified teachers.”
Kirwan said that the “principle of the Blueprint on Teacher Remuneration is that teachers, as professionals, should receive the same remuneration as other professionals who require a similar level of education, such as architects and accountants.”
An “allocation problem”
Senator Bill Cassidy, ranking committee member, called the Democrats’ solution of introducing a nationwide minimum wage for teachers a “laudable goal.”
However, he noted that “the federal government is telling states how to spend their money and is not addressing the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach effectively.”
“More mandates and more funding cannot be the only answer we can come up with. We must examine the flawed policies that got us here and find solutions to improve them,” the Louisiana Republican said.
Nicole Neily, president and founder of the parents’ rights group Parents Defending Education, argued that “schools do not have a resource problem” but rather an “allocation problem.”
“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me what you spend your money on and I’ll tell you what.’ Education leaders regularly spend their money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” Neily said.
Neily referred to a report by the Legacy Foundationwhich found that “standardized test results show that performance differences are increasing over time in districts with [chief diversity officers].” Such staff often promote diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools.
Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said: “Higher wages do not reduce the burden we place on teachers, nor do they add hours to their workday.”
“By all means increase teacher salaries, but don’t assume that this will solve the teacher shortage or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and increasing demands have made it almost impossible to do an already demanding job well and sustainably,” he added.
