Starting Salary Still Less Than Attractive
When a savvy shopper buys something in which quality matters, they’ll spring for the best they can afford. Typically, one does get what one pays for.
This logic also applies to education.
Most people agree that the education of our children - our future - is a top priority. We expect excellent teachers who produce brilliant students. Teaching is a respectable profession. Why, then, do teacher starting salaries not reflect this value?
The single most important factor in a child’s education is the quality of his or her teachers. Teachers, good or bad, make a tremendous impact on a child.
Yet, according to a recent survey by the American Federation of Teachers, Spokane, Tacoma and Seattle rank near the bottom of the nation’s 100 largest cities in what we pay beginning teachers.
In District 81, the annual salary for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience is about $26,500. A teacher with a master’s degree, 90 credit hours of continuing education and 16 years of experience makes about twice that.
Given Spokane’s relatively low median income those figures might not sound so bad. Indeed, Spokane’s public schools are flooded with applicants for teaching jobs.
Consider, though, that 22 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first three years. In urban schools, that rate is nearly 50 percent.
Teaching, traditionally, is not a profession for attaining great wealth. Most of the real rewards are not monetary. Remaining dedicated to the task of making a difference in the lives of children is indeed a noble calling.
The popular nonsense that teachers work only six hours a day for only nine months of the year is laughable. A teacher’s day begins before the children arrive and continues well past the dismissal bell. There are assignments to plan, papers to correct and after-school activities to lead or attend. Continuing education is an ongoing requirement for maintaining certification as well as for advancing up the salary table.
It’s not surprising that in the face of high stress, low pay and a sizable student loan to repay, a disenchanted teacher might switch to a job in, say, computer science, and immediately receive a $10,000 pay increase.
The task of recruiting and retaining quality teachers is a critical concern. In the October issue of Newsweek it was reported that half of all current teachers will retire by 2010. If that holds true proportionately in Washington, the state will need about 40,000 new teachers.
What can be done to entice bright, dedicated young people into teaching?
Passage of Initiative 732 will mean annual cost-of-living pay raises for teachers. Initiative 728, also approved, will channel funding for more learning programs, increased teacher training and reduced class sizes. Unfortunately, the high cost of implementing I-732, which will give every teacher a modest annual raise, may leave the Legislature with no funds to concentrate on raising the relatively low salary for a starting teacher.
If people hope to lure the bright and gifted into the teaching profession, it’s only practical to pay new teachers a salary that reflects their worth.