AACTE Endorses Legislation to Boost Teacher Salaries: Urges Members to Act
Members of the House of Representatives and Senate recently introduced legislation that would help ensure that all public school teachers earn a livable and competitive wage that is at least $60,000 a year and increases over the course of their career. ACCTE strongly supports this legislation and encourages you to contact your members of Congress to encourage them to support it as well.
Education is key to ensuring that our nation has access to a well-trained, highly qualified workforce to meet the needs of tomorrow’s economy. However, our nation faces a shortage of teachers and other educators to help meet these needs. Today, 44% of public school teachers quit the profession within 5 years and teacher pay has been stagnant for decades. Unacceptably, after adjusting for inflation, the average weekly wage of a public school teacher has gone up by only $29 over the past 30 years, forcing many public school teachers to work two or three jobs during the school year to make ends meet.
This is simply unacceptable.
To help remedy this, Rep. Federica Wilson (FL-24) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) recently introduced legislation (H.R.882/S.766) to address this challenge and attract more individuals to the profession. Among other things, the legislation would increase federal investments in public schools and in supporting the teaching profession and require States to establish a “minimum salary for teachers” that must be at least $60,000 and to pay teachers a livable and competitive annual salary that is at least and commensurate with similarly college-educated and experienced professionals and increases throughout a teacher’s career.
Urge your members of Congress to support this critical legislation today using the AACTE Action Alert.
Tags: advocacy
