One of the crucial elements of the war on public schools is the war on teachers. If the Enemies of Public Schooling - EoPS? - degrade the profession sufficiently, we see exactly what we're seeing now: teachers leaving early, or in the middle, or not becoming teachers at all because who would?
Side Note: I am reminded that when I told my parents I was going to New York to be an actor, the howling could be heard all the way to Cleveland.
Imagine today telling them "I'm going to be a teacher!" "Couldn't you just be an actor instead?"
The EoPS have lots of strategies for make the teaching work space unworkable, from enormous class sizes to extra duties to lack of administrative support to ridiculous "professional developments." But there is one area that dominates the landscape because, unlike the size of your class or the pressure to pass all your students, or the number of idiots who are going to stand in front of meetings and tell you what you are doing wrong, this is one you can look up on The Google before you ever make the mistake of telling your folks "I'm going to be a teacher!" It's money.
Don Ohlmeyer famously told then-Washington Post reporter Tony Kornheiser that "The answer to all your questions is: Money." That's not entirely true in every case, but it's a good place to start.
Salaries
As I've written before in How Shitty Is It? and in How Shitty Is It? Updated.:
When I started with LAUSD in 1995, my starting salary was just short of $30,000. I just did a Google thing and that translates to about $58,000 today. A quick look at LAUSD's 2021-2022 salary table tells me that teachers in the district start today at just over $56,000. Teachers have actually lost money in the last 25+ years. Furthermore, unless they take extra classes, it takes them seven years of step increases to surpass my 1995 starting salary.
And furthermore...
If you are thinking, "Yeah, but teachers make up for it at the top end of the scale," and "stick around long enough and you make Hollywood money," you are incorrect. It's true that we have the opportunity to work our way up the scale, but it takes time and it's not as easy as it looks. For example, today's LAUSD salary table (21-22) shows a top number of $89,245 after ten years during which the teacher completed an additional 98 semester units of study. Semester units may be earned in the form of college classes and/or salary point courses, almost all of which the teacher has to pay for.
Assuming you work those years and get to the top of the scale, then you have to work twenty years at the top of the scale and get a doctorate to max out at the biggest number on the table: $98,176.
By comparison, in 95-96 the L.A. Times reported the recently settled contract paid $54,703 at the max. That's over $106,000 in today's money.
That's 56,000 - 58,000 = -2000 98,176 - 106,000 = -7824
Yes in LAUSD we get health benefits which are presently valued by the district at $16000 per year, but we had health benefits in 1995, too, so the decrease is still the decrease. And we do get a break on taxes for our individual retirement contributions and a district contribution to the overall fund. More on that next time.
But those incentives are basically offered instead of getting paid more. If you think there's a teaching crunch now, try making it even less attractive.
The Economic Policy Institute broke it down here and here it is in living color:
The point here is nobody gets rich teaching. In fact, we've been going backwards as pay has actually declined since 1995 while the cost of living has doubled. Furthermore, considering that buying a house in L.A. seems hopeless (the median price up over 400% since '95) and even rental housing is up over 150% , the likelihood of a new teacher in LAUSD being able to live anywhere near their school workplace is microscopic.
No comments:
Post a Comment