Vermont teachers suffer 14% ‘wage penalty,’ study claims
By Guy Page
As many Vermont school districts prepare for the first day school this week, there are still 1,522 job openings in Vermont schools advertised on Schoolspring.com.
Of the first 20 listings, only five are teachers – and three of those positions are for special educators. Most of the postings are for admins and paraeducators, who who are paid less than teachers and are assigned to work with students needing extra help.
For example, Brattleboro schools will pay about $20/hour for aides with at least two years of college education to “directly support students receiving social/emotional instruction.”
School administrators clearly are making progress filling slots. The total number of unfilled positions is about half of the total listed two weeks ago.
The 802 Ed newsletter notes that the strongest hiring push is for part-time and substitute positions.
“Schools in Vermont are compensating in many ways for a job market that is largely stagnant, including what appears to be a state-wide shift from permanent positions to temporary substitute positions,” today’s 802 Ed says. “….The number of openings posted for substitute teachers, nurses, and other staff has increased dramatically in the same time period, up an average about 5 additional positions posted every day.”
Vermont Teachers pay 13.6% ‘wage penalty,’ study says – Vermont has the 22nd highest ‘wage penalty’ for teachers, according to a recent think-tank report.
The Economic Policy Institute recently published a report on the “teacher pay penalty,” a state-by-state measure of the difference between a teacher’s weekly wage and that of a college educated person who doesn’t work as a teacher, 802 Ed reports. Bottom of the list? Colorado with a 36% “penalty.”
Categories: Education
An interesting study by The EPI, carefully calculated to produce their desired result. The study factored in benefits to total pay, but apparently not in a way to show true value of benefits. Defined benefit retirement plans, of which Vermont teachers have access to and health care benefits- again, Vermont teachers have access to plans illegal for mere common folk to purchase- along with college (Master’s Degree and higher) subsidy add to the benefits teachers in the Green Mountain State are given for employment. All in, this report provides ammunition for collective bargaining agreements and backs the emotion driven arguments for more school funding- but is less than truthful.
I’m unsure if I would consider working for an outfit that produced a 50% failure rate too, whether it was a school system or a tool & die shop, let alone them breathing down one’s neck & pushing “SEL” (“Social, Emotional Learning”), pushing “mask” & plexiglass (useless) barriers, CRT, Trans Policies, Group-Thinking, compulsory union dues extracted from the pay, etc. etc..Thanks but no thanks!
Many chose not to work in a tyrannical Socialist environment and do serious harm to children.
Richard, my exact thoughts as I read the article (thank you Guy Page)
can we get a definition for “directly support students receiving social/emotional instruction.”
and from what I understand public (Government) school enrollment is way down…..maybe a statistic on that would be good to go along with this?
Please extend your scope of reporting to the Early Childhood industry. We do not have the bottomless pockets that public schools do to increase pay for early educators and hundreds of vacancies have forced programs to close, curtail enrollment and substantially increase tuition. When we do hire teachers, they are quickly lured away to public schools where they receive more benefits than we can offer and do not operate year round. Additionally, many public schools have expanded their Pre-K programs thereby reducing the number of 3-5 year olds whose tuition underwrites care for infants & toddlers. It is difficult to have empathy for public schools when the private Early Care and Education industry has struggled with the same issues for decades with little notice and no public funding supports.