Educators Are Nation Builders: Sanders Bill Would Ensure Min $60K Salary for Public School Teachers
- 'Educators Are Nation Builders': Sanders Bill Would Ensure Minimum $60K Salary for Public School Teachers,' Common Dreams, March 9, 2023. Ed.
"The situation has become so absurd that the top 15 hedge fund managers on Wall Street make more money in a single year than every kindergarten teacher in America combined."
Demanding an end to "the international embarrassment" of low teacher pay in the United States, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday introduced legislation to guarantee a minimum salary for public school educators of $60,000 per year, moving to fulfill a pledge he made during his 2020 presidential campaign. The Vermont Independent senator called on the federal government to take accountability for chronic staffing shortages in school districts across the country, which he said is linked to the fact that "the starting pay for teachers in almost 40% of our nation's school districts is less than $40,000 a year" & that the average weekly wage of a public school teacher has gone up by just $29 in the past 30 years, adjusting for inflation.
More than half of the nation's schools are understaffed, according to the National Center on Education Statistics, & Sanders noted in a fact sheet about his proposal that "hundreds of thousands of public school teachers have to work 2 or 3 jobs during the school year to make ends meet." A recent report by the Teacher Salary Project found that 17% of educators work part-time in retail, restaurants, or in the gig economy to supplement their meager incomes. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee, called the statistic "simply unacceptable." "The situation has become so absurd that the top 15 hedge fund managers on Wall St. make more money in a single year than every kindergarten teacher in the US combined—over 120,000 teachers," he said.
"Wages for public school teachers are so low that in 36 states, the average public school teacher with a family of 4 qualifies for food stamps, public housing, & other government assistance programs. We have got to do better than that." The Pay Teachers Act of 2023 would significantly increase investments in public education, beyond teacher salaries—tripling Title I-A funding for schools with high percentages of low-income students & funding for rural education programs; providing an additional $1 billion for the Bureau of Indian Educ., & investing in grant programs to improve teacher preparation & development, among other investments. States would be required to establish a "minimum salary for teachers" of at least $60,000 per year, with increases throughout their career..
"Teachers earn nearly 24% less than similarly educated professionals, and when adjusted for inflation, many [earn] less than they were making a decade ago."
"Educators are nation builders," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.7 educators. "They have a vital role in educating and caring for our next generation. But they are neither treated nor paid commensurate with that role. Teachers earn nearly 24% less than similarly educated professionals, and when adjusted for inflation, many [earn] less than they were making a decade ago." "Even with their need to take 2nd jobs, educators spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on supplies, snacks, books, & other items for students," she added. "Chairman Bernie Sanders's bill, the Pay Teachers Act, will help close the pay gap by significantly increasing federal investments in public schools & raising annual teacher salaries."...https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-teachers-60000
= new reply since forum marked as read
