We Must Raise Teacher Pay to Ensure California Public School Students Don’t Fall Behind

Growing up, my parents often emphasized how important it was for me to get a good education. As the descendants of Jewish immigrants who left Eastern Europe in the early part of the last century, our family recognized how fortunate we were to pursue one of life’s greatest, most fortunate opportunities: the chance for a good education and a good life. 

Those were the values I carried with me throughout my time in California’s public school system where I developed a love of history and language. And the influence of my public school teachers, whose passion and dedication to their profession set me on the path to where and who I am today, has been extraordinary. 

The sacrifice of those teachers has never been lost on me. Then, as now, teachers work long hours inside and outside the classroom and are asked to dedicate an inordinate amount of their personal time and resources to their jobs. When the pandemic hit, they had to pivot to online education, working overtime to try and keep their students from falling behind. And all the while, they’ve done so with an unwavering commitment to our children and their futures.

But that commitment alone cannot sustain everyone. And teachers are now leaving the workforce at extremely high rates. Beyond the financial barriers to becoming a teacher in the first place, teacher salaries are egregiously uncompetitive against those of comparable college graduates. Even before the pandemic, a 2018 study showed public school teachers were earning a record 21.4% less than similarly educated professionals. Early childhood educators make even less, with a median wage of $11.65 an hour – far below a living wage. And now inflation and the rising cost of living, especially in California, are inflicting an even heavier toll.

Raising teacher pay is the best way to attract and retain more young people to one of our most essential professions, to relieve those who are already being stretched thin and to ensure all of our children have the very best shot at the incredible opportunity that is a good education. To do this, earlier this month Sen. Cory Booker and I introduced the RAISE Act – calling for Respect, Advancement and Increasing Support for Educators.

Our bill would give all K-12 and early childhood educators at under-resourced schools a much-deserved boost in compensation. It would create a sliding-scale refundable tax credit for all eligible public school teachers starting at $1,000 a year, and going all the way up to $15,000 a year for those who work in our most impoverished communities. And it would double the educator tax deduction from $250 to $500 a year, so that teachers can recoup the cost of the school and classroom supplies that right now they have to purchase out-of-pocket.

This bill should be just the start of working to attract and retain the best and brightest to be teachers.

These glaring disparities are one of the root causes of today’s nationwide teacher shortage. And ultimately, it’s our children who pay the price. The rising rate of teacher turnover and early retirements since the start of the pandemic present major disruptions to students’ learning outcomes; more than four in 10 Californians say their child has fallen behind academically over the past two years. And schools with higher student poverty ratios have nearly 50% more teacher turnover meaning, once again, communities that have historically been excluded from opportunity are being hit the hardest.

By taking these steps to pay teachers what they’re worth we will empower some of our community’s most deserving public servants to continue pursuing the career they love. And by retaining more teachers in their classrooms, we’re also giving our children the opportunity to continue learning from the best and the brightest. This is a much-needed investment in them, too – in their ability to succeed in school and wherever else life may take them.