Teachers prepare and inspire the next generation of leaders, who are critical to our future. Today, on World Teachers’ Day, the Biden-Harris Administration of the United States of America is committed to celebrating and elevating the teaching profession, as well as addressing the challenges that teachers face by taking comprehensive actions to recruit, respect, and retain educators. According to the ‘FACTSHEET: Supporting Teachers on World Teachers’ Day,’ vital to advance these goals are paying educators competitively, improving working conditions, and expanding high-quality pathways into teaching. These initiatives include, but are not limited to, American Rescue Plan, Additional Federal Investments in Teacher Recruitment and Preparation, and Ensuring Education Jobs Are Good Jobs.
122 billion USD have been provided to K 12 schools across the country through the “American Rescue Plan” (ARP). States and districts have been advised to use these funds to increase compensation for teachers, invest in teacher pipeline programs, and hire more professionals across the education workforce, as well as to improve teachers’ physical working conditions and students’ learning conditions by addressing critical health and safety issues. Not only do these investments provide greater support to students, but they also reduce the burden on current teachers. With the help of the ARP, the country saw an increase of 261,000 more jobs in local education than before President Biden took office, and a 54% increase in the number of school social workers and a 22% increase in that of counselors, compared to the pre-pandemic period.
The Administration has prioritized supporting teachers through a wide array of Fiscal Year 2022 grants under the framework of “Additional Federal Investments in Teacher Recruitment and Preparation,” paying particular attention to investing in high-quality teacher preparation programs that include robust classroom experience before becoming a teacher. These programs — like New Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), which collectively help recruit, prepare, develop, and retain a strong and diverse teacher workforce and ensure long-term support for teacher pipeline and development programs across the country — help recruit more diverse teachers, better prepare them for the classroom, and increase the likelihood of teachers staying in the profession. The President has also called for an additional $590 million investment in teachers in his FY23 budget.
Schools cannot recruit nor retain the teachers they need unless education jobs are perceived as good jobs. After accounting for inflation, the average weekly wages of public school teachers only increased by 29 USD between 1996 and 2021. In addition to calling for better pay and encouraging the use of ARP funds for this purpose, the Administration has taken concrete action to address teacher compensation, from the “Sustained Funding to Increase Teacher Pay” initiative to pay teachers competitively and to close funding gaps undermining schools serving low-income communities, to “Reducing Student Debt for Teachers” initiative to provide more breathing room to America’s working families as they continue to recover from the strains associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including teachers, who are burdened with so much student debt that they feel like they cannot stay in the classroom.
To Recruit, Respect, and Retain Teachers and Other School Staff, We Must:
- Pay Educators Competitively: President Biden has long called for increases in teacher pay. On average, teachers make about 33 percent less than other college-educated professionals. Without addressing the issue of paying teachers a livable and competitive wage, we cannot address the staffing shortages that impact schools.
- Improve Working Conditions: Educators need working conditions that are conducive to their teaching and students’ learning, whether it be sufficient planning time and staffing levels, opportunities for leadership and collaboration with peers, clean air to breathe, and air-conditioned classrooms during heat waves.
- Expand High-Quality Pathways into Teaching: There were 340,000 fewer students enrolled in educator preparation programs In 2016 than there were in 2008, a 28 percent decline over less than a decade. More people can answer the call to become teachers and improve teacher retention and effectiveness if high-quality pathways into teaching are expanded, such as Grow Your Own and residency programs, and barriers are removed, such as affordability.
