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Addressing the teacher shortage

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Illinois

Illinois last set a minimum salary for school teachers in 1980.

In the 38 years since, those salary levels have never been adjusted.

That could change if Gov. Bruce Rauner signs legislation approved by lawmakers in May that would set a minimum salary for teachers at $40,000 a year.

For proponents, the legislation is long overdue and could help attract more people into the teaching profession at a time when there is a shortage of teachers.

Nobody expects Rauner to sign the bill, however.

* Lee V. Gaines…

Chris Roegge said the legislative fixes are a good solution for the short-term, but they don’t address long-term needs. Roegge serves as the director of the University of Illinois’s Council on Teacher Education, and he’s seen a decline in the number of students enrolling in teacher preparation programs. A report from the non-profit Learning Policy Institute cites a 35 percent decrease nation-wide in teacher education enrollments between 2009 and 2014. Roegge attributes that in part to the narrative around the field.

“There’s been this swirl of negative press going back for more than five years around teaching, the conditions of teaching, the status of the job, the difficulty of the job – all of these things,” he said. “I think we’re starting to reap what’s been sown by that.”

Roegge points to the report from the Learning Policy Institute that identifies what attracts people to the field and what improves retention once they’re there. He said the four key ingredients are: compensation, preparation, induction and mentoring, and teaching conditions.

In many cases, improving these four areas requires more resources – whether that’s more money for teacher salaries and classroom materials or grants and scholarships for college students interested in the field.

Obviously, we need to entice more students into the pipeline.

* Some of the negative press is stuff like this…

They work as private tutors and soccer coaches, as waiters, grocery clerks and ride-share drivers.

Across the country, 18 percent of teachers earn income outside the classroom, according to a National Center for Education Statistics report released Wednesday. […]

According to a report by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher union, the average teacher salary fell by 3 percent between 2006 and 2016 after inflation was taken into account. Teachers in the United States earn on average just 60 percent of what other professionals with similar education levels make, according to a 2017 education report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States had the lowest relative teacher salaries among the 28 member nations that participated in the report.

Spend a fortune on tuition and wind up driving an Uber just to make ends meet.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:35 am

Comments

Seems appropos:
You oughta know now all your education
Won’t help you no-how, you’re gonna . . .
Wind up workin’ in a gas station…
FZ

Comment by My New Handle Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:41 am
The saving grace used to be the pensions. Now try recruiting a future teacher whos full of debt and has to supplement the teir 1 educators pensions and work 10 to 15 years more than them!

Comment by Person 8 Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:49 am
I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend’s quote in the Blog today. Dr. Roegge hits the nail on the head.
“… we’re starting to reap what’s been sown …”
At a time when education of our youth is SO important, we are going to be staffing our schools with much less than the “brightest and the best.” We did this to ourselves.

Comment by Diogenes in DuPage Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:51 am
Zero sympathy for these folks. As long as teaching remains one of the few jobs our society says you can keep despite being garbage at it (thx unions) the pay should remain right where it’s at. They get summers off, go work part time like all the kids do.

Comment by BlackHawk Boone Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:58 am
Blackhawk, I wonder why there is a shortage? Such a good deal according to you. Either it or you makes no sense.

Comment by wondering Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:02 am
My oldest niece has a Masters and 15 years teaching experience. Her last position was at a private, highly respected Charter school in St. Louis. And she abruptly quit the profession vowing never to go into a classroom again.

So what is she doing now? She found a job through an agency teaching English ( via skype ) to children of rich Chinese families and is making more money now than she was earning as a teacher.

Comment by illini Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:03 am
Unfortunately starting salaries are only one part of the problem. Something also needs to be done to deal with the ongoing loss of existing teachers who change professions — and putting new teachers in Tier 3 pension plans is probably not going to help that.

Comment by Out Here In The Middle Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:16 am
It’s incredulous that prison guards, who are also Public Sector Union members, make more than teachers.

@Blackhawk: why should a baby sitter of pot smokers get paid so much…plus Free Pensions paid for by tax payers!

Comment by Mike Cirrincione Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:29 am
We keep making it harder to teach, evaluation changes, pension changes, no true tenure, low starting salary and few raises over a career has forced new teachers to other professions. Things need to change if we are going to help the profession.

Comment by Saluki Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:34 am
Hard to weigh in too hard on this one, as there are regional problems in this state on teacher’s salaries. In the area I live, teacher’s are among the highest paid persons in the districts they live in, vastly higher than the average.

I do realize that away from the metro area this isn’t the case. From the college grads I encounter, it’s hard to get a teaching job in the burbs.

Comment by A guy Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:35 am
BlackHawk Boone:

Go teach. Then come back with your nonsense rant about what a cushy job it is.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:43 am
Why we do not value teachers more than we do is beyond me. Our children spend more time with teachers for 9 months than they do with us. And we not only expect them to teach, but be social workers and about 10 other things as well. I don’t think mandating a minimum salary of $40,000 is an outrageous ask.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 10:44 am
Demoralized, I agree but am of two minds on the subject.

First off, I want definitely teachers paid better than restaurant workers despite the three month vacation (spare me the lesson plan BS). OTOH, It means even higher crushing property taxes. We MUST find another way to fund schools.

On that note, I see the toilet ad saturating TV with no response from Pritzker. As a rich guy he has no idea how this burns working people. Rauner is going to win. I think I may move to Alabama and escape the snow AND Rauner’s snow jobs.

Comment by Streamwood Retiree Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 11:10 am
When hiring, i always made sure to interview any former teacher who applied. After putting up w 35 kids, 100 parents, administration, overtime, etc., nothing i could throw at them would faze them.

Comment by Langhorne Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 11:12 am
==spare me the lesson plan BS==

Says the non-teacher. When my best friend got his first teaching job right out of college he spent most of the summer preparing lesson plans and he wasn’t even on the payroll yet.

This notion that teachers only work during the school day is nonsense.

==We MUST find another way to fund schools.==

You’re going to pay for it either way, either in the form of income taxes or property taxes.

Comment by Demoralized Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 11:29 am
Well, Blackhawk Boone, I will never be able to take you seriously about anything ever again.

Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 11:30 am
Supporters of the tier II pension law deserve some of the blame for the teacher shortage in Illinois. Young people considering a profession might decide they don’t want to have to work until age 67 to be able to retire and get an inadequate AAI, while their colleagues hired before 2011 can still retire at 55 with a 3% AAI.

Comment by anon2 Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 11:46 am
I’m not opposed to the $40k minimum, but I don’t see it as a game changer. There are several reasons for the shortage, the lower pensions as this generation subsidizes the previous doesn’t help. Part may be cyclical, for the past 10 years teaching jobs have been few and far between in many districts, with positions being cut not added. People therefore were advised not to go into teaching which has now led to a shortage.

Another huge issue, not to sound like a crotchety crank, is the lack of support from parents and respect from kids. These problems have gotten much worse, not just over the generations but specifically in the past 10 or 15 years or so. And before you dismiss that, talk to some teachers and administrators. That has a lot more influence over teacher morale and retention than a few thousand bucks in starting pay ever will.

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 12:01 pm
@Anon 12:01- I think your analysis is very good. It is more than one thing that has contributed to the shortage. Much of the issue is the way educators are treated.

$40,000 minimum is swell, but where will the funds come for those districts, mainly outside of the metro Chicago area, that do not habe the funds. Unfunded mandate.

Comment by JS Mill Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 12:20 pm
Illinois teachers don’t participate in or receive social security. It think in addition to a minimum wage, we ought to get our teachers into the social security system. We are one of only 15 states with this “feature.” https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/20/602846417/why-more-than-a-million-teachers-cant-use-social-security

Comment by NoGifts Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 12:22 pm
===18 percent of teachers earn income outside the classroom===
I’m surprised it is that low.

Comment by Robert the Bruce Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 12:31 pm
https://socialsecurityintelligence.com/illinois-teachers-and-social-security/ Teachers who have a lot of hours of other work paying into social security get reduced social security benefits.

Comment by NoGifts Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 12:38 pm
Don’t forget the massive college loan debt that a lot of teachers have. It is a real concern to younger college graduates.

Comment by LevivotedforJudy Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 1:41 pm
I have been in public education and the private sector. Tier 1 was a great deal. I always said I fear when tier 2 kicks in. When the current folks realize they are paying for everyone else. Watch out. I didn’t realize how good the pension was until I was 30 or so. Why? because nobody thinks of that at that age. Like every profession I saw really good, really bad, and all in between. There is a horrible day of reckoning coming for many areas. Wealthy suburban Chicago will always be attractive. South of I 80.. Not so much.

Comment by Benfolds5 Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 1:42 pm
Someone said they didn’t understand why teachers aren’t more resected since they spend so much time with your children and have ability to inspire them?

When your darlings are in school, which specific teacher they get for each grade is more important than the air you breathe. Theses teachers are super humans at that time for some parents.

Fast forward to when their kids have graduated college. Suddenly those same teachers are lazy bums who are milking their personal pocketbooks.

See how it goes?

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 1:57 pm
Greetings from Iowa. This summer my three month vacation is being spent working in a research program at an Iowa university. Not only do they offer great scholarships to our high school seniors, they also provide federally funded teacher research opportunities to Illinois teachers. I’m working in a research lab and taking professional development training. Most teachers I know do this during their “vacation”. Keeps my teaching fresh and keeps me in touch with how it feels to be a student. Looking forward to being back in the classroom after a two week break at the end of my research program.

Comment by LeadingInDecatur Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 3:16 pm
Be careful of baiting on someone else’s loaded and false paradigm. Tier II participants are not “paying for” Tier I pensions merely because the Tier II members receive less benefits. That is a divide and conquer mischaracterization which diverts the responsibility and the blame away from the State for offering a paltry pension to new hires.

Comment by anon Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 4:37 pm
==the pay should remain right where it’s at. They get summers off, go work part time like all the kids do.==

Something tells me BB will be changing his tune when raising school-age kids or preparing to sell his home. BTW - Want to guess what American schools cost (per semester) in East Asia?

Comment by Jocko Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 4:55 pm
“We ought to get our teachers in the Social Security system.”

That will cost school districts more than the current system; the schools would have to match 7.65% of the employee’s salary for every single employee. That would be far more than the schools pay for the teacher pension system.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 4:57 pm
==That would be far more than the schools pay for the teacher pension system.==

School systems that offer both a pension and social security already have the employer portion factored in to compensation, meaning their salaries are already 7.65% lower than they would be. Also, the teachers would now have to pay an extra 7.65% out of their own checks. They might have to work longer too as most of these states also have lower service multipliers.

Be careful what you wish for.

Comment by City Zen Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 5:43 pm
My fifth-grade teacher in Gibson City spent two summers as a gas station clerk at Casey’s. I know of a paraprofessional who works as a crossing guard as well in addition to the summer night manager at a local tavern. My high school guidance counselor worked as a teller at my bank for several years. Even my own mother, a licensed CPA, worked as a tax preparer on the side before eventually leaving public education to work in the tax field.

Comment by Ross Brown Monday, Jun 25, 18 @ 9:24 pm
-City Zen look at the teacher salary charts and you’ll find that the salaries aren’t higher in all the states where teachers participate in social security. It would be costly but would also give teachers back the three legged stool of savings, pension and social security which would make teaching more attractive and less risky. Especially since all we hear about is reducing pension benefits. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/04/teacher_pay_2017.html

Comment by NoGifts Tuesday, Jun 26, 18 @ 7:34 am
==look at the teacher salary charts and you’ll find that the salaries aren’t higher in all the states where teachers participate in social security. ==

That’s my point. When an employer has to pay an additional benefit (ie SSI) on top of a pension, the money has to come from somewhere. I would expect wages to be lower where both benefits are offered.

Otherwise, I agree with you. There should be a 401k/SSI option for those who want don’t want to spend a career teaching or make a mid-career move into teaching.

Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jun 26, 18 @ 8:56 am