Enough with the teacher bashing. It’s not helping students or anyone else
“Look at you. You’re so tan! Sometimes I wish I were a teacher so I could get summers off, too,” a friend says to me at an Independence Day barbecue. I decide not to mention that the only reason I have a tan is because I sit outside on my patio while writing – a second job I need during the summers in order to pay our ever-increasing bills.
My husband, also a teacher, has been on a pay freeze for three years, not even receiving the cost-of-living increase most jobs that require a bachelor’s degree offer. So, we both take on extra work during the summer on top of the planning and preparation we have for the upcoming school year.
My husband and I are not alone. About 62% of teachers have another job outside of teaching in order to make ends meet. Because of this stress, almost half of public school teachers leave the profession within the first five years of their career in order to take other jobs that pay a living wage, or at least pay closer to what their college-educated peers are earning.
It’s a popular trope in this day and age to bash teachers. The public’s hard-earned money goes to taxes that pay teacher salaries, and when teachers work only 10 months out of the year, why should they get paid more?
