Giving Compass' Take:

• Financial burdens are a large reason many individuals do not pursue teaching as a profession. This will only serve to harm students' success if more individuals do not want to become teachers. 

• What are the challenges for districts to create financial incentives for teachers and higher base pay? 

• Read about how teacher salaries have been declining for years. 

Pressured out of the middle class — is that what a master’s degree and 16 years of experience get you as a teacher in America?

I wasn’t surprised to read about educators struggling financially, and not just because it was one of the biggest sticking points in recent teacher-contract negotiations in New York City and Anchorage, Alaska, and because it’s an ongoing point of contention in Los Angeles as well as Illinois and Wisconsin.

I was one of a dozen classroom teachers who helped to develop and analyze Educators for Excellence’s Voices from the Classroom, a national survey of over 1,000 teachers, which found that economic concerns are top of mind for today’s teachers. In their responses to survey questions, teachers expressed anxiety not only about salaries, but also about how the distribution of school resources creates deep inequities in our education system.

It doesn’t have to be this way. While none of us picked this career for the money, increasing teacher pay would be one of the most straightforward ways to improve teacher recruitment and retention — not to mention student achievement. And educators know it’s not just what you pay teachers, it’s also how you pay teachers.

We must fund schools, and teacher salaries, so we can meet our students’ needs. Too often, stagnant salaries force teachers to shift their focus from supporting their students to finding the means to support their own families.

One in five educators across the country is working a second or third job, according to federal data.

Read the full article about teachers' salaries by Lauren Lieberman at The Hechinger Report