Do I Have To Pay First In Order For Me To Register For My Classes?

Pictured: Teachers and supporters concord signs and march during a protest over the Brooklyn Span in New York, U.South., on Mon, Sept. 21, 2020. Credit: Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg/Getty Images

In 2018, instructor protests swept the country with educators speaking out against widespread public school budget cuts and wage stagnation. Those protests led to strikes, including the Los Angeles teachers' strike in One thousand Park on January 22, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. There, thousands of teachers — and supportive parents and students — celebrated a seeming victory when the United Teachers Los Angeles wedlock and the Los Angeles Unified School District struck a deal that included capping form sizes, providing funding for school nurses and increasing educator pay.

While this victory was significant, it likewise serves as a testament to the ongoing issues plaguing the United States' instruction arrangement. If waves of protestors aren't plenty to convince y'all of the issues surrounding teacher pay (and other concerns raised by educators), then maybe these shocking numbers will. Salary.com listed $44,926 as the average starting salary for public educators on August 27, 2021. On the other end of the pay calibration, top-paid U.Southward. elementary school teachers make $71,000 annually, while height-paid loftier school teachers make between $71,000 – $81,000 a year on average. Meanwhile, in Grand duchy of luxembourg, the highest average bacon for elementary school teachers is 114,000 euros (or $133,316.sixteen) annually.

Looking at things on a state-by-state basis, New York teachers come out on top, making a median salary of $85,258 (via USA Today) — though New York also requires teachers to earn a master's degree inside their starting time 5 years of beingness on the chore, a caveat that can create more barriers for fledgling educators. Other states that compare to New York'south payscale include California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Alaska, but so many others state on the contrary end of the spectrum, including Oklahoma, where "half of all teachers are [made] less than $33,630 a year" in 2019.

Teachers Spend Their Own Money on Supplies and Agree Second Jobs — but This Shouldn't Exist the Norm

EdTech Magazine asked, "If you were offered a job that paid an boilerplate annual salary of $49,000 and required you to work 12- to 16-hour days, would you take it?" Sounds rough, doesn't it? Well, sadly, that'south the norm for the bulk of teachers in the U.Due south. Teachers spent an boilerplate of $745 of their own money on classroom supplies during the 2019/2020 school yr. Teachers also paid approximately $252 out of pocket on altitude learning materials during the spring of 2020.

Pictured: Chris Frank, a teacher at Yung Wing School P.Due south. 124, prepares his classroom for the school yr on September 8, 2020, in New York Urban center. Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

To make matters more frustrating, the National Education Association (NEA) establish that roughly xvi% of teachers held second jobs over the summer, while twenty% relied on secondary income yr-round in 2019. If at-school secondary jobs are counted — coaching sports, teaching extra courses, helping with extracurriculars — that figure jumps to 59%. The lesser line? Public schools should be funded adequately; teachers should be compensated fairly for all they do. Despite all of this, Education Week legislators scaled back or outright nixed plans to raise instructor pay when the initially pandemic hit.

What It's Similar to Exist a Teacher During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educators were abruptly thrust into a public health crisis in March 2020. Despite teachers' best efforts, most schools, particularly public schools, didn't have roadmaps to bargain with all-virtual learning scenarios. In fact, enough of universities and otherwise privately funded schools with seemingly huge endowments weren't well-equipped either. Between technological roadblocks and the fact that many students don't have admission to computers, tablets or the internet at habitation, the novel coronavirus pandemic certainly spotlighted discrepancies and shortcomings in the American teaching system.

Pictured: Gladys Alvarez, a 5th form teacher at Manchester Ave. Elementary Schoolhouse in S Los Angeles, California, talks to her students over Zoom. Credit: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

In August 2020, the White House formally declared teachers essential workers, noting that they are "critical infrastructure workers" — or, in other words, critical to the infrastructure of reopening the state and bolstering the economy. Yet, different other essential workers, teachers do not always have the training and groundwork to mitigate all of these public health concerns. Funding for PPE and other essential, virus-combating supplies is not e'er available or peculiarly arable. Despite this, educators must potentially risk their health, their families, and their lives to teach their students.

It'south indisputable that teachers are essential members of our communities, but they are as well people who, just like all of us, are navigating the horrors of this pandemic. Ofttimes, they go beyond the call of their job descriptions — even exterior of the classroom. "My students accept lost family members, and there'south a lot of trauma nosotros are not addressing," Jessyca Mathews, an English teacher at Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint, Michigan, told Time. "When COVID striking, I had kids who were texting me in the middle of the nighttime, and I answered them every single time."

Mathews is not alone in her dedication to her students. "My colleagues and I take been stressed since spring break considering nosotros care, and we're worried and we know the ins and outs of our jobs," Kara Stoltenberg, a linguistic communication arts teacher at Norman Loftier School in Norman, Oklahoma, told Fourth dimension. "And we know that what the CDC is recommending for in-person learning just isn't really feasible, considering the lack of funding that we've had for a decade." In states that were more severely impacted by the COVID-xix pandemic, teachers drafted wills and obituaries ahead of the school yr.

This is top dystopian-level disturbing, simply, what's perchance most agonizing of all is that none of these issues — from instructor pay to how nosotros value teachers' lives and health — are new. Instead, the pandemic has revealed every crack and fault line in the U.South. education system. It falls on the states to reflect on the lessons we've learned amongst the COVID-nineteen and strive to improve American education for teachers and students.