MDAmerican Governments The topic I will be discussing are the enduring concerns on the working conditions teachers face in the K-12 educational system. Educators play an important role in the educational system that ultimately ends up effecting student’s academic success in the long run. Some concerning working conditions that K-12 teachers face here in the state of California are low salary wages, lack of adequate resources such as classroom materials, overcrowded classrooms, lack of district support, scarce staff and more. When these conditions are taken into account, strong and significant factors predict high turnover rates within teachers and also has a down fall effect on student academic performance.
One of the top issues discussed about teachers working conditions is salary wages. Teacher pay has been an ongoing problem across the country. A handful of states have had teacher walk outs and strikes to proclaim their impatience with low wages. These low salary wages force many teachers to look for second jobs in order to make ends meet. Having a second job can hinder the development of teachers, it can affect how well the teachers develop their lesson plans and how effective they deliver those lesson plans. The lack of resources in classrooms makes it difficult for teachers to meet the needs of students. Most teachers have to spend money out of their own pocket to buy basic classroom supplies, something that is not their responsibility to do. The lack of resources also has a trickle-down effect that hurts those students who need the extra support. Overcrowded classrooms also cause overburden and overload on teachers. Any classroom that has 25 plus students is already a difficult learning environment for students. It becomes more difficult when there are not enough resources for all students in the class. Overcrowded classrooms also make it difficult for teachers to keep up individually with all the students, in particular those who need the extra support. Historically, some of these concerns have been around for many years in particular the demand for a raise in teachers’ salaries. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 1969 to 2017 there has only been a 15% increase in teacher salary in California. Within these years there have been several strikes across California. Los Angeles being the second biggest school district in the U.S. has had an increase of strikes since the early 1950s until now. Between 1960 and 1974 there were more than 1,000 strikes that involved more than 823,00 teachers according to the Time article The History of American Teacher Strikes. The amount of strikes that these teachers undergo only goes to show how serious this issue has been and continues to be. Teachers have been fighting for fair working conditions for years now and till this day there has not been a median between teachers and politicians. Current defining moments for this issue have been the recent strikes that have occurred in Los Angeles and Oakland. Both districts were able to come to some sort of agreement that ended the strikes. These strikes are only reassurances that teachers are still being underserved. In the last election there were several forums where the next state superintendent of public instruction had mention the transparency and necessity of the five-year- old school funding formula that targeted funds towards high-need schools. These candidates that were running for state superintendent of public instruction. With Gavin Newsom as the new Governor, state board of education positions have changed. These new leaders need to allocate for K-12 funding and higher education in order to have significant impact on students. As of now, Senator Kamala Harris is calling for federal government to invest in improving teachers’ salaries nationwide. Harris stated in a tweet that public teachers get paid about $13,000 a year less than other college graduates. She intends to close the pay gap but using federal resources that are available to give America’s teachers a raise.
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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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