Teachers struggle financially as state task force studies pay

Chad Young doesn’t teach for the money.

He’s the sole breadwinner of his family of four, which includes his wife, Akiko, and two young children. He brings home a little over $2,000 a month after taxes — $1,300 of which goes to the mortgage, $250 to student loans and $550 to health care. If Akiko Young, a certificated teacher, were to work, her salary would be wiped out by childcare expenses.

So, Young, with four years under his belt as a teacher, coaches four sports and his family grows vegetables and chickens in the yard. He bikes to work for exercise and more savings.

He’s not complaining; he finds it exhilarating to work with the sixth-graders at Gaiser Middle School in Vancouver, where about half the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

But, he said, “If my mortgage payment continues to creep up, as it has, I may need to find another career.”

With stories such as Young’s as the background, Washington state has set to work on how to better pay teachers, and, more importantly, how to retain them.

A Basic Education Funding Task Force created by lawmakers last fall is taking a closer look at school worker pay, which typically makes up about 85 percent of school district budgets.

The Washington Education Association argues for an across-the-board 18 percent pay raise over the next five to six years for all its union members. But a blanket raise won’t solve deeper problems.

“I would make the case that we ought to be trying some different things,” said University of Washington Professor Dan Goldhaber, who specializes in labor economics as applied to teachers. “The current structure doesn’t look like it’s working very well.”

Goldhaber doesn’t say teachers should earn less, but argues they shouldn’t be rewarded simply for earning a master’s degree.

Under the current pay model, Washington teachers can get online master’s degrees unrelated to their discipline and receive an annual $6,500 bump in pay.

Goldhaber says they instead should be rewarded for a tough assignment — teaching in a low-income school or tackling math, science or special education — to lure more college graduates into teaching.

Gaiser teacher Young said if math instructors were better paid, he would consider getting a math endorsement: “I might justify taking that hit with the long-term benefit of more cash.”

Most teachers now are paid based on experience and degrees earned. That means a third-grade teacher at a posh school earns the same amount as her counterpart who teaches special education at a poorer school, a much more challenging job. Wages range from $34,426 for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree to about $70,000 for a teacher with a master’s and 16 or more years’ experience.

Amy Hightower, who researched January’s “Quality Counts” report for the national magazine Education Week, said school disparity ensues.

Given Washington’s pay model, she said, many well-trained teachers who started at low-income schools with large class sizes later shift to more affluent schools with less-crowded classrooms.

“The salary schedule in Washington doesn’t allow it to be addressed,” Hightower said.

The WEA favors teachers applying for a National Board Certification, a rigorous, yearlong process that strengthens skills.

Board-certified teachers get a $5,000 pay raise and another $5,000 if they work in a low-income school.

Such incentives are necessary, Goldhaber said, given that state and federal governments are demanding more of teachers. He also believes first-year teachers should be better paid, as fewer top college graduates pursue a teaching career.

In the 1970s, schools could pay poorly, as women and minorities had few other job options. No longer: Research shows college students today are less likely than ever to go into teaching.

WEA President Mary Lindquist said the union has long discussed better pay for teachers who live in costly areas of the state.

But teachers frown at premium pay for duty in low-income schools or in tougher assignments, Lindquist said. “Teachers are not supportive of one (subject) earning more than another, she added. “They tend to see their work as mutually dependent.”

State schools chief Terry Bergeson proposes a pay model that would “reward excellence.” A new pay scale would recognize “single-purpose issues” but also would keep the master’s degree incentive.

Some type of reform is needed, Gaiser’s Young said.

“Out of college, I was a television reporter, but I wanted to help people,” Young said. “Sometimes to help people, you have to sacrifice, but that doesn’t make it’s easy.”