Bill's Come Due, The

NEA Today, Oct 2005 by Winans, Dave

Because of low pay, increasing numbers of teachers and support professionals are moonlighting or just struggling to get by-and many are leaving public schools altogether. Time for a change? Educators say you bet.

Imagine yourself a Broken Bow (Nebraska) High School student returning home after a weekend exploring the region's dramatic Sandhills, expansive farmland, winding rivers, and hand-planted forest. Parched, you approach Broken Bow's roadside sno-cone stand, where behind the counter stands BBHS social studies teacher Kirk Petit, "making the world happier, one sno-cone at a time."

Most Broken Bow High students contain their shock. But some kids, being kids, utter the obvious: "Don't they pay you enough as a teacher, Mr. Petit? How many jobs do you have?"

Too many. In his chosen profession, Petit, an 11-year veteran with a master's degree, makes $39,527, has endured two pay freezes, and struggles to feed and shelter his three children, ages 2,5, and 6. On top of a grueling day of planning, teaching, grading, and track/cross-country coaching at the high school, Petit puts in another seven-day, 30-hour week stocking shelves and ringing up sales at an ALCO discount store during the school year. Come summers, he's dealing sno-cones for extra cash.

Petit loves his day job and says he's definitely in teaching for the long haul. But when switching outfits at 6 p.m. for the second stage of his daily economic marathon, Coach Petit worries. About energy he might not have to do his personal best in the classroom, about time he's losing to "research the best teaching methods," and-quite simply-about "feeding my family."

Educators like Petit know they shouldn't have to choose between serving the public and enjoying a standard of living decent enough to raise a family. Yet far too many do. Drawn by their desire to mold young minds, teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) too often are forced to swallow subpar wages in the bargain.

NEA has set out to change that with a new salary initiative to win a 540,000 minimum salary for every teacher and an "appropriate living wage" as starting pay for all ESPs. The campaign aims to establish NEA as the national advocate and "go-to" organization on professional-level pay for public education employees-through research, negotiator training, and partnerships with state affiliates bargaining or lobbying for better pay.

"If we in NEA don't start talking about professional pay now, we're never going to do it," argues Bill Raabe, director of NEA Collective Bargaining and Member Advocacy. "We've got to talk about this issue in every forum, not just where it's comfortable."

AMPLE ROOM FOR PROGRESS

As teachers and ESPs across the country can attest, NEA's salary goals are ambitious, given the gap between the goal and salaries nationwide. Union researchers have found that the U.S. average for beginning teacher salaries in 2003-04 (the latest year for which data are available) was $30,496, and that 70 percent of all NEA ESP members today earn less than $25,000.

The salary gap between teaching and other careers starts early. For example, the latest employer survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers documented an alarming gap between average starting pay for teaching and that for professions such as accounting ($44,564) and software design/development ($53,729).

And there's evidence the wage gap is getting worse. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a non-partisan think tank, identified 16 professional and managerial occupations comparable to K-12 teaching-from accountant to personnel specialist. Then they compared average pay for these professions with that of teachers. Their finding? The wage gap between teaching and comparable jobs has grown by a whopping 14.8 percent since 1993.

Talk to ESPs and to teachers like Petit, and you'll learn firsthand how members working long hours to help public school children are so poorly compensated that they struggle to provide what their own families deserve.

"Educators should be adequately compensated-so they don't have to worry about paying bills while teaching other people's kids," says Washington State Teacher of the Year Tamara Steen, a middle school English and art teacher in the predominantly Latino agricultural community of Mabton. "Some young teachers are really struggling-their children even cfualify for a free and reduced-price lunch-and I know classified employees [ESPs] who clear just $500 to S900 a month after health insurance is taken out of their checks. It shocks me!"

Utah grounds supervisor Roger Pate, who works in the Alpine district, seconds the motion. Every school employee, he says, should have the right to "spend time at home with his or her own kids, without Mom and Dad working for extra income at one of the 'Marts.'"

The fallout from low pay is much more than a matter of teachers and ESPs having to stretch their paychecks a little further. Low pay for public school professionals has serious conseo^iences for public education, for the profession, and, ultimately, for the kids who depend on teachers and ESPs in their classrooms, in the cafeteria, and on the school bus.