Beyond $50,000: A fuller look at teacher pay

Tennessee’s push to raise starting teacher pay to $50,000 by the 2026-27 school year is receiving a lot of attention. But it’s only one small piece of the compensation puzzle, and pay is one part of the problem schools nationwide face in recruiting people to education.

Enrollment in teacher education programs has fallen in recent years, along with opinions of whether teaching is a good career choice. In a 2022 survey by NORC at the University of Chicago, only 18% of American adults said they were likely to encourage a young person to become a K-12 teacher. Low pay is one of the main reasons, along with a perceived lack of school resources and stressful work environment.

In the most recent school years, local districts have been filling positions equal to about 10% of their teachers. That’s more than 80 for Blount County Schools, 40-50 for Maryville City Schools and 17-20 for Alcoa City Schools.

Even when they are able to fill positions they have seen a dip in applications.

U.S. comparison

A National Education Association report released in April, based on 2022-23 data, said 77% of U.S. school districts were starting teacher pay at less than $50,000.

The national average for beginning teacher salaries was $44,530, and NEA said that when adjusted for inflation that’s $4,273 less than the 2008-2009 school year.

Tennessee, with an average starting pay of $42,164 in that school year, ranked 31 in NEA’s report.

NEA ranked Tennessee 44th in the nation on average teacher pay, at $55,369.

In the coming school year, ACS is expected to start teacher pay at $52,250, MCS at $50,750 and BCS is aiming for $50,000.

At the high end, NEA’s report said teacher pay topped more than $100,000 in 16.6% of school districts across the nation in the year it studied. Top pay for teachers in 14% of districts was less than $60,000, despite advanced degrees and years of experience.

Locally, the salary schedules for the school year that just ended show Alcoa with the highest top pay rate for certified employees at $83,835 for a teacher with a doctorate and 25 years of experience.

In Maryville City Schools, the salary schedule topped out at $83,391 for an educator with a doctorate. The BCS salary schedule maxed out at $79,229 for an educator with a doctorate and 25 years of experience.

Recruiting

The salary schedules for the three local public school districts don’t differentiate based on the subject taught, although some positions are harder to fill.

Across the United States, at least a third of public schools reported difficulty filling teaching positions for physical sciences, special education and foreign languages in 2020-21, according to the “Report on the Condition of Education,” released this week by the National Center for Education Statistics. That mirrors the experience of local schools.

Alcoa is seeing fewer applications for kindergarten through fifth grade positions too, according to Selena Coker, the district’s human resources director. “We’re hoping that we can convince more people to get into school to be teachers,” she said.

In situations where MCS used to see 15 applications for a math teaching job, now it might receive four. “We’re not used to that,” Director Mike Winstead said, adding that some school districts have said they don’t receive any applications for some positions.

BCS has been hiring some college students before they graduate and pairing them with mentor teachers.

Different levels

Salary data is difficult to compare among districts because of different reporting methods. For example, at least one district includes school nurses in its data with employees who are certified to teach. Also, educators who retire and then return to the district may start at the bottom of the pay scale, regardless of their degree.

A Maryville City Schools chart provided to The Daily Times as part of a records request showed fewer than five positions at the start of the salary scale, a bachelor’s degree and no experience. Most start with at least a master’s degree in Maryville.

Only about 60 MCS educators are listed in the bachelor’s degree columns, with more than 170 each with a master’s or educational specialist degree, and 22 with a doctorate.

Blount County’s list had 220 with bachelor’s degrees, just over 400 with a master’s, 246 with an Ed.S., and 18 with a doctorate.

Alcoa’s list of educator degrees showed about 26 with a bachelor’s, 49 with a master’s, 89 with an Ed.S., and 16 with a doctorate.

Pay penalty

“On average, teachers made 26.4% less than other similarly educated professionals in 2022 — the lowest level since 1960,” economist Sylvia Allegretto wrote in an overview of a September 2023 Economic Policy Institute report.

In Tennessee researchers calculated that “pay penalty” as 25.3%.

“Although teachers tend to receive better benefits packages than other professionals do, this advantage is not large enough to offset the growing wage penalty for teachers,” Allegretto wrote.

Local school districts offer health plans with low cost to employees. MCS, which has a self-funded plan, this past school year provided single coverage to employees with them paying only $240 a year for the premium. “I think that’s a great way that we attract and retain,” Winstead said.

Alcoa offers its employee options that start at $10 a month for employee-only coverage. Another plan option has the district also making contributions to a health savings account each month, starting at $100 for the employee alone.

The lowest cost BCS health plan had employees paying $66 a month for sole coverage.

The challenge

Adminstrators also know that pay and benefits aren’t the only factors in recruiting people to education.

“It’s always been a challenging job ... I don’t think it’s ever been more challenging,” Winstead said.

Among the factors are more students with severe behavior issues and the numbers of laws focused on what happens in the classroom. “They’ve taken a beating in a way, publicly,” Winstead said. “To me, that just says we don’t trust you ... I think that takes a toll too.”

Speaking of the pay level for teachers, he said, “You’d like to be at a point where you don’t have to say you’ve got to have a calling to go into teaching, otherwise you wouldn’t.”

“There’s nothing out there that makes a bigger difference than our quality of our teachers for the future,” Winstead said.