Teacher Voices: Starting Pay

Editor's note:

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee heard testimony on HB 2472, the Governor’s proposal to raise starting salaries to $40,000 per year, provide a 1% increase for other school staff, and double funding for the new teacher mentor program. We appreciate the Governor’s willingness to raise the pay issue for educators in a non-budget year. This proposal is a modest first step. We all know that it does not go far enough toward improving pay for all educators, and look forward to pay being addressed in 2017.

That said, second year teacher Caitlin Donnelly provided excellent testimony on behalf of all educators, new and veteran alike. We thought it was worth sharing . . . 

Pay Doesn't Match Requirements 

          Hello, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Caitlin Donnelly, and I’m a second year English teacher at Capital High School here in Olympia.

          I love teaching because there is never a second of boredom; things change every day, every hour even. As such, teaching requires extraordinary adaptability. According to Charlotte Danielson, teachers make an estimated 3,000 nontrivial decisions on a daily basis.

          I don’t know of any other professions that entrust starting employees with the responsibility of managing around 120 individuals, giving five presentations per day, and keeping extensive records, all with only one hour of paid time per day to prepare.

          That’s a lot of professional responsibility, which alone would be enough reason to increase teacher pay across the board—we’re skilled, trained professionals with a very challenging career.

          Despite the qualifications and high workload, beginning teachers are paid salaries that make it difficult to live comfortably while paying student debt; I speak from experience, and it’s just my cat and me, I don’t even have a family to support yet!

          The compensation simply doesn’t match up with the job requirements. This is a key factor in driving young professionals away from the education field.

          I was in college not long ago, and several classmates and roommates told me they admired my decision to teach—it was so “selfless” and “noble”—and they could never do that. Once an acquaintance even told me he had considered teaching but decided to pursue a career with which he could actually support a family.

          This stagnation in pay has been happening for such a long time that it’s created a public impression of teaching as almost a kind of martyrdom. That’s a huge problem, especially when Washington is experiencing a teacher shortage. It’s no surprise that not many people want to enter a career where they are asked to do so much more than they are paid for.

          So while this bill is by no means a cure-all, it is an important step in attracting the quality, talented people that our kids deserve to have teaching them.

          In addition to competitive pay, greater support is badly needed to recruit and retain quality teachers. My first year, I was able to take advantage of my district’s mentorship program, and I can’t overstate how valuable it was to me. The first year of teaching is notoriously rough.

          My mentor, Carrie Street, not only helped me plan and problem-solve in the classroom, but also helped me keep the stress at bay. I can’t count the number of emails to parents she’s vetted for me, the mistakes she’s reassured me I could fix, and the stories from her own career she’s shared.

          It’s now my second year, and while I certainly learned a lot, I still need a mentor! I’m lucky that Carrie is still willing to meet with me, although informal and unpaid. But it’s a shame because she deserves compensation for the extra time she puts in with me so that I, and our school, and our kids can succeed.

          So, I urge you to support this bill. It is an important and necessary safeguard for the future of education in Washington. Thank you.