Teachers are an essential part of a well-functioning society. They provide us with the tools we need to understand the world, to innovate, and to think for ourselves. Teachers have an immense impact on students’ lives by encouraging them to be curious and disciplined. The effects that teachers have on our youth ripple out to the rest of society, as the generations they educate go on to be the adults of the future. Knowing this, the disparity between teachers’ immense value and their paltry salaries is alarming.
California Assembly Bill (AB) 938 seeks to raise school staff salaries by 50% over a seven-year period and help California recruit and retain qualified school site staff. AB 938 was passed unanimously by the state assembly on June 1 and is now undergoing senate amendments with no objections so far.
The bill, sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), would raise the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) base grant, which is the main source of public school funding. The Nexus supports this bill because of its potential to correct the wage gap between teachers and other professions, drawing more qualified and dedicated educators to the career.
AB 938, authored by Assembly member Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), would lessen the existing wage gap in California between teachers and similarly-educated college graduates in other fields. According to research by the Economic Policy Institute, California’s teachers receive a weekly pay penalty of 17.6% compared to college-educated professionals in other fields. This means that teachers on average get paid $82.40 for every $100 an average professional in another field receives.Nationally, the teaching pay penalty has grown over the last several decades; in 2021, teachers averaged 23.5% less pay than their non-teaching counterparts, which continued the rising trend since the 6.1% disparity in 1996. This is a concerning trend since teachers are so essential to society. Teachers should be paid similarly to other professions that require higher education, like accounting or public administration. This is especially true considering that 43.2% of public school teachers in California have spent six or more years in higher education acquiring a Master’s degree.
AB 938 comes at a time when California is experiencing a state-wide school staff shortage that is exacerbated by a lack of interest in teaching due to the pay penalty mentioned. Research has shown that 63% of those not interested in teaching cited pay as one of their top three reasons for a lack of interest in the field. AB 938 is necessary to properly compensate teachers and draw more future workers to the profession.
Teacher retention is another problem afflicting the education system. For the same reasons why students are not becoming teachers, teachers are leaving the field. According to a 2022 survey by the National Education Association, 55 percent of teachers are considering leaving the profession earlier than they had planned. Additionally, a report from Stanford’s Policy Analysis for California Education found a strong correlation between increased teacher pay and longer retention of staff.
In many places across the world, teachers are valued properly. AB 938 cites the competitiveness of teaching in countries including Finland, Australia, Canada, and Singapore as proof that our country does not value teachers as much as the rest of the world does. In Finland, teaching is the most desired profession, with competition that provides positions to only 1 in 4 applicants overall—quite a contrast to the declining interest in teaching that plagues the U.S.
The Nexus applauds AB 938 and hopes to see it enacted by our state legislators soon.
