WASHINGTON \u2014 The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arthur \u2014 the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year \u2014 testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers\u2019 salaries,\u201d said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still pretty much the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, introduced a bill<\/a> in March 2023 that would set an annual base salary<\/a> of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact \u2026 nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,\u201d Sanders said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCompared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing \u201cthe extremely low pay teachers receive\u201d as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the National Center for Education Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Maryland, the Blueprint for Maryland\u2019s Future<\/a> raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland\u2019s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, \u201caddresses all aspects of children\u2019s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirwan said the \u201cBlueprint\u2019s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats\u2019 solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a \u201claudable goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he noted that \u201cthe federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMore mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,\u201d the Louisiana Republican said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents\u2019 rights group, argued that \u201cschools don\u2019t have a resource issue\u201d but rather an \u201callocation issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a saying: \u2018Don\u2019t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I\u2019ll tell you what they are.\u2019 Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don\u2019t directly benefit students,\u201d said Neily.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaryland sets $60,000 minimum<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
An \u201callocation issue\u201d <\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n