ALOAmerican Governments Throughout politics, there is a constant and never-ending issue in the United States education system. One of the most substantial issues surrounding education is the annual salary or teacher pay that educators receive. Teachers are not substantially paid well enough for their job. There is a huge gap and imbalance when it comes to teacher pay across the United States. A clear example of this would be New York being the highest paid average at 78,576 and Oklahoma being the lowest paid at 39,306 a year (Frohlich, 2018). This low pay has forced teachers to have to look for other options. Many face great financial difficulties and have to resort to getting a second job or even a third job. Others move to different states with higher salaries on average or leave their profession to pursue careers elsewhere (Campbell, 2018). Numerous amounts of teachers have also turned to do walkouts and go out to protest for better salaries and conditions. Although many teachers say that they did not initially go into teaching for the money, it is becoming increasingly difficult for teachers to make ends meet with their salaries. The site VOX talked to various teachers who don’t get paid enough and have second jobs. One teacher said “I don’t feel like I’m on the mark,” said Johnson, who has a master’s degree and 24 years of teaching experience, and earns $52,000 a year. “ I always wonder if I am giving 110 percent.” (Campbell, 2018). As can be seen, this issue of teacher pay has steadily increased.
Historically, the United States has not been very favorable when it comes to teacher pay in education. According to a study released by the Economic Policy Institute in, it showed that “teacher pay has fallen relative to other professionals. Many saw the report as evidence that policymakers aren’t doing enough to attract and keep teachers in the classroom.” They also found that by, 2015 teachers nationally earned 11 percent less. These studies clearly demonstrate that generally, all teachers are suffering from an economic defeat. This issue of teacher pay not only expands to teachers, but to all other educators and staff in the education system/ school districts. If teachers aren’t getting paid enough, it's most likely that the majority of other school staff are not receiving adequate pay as well. With so many staff being underpaid in the U.S there is bound to be a failure and burden on students as well. This issue may seem just to affect teachers and their income, it also, in turn, affects thousands of students across the country. Without the proper amount of qualified educators, students have a decreased chance in attaining academic achievement. The growing financial stress for educators not only expands towards them but to other areas as well. The outcome of the latest election had a fair amount of impact on the issue of teacher pay in education. Although the national election did not have anything to do with education, the state, and local elections had a bigger influence. This is mostly due to the fact that the majority of the money set aside for public schools comes from state and local coffers. Some short term impacts or immediate actions can be governors, candidates, and officials addressing the issue of funding in education and teacher pay. These talks and speeches were greatly needed surrounding the topic of funding and teacher pay. The received attention did not bring about any immediate change but did allow for discussion to open up for future decisions. The long term impacts from the election have brought up positive effects for the education system. Education was a greatly discussed topic among governmental candidates among both parties and was the second most mentioned topic in advertisements. This great coverage led to ballot initiatives and proposals for raising money for education funding. An example of this would be Senate Bill 451 in West Virginia which intended to raise pay for teachers and to establish public charter schools for the school year 2019-2020 (Wdtv, 2019). Someone in particular that emphasized on the issue was Senate President Mitch Carmichael. Carmichael stated both before the 2018 midterm elections and during his legislative session that he is committed to providing an average of 5 percent increase pay for teacher and other staff. He also has stated that the most important element in the education process is the classroom teacher. He adds in by saying that teachers must be competitively compensated and that teachers are the key components in effective education (Carmichael, 2019). Despite having candidates who talk about education at the state level, the upcoming 2020 election will most likely not bring up this issue. The topic of education and school funding is crucially important for the United States as a nation. However, with other more important issues beforehand, Education lies at the back of the line when it comes to national elections.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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