Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
I remember wanting to be a teacher since I was first asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My grandmother has worked as a paraprofessional in her local elementary school for my entire life. We used to see her students around town as kids, and not only did the older students remember her, but her current students were also overjoyed to see her. I wanted to be a history teacher by the time I was in middle school. Then, during my freshman year at Hofstra, I decided to switch my major to English literature in order to teach high school English. My education professor has been one of the most influential people I’ve met at Hofstra, and whenever my enthusiasm for teaching faded, he always reminded me of why I was doing it in the first place. I’ve clung to the hope of becoming a teacher, of assisting students like me who felt alone and directionless in high school, of being like my high school English teacher, who worked with me on group projects because I didn’t have anyone else. But due to the way that teachers are treated and viewed by America as a whole, I’m having trouble holding onto hope. The way that the media depicts teachers doesn’t show the true realities that educators face, especially in 2023.
The median teacher’s salary in the United States was $61,820 in 2021. This is not a horrible salary, but it is far below what teachers should be paid. The John Locke Foundation found that many K-12 educators report having to purchase classroom supplies with their own money and needing to take part-time jobs to support themselves. That’s not even factoring in the teachers who have families to take care of or student debt to pay off (which is a whole other problem in itself). Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District staged a three-day strike on Tuesday, March 21, to protest their low wages. Teachers in this district claim that they cannot afford basic costs of living, especially with inflation. How are they expected to provide sufficient classroom materials if they can’t even provide themselves with basic living necessities?
The vast majority of teachers are extremely kindhearted individuals who want children to thrive, so they accept the low pay just for the sake of doing what they are passionate about. I personally went into the idea of teaching knowing that it is not the most lucrative profession, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. People always told me to just become a professor in order to get paid more, but if every aspiring educator resorts to that, there will be no one left to teach the children. A simple solution would be to increase teacher salaries.
Congressional staff members make a maximum salary of $173,000 a year and don’t have nearly as many responsibilities as teachers do. But if building the future isn’t a good enough reason to increase educators’ salaries even near the amount that members of Congress are paid, the risk that teachers put themselves at every day should be. The danger of verbal and physical harm from students and their parents has always been known, but following the pandemic, there are reports of heightened threats. Research from the American Psychological Association (APA) showed, “Approximately one-third of teachers report that they experienced at least one incident of verbal harassment or threat of violence from students during the pandemic,” and this trend is only continuing. Despite the threat that some students can pose to staff, teachers continuously show up.
In 2022, there were 51 incidents involving gun violence in American schools, according to EducationWeek, with a total of 40 casualties. Occurrences continue to happen, and children’s and teachers’ safety is put at risk, yet teachers are not given any additional compensation. The responsibility placed on the shoulders of educators is to keep entire classrooms of children safe while simultaneously preparing them for their futures.
The APA’s research also found that nearly 50% of teachers “plan or desire to quit or transfer jobs.” This isn’t because of a lack of passion for their profession, but because they aren’t being compensated enough compared to what they risk each day. One can only do so much without being valued for their hard work. If the salary was higher, myself and others would be more eager to become teachers.
