Teachers in America are Overworked and Underpaid

Teachers are expected to take on additional responsibilities besides just teaching

America’s schools are in a crisis right now, and part of that is due to a persistent teacher shortage that has only been made worse by the pandemic. Many teachers leave the profession after only a few years, and not enough people are becoming teachers to begin with.

According to ABC News,

More than three-quarters of U.S. states are experiencing a teacher shortage, highlighting a growing concern among public education and government officials about issues that were exacerbated during three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on pandemic learning published in June 2022 estimated that public education lost about 7% of its total teaching population (233,000 instructors) between 2019 and 2021 — with many educators, in phone calls, text messages and interviews with ABC News, citing strict time demands, persistent behavioral issues and lack of administrative support, among other obstacles.

Teachers do more than just teach students. They are responsible for additional work, much of which has to be done after hours. Responsibilities that get taken on after hours include things like parent conferences, grading papers, lesson planning, mentoring, professional development, and managing IEP’s.

This is unpaid work that teachers often have to do at night or on the weekends, when they should be able to spend time with their own families.

With the amount of work they have to do constantly increasing, especially during the pandemic, teachers are facing burnout at record rates. Teaching online during such a stressful time was difficult for teachers and students alike, and teachers didn’t receive enough support from school leadership in many cases.

According to Vox, the reasons teachers are leaving the profession include,

The reasons included their workload, greater responsibilities, unrealistic expectations, student behavioral issues, pay that doesn’t keep up with inflation, a lack of support from school leadership, and a lack of support from parents. About 74 percent of respondents said they would not recommend the teaching profession to a prospective new teacher.

Factors such as lack of support from school administrators and parents is something that could be changed in the scope of our current school system. However, many of the other factors are difficult to change.

Teacher salary

For a long time, teacher salaries have been stagnating. With the amount of work that they do, they deserve to have better pay. However, since funding is often tied to mill levies passed by voters at the local level, funding in some districts can be scarce.

The average Public School Teacher salary in the United States is $56,784 as of June 26, 2023, but the range typically falls between $47,418 and $69,251.

This is below what is considered a living wage in the United States. According to data from MIT,

An analysis of the living wage (as calculated in December 2021 and reflecting a compensation being offered to an individual in 2022), compiling geographically specific expenditure data for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, and other necessities, finds that: The living wage in the United States is $24.16 per hour, or $100,498.60 per year in 2021, before taxes for a family of four (two working adults, two children), compared to $21.54, or $89,605.51 in 2020.

If you look at the data, that puts even the highest average teacher salary about $30K below what is considered to be a living wage. Teachers are doing hard work on a daily basis, and their compensation isn’t in line with the work that they are doing.

Ideally, we want the best and the brightest teaching our students. Yet, how do we attract intelligent and responsive people into teaching when they could make more money in other careers? Shaping young minds is an important pursuit, and in our society we don’t treat it as such.

Proper compensation would incentivize more teachers to stay in the profession longer, instead of leaving after just a few years for other careers. It would also help with recruiting new teachers to the profession.

This is an issue that needs to be raised with voters, since in many cases school funding at the local level is tied to local elections. Schools need to be more of a priority on the political agenda at all levels.

According to Public School Review,

Approximately 48 percent of a school’s budget comes from state resources, including income taxes, sales tax, and fees. Another 44 percent is contributed locally, primarily through the property taxes of homeowners in the area. The last eight percent of the public education budget comes from federal sources, with an emphasis on grants for specific programs and services for students that need them.

Since the majority of school funding comes from the State and Local levels, these elections are especially important for teachers. It should be important for us as well, when we vet candidates for these offices and go to the voting booth. It isn’t the Federal government that is providing most of the money for schools, although this may be a common misconception.

This means, it is up to all of us to vote in elections that have the highest impact on our schools, so that our teachers will be able to get the higher salaries that they deserve. Often, school funding increases are something that goes to voters directly. This makes it our responsibility to always vote in favor of schools.

Rising school violence

Additionally, some teachers are leaving the profession due to the increase in school violence. Teaching is already a thankless job, and when you add in the risk of losing your life, many question whether teaching is worth it anymore.

According to Ohio State University,

Nearly half of teachers are considering quitting or transferring jobs, with one of the main reasons being the violence and threats made against them, according to a nationwide survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Risks to teachers have skyrocketed over the last two decades since the Columbine shooting. Now, there are school shootings in the news on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Schools don’t have the security needed to prevent these shootings, and teachers have to live in fear that there will be a shooting at their school building.

With personal safety being a huge consideration for anyone in the teaching profession, or those thinking about a new career after college, it is no surprise that many are opting out of teaching as a career. Most people get into helping professions like teaching out of altruism, but that can only go so far.

Decreasing school violence needs to be more of a priority. Gun violence is rampant in the United States on a scale that is unheard of in many other countries. Teachers and students alike deserve to feel safe. Schools should be a place of learning and excitement, not a place of violence and fear.

With persistent fear overshadowing every day in the classroom, there is no wonder that teachers are considering leaving in droves.

If we could provide better gun regulations in the United States, and more security at schools, then it would go a long way toward combatting school violence. This would help to make teaching a more viable profession for both those considering leaving, and new teachers entering the field.

Since teachers are leaving the field in droves right now, it is important to look for solutions to this problem which is rising to a crisis level. Children need to have a proper education to succeed in life, and having a good teacher is one of the most important factors in education.

When teachers leave our schools, it hurts our kids, and it hurts our society as a whole. We depend so much on public education as the foundation of all of our careers, we need to ensure that it is the best education possible. This means taking better care of our teachers who provide this valuable resource.

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