I'm not 100% sure I support this yet...
Could the U.S. Soon See a Federal Minimum Salary for Teachers? - EdSurge News
The American Teacher Act, introduced Dec. 14 in Congress, would establish a minimum salary of $60,000 for all public school teachers working in the U.S.
www.edsurge.com
Rep. Frederica Wilson has long felt that American teachers are undervalued, an opinion that developed during her time as a classroom teacher, a principal, a school board member and, eventually, as a member of Congress. And she believes the wages teachers are paid do not reflect the importance of their role in society.
But Wilson, a Democrat from Florida, hopes to turn that around—starting today—with the introduction of the American Teacher Act, a bill that would establish a federal minimum salary of $60,000 for all public school teachers.
“This is an issue that’s always been present,” she tells EdSurge in a written response, “but we are at a crossroads, and we can choose to take this issue head-on or lose America’s teachers and have the education of our students severely impacted.”
— Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)
The absence of action right now, Wilson writes, would “cause irreparable harm” and amount to “gambling” with the education of future generations.
The bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, another former educator, and seven other members of the House. It comes at what Wilson and other proponents say is a moment that requires decisive action to strengthen the beleaguered teaching profession.
“This is an opportunity to show our appreciation for educators and make up for the years we’ve undervalued this incredibly essential career,” Wilson says, adding that teachers were among the “heroes” of the pandemic. “Educators were the ones that stood ready to adapt and support our children mentally and emotionally through one of the most challenging periods in history.”
“The climate couldn’t be more ripe,” adds Nínive Calegari, co-founder and CEO of The Teacher Salary Project, a nonpartisan organization whose staff helped co-author the legislation.
Many teachers enter the field to answer a “calling,” in spite of its low-paying reputation. But in recent years, as teachers have been increasingly vilified by factions of the public, as the pandemic created a new cocktail of stressors and demands related to teaching and learning, as students have struggled in ways teachers are ill-equipped to address, and as the cost of goods and services has risen while salaries stagnated, more and more teachers have chosen to walk away. While teachers are leaving the profession for a range of reasons, many say they can no longer justify the demands of the work at their current pay.
A starting salary of $60,000 is hardly a rocketship into a new social class, but it would make a noticeable impact on the profession, which had a national average starting salary of $41,770 in the 2020-21 school year, according to the National Education Association, a teachers union that has come out in support of the American Teacher Act.
Earlier this year, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, released a report showing that the teacher wage gap reached an all-time high in 2021. Teachers in the U.S. earn, on average, about 77 cents on the dollar compared to their peers in similar professions.
As a result, the United States is experiencing what some are calling a teacher shortage and others, including Wilson, consider a “mass exodus.” (Some journalists and researchers have questioned the prevailing teacher-turnover narrative.)
Nicholas Ferroni, a public school educator, activist and social media influencer, says the fact that teachers are leaving the careers that, in many cases, they’d envisioned for themselves since childhood should “scare everyone.” Even he recently updated his resume, the first time in 10 years.
“It’s become the perfect storm of teachers at a breaking point,” says Ferroni, who teaches high school history and cultural studies in New Jersey. “Nobody is going into the profession. People are leaving the profession, and society is realizing teachers can transition to other jobs.”
