Teacher Pay Sucks! And, Here's the Proof

I'll likely get heat — both from my colleagues at SimpleK12 and from our readers — but I feel like that guy in the classic movie Network:

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Teachers in the US simply aren't paid like their college graduate counterparts… we've known this for decades, and the latest confirming evidence comes from a report from the Economic Policy Institute.

Here's what, in part, the report says:

The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought… the perceived financial hardships in teaching are real.

The report finds:

• In 2018, weekly pay was 21 percent lower for teachers than their nonteaching peers.  The difference was only 6 percent in 1996.
• 60 percent (SIXTY PERCENT!) of teachers in the 2015-2016 school year took on additional paid work.

In another report, a survey found that 94 percent of teachers spend their own money on school supplies!

Imagine that!  Hard to believe isn't it?

The very people who we entrust to nurture and help our children through their lives to become productive and happy citizens are being treated like garbage! Okay, go to the report and read more about the working conditions and lack of professional development opportunities.

This is truly a crisis!

QUESTION:  What are YOU going to do about it?

Leave the profession?

Protest?  See this story about teacher strikes.

How can we help you?

We'll start, by stating the obvious:  We've built SimpleK12 by offering free teacher professional development courses and you can get yours here.

We want to help!