Poverty in Education

Minimum wage is a poverty wage.

   Education is critical to a nation's success, goes the politically popular song, but when it comes to paying teachers enough to live on, the popular song goes off key.
   Consider that in many school districts, starting salary for a teacher is often about $18,000 for a ten-month school year. That comes down to some $450 per week, or $12 per hour for a standard work week. And that does not include any additional hours spent preparing lessons or grading student work.
   Granted, the federal minimum wage calls for a bit more than $7 an hour, and many cities mandate $10 an hour, even for unskilled retail clerks. Some now require a $15 an hour minimum.
   Some employers defend the pay level by claiming that this is what the government says we must pay. The fallacy is that employers may not pay less, and in fact many pay more.
   In education, however, the service provided is too important to justify that low level of pay. And anything less than $20,090 yearly leaves a family of three in poverty, according to government guidelines for the nation as a whole. In more prosperous states, moreover, the guideline would be much higher. Nonetheless, many of these same states pay beginning teachers less than the poverty guideline level.
   Now consider housing costs relative to income. A guideline used by real estate agents is that one week's pay should equal one month's rent or mortgage payment. In Bucks County, PA, a one-bedroom apartment can easily run to $1,000 or more in monthly rent. But if a teacher starting a new job, with a college degree and teaching certificate, draws a salary of roughly $450 weekly -- before taxes -- that highly educated and skilled person cannot afford housing.
   If that worker is at all rational, he or she will opt for a job in industry or in a business office, rather than in the preferred field of education.
   All this despite the acknowledged need for high-quality education and highly skilled professional educators to provide it. Some may still go into the field because of their dedication. But there comes a time when the need for food, clothing and shelter outweighs devotion to a particular profession.