Attracting and Retaining Teachers

Since teachers first walked out of their classrooms in West Virginia in February 2018, a wave of teacher protests have hit 15 states. Teachers are striking for a variety of reasons, but most commonly for higher pay, better working conditions, and equitable resources for their students. This movement has launched the issue of teacher pay, along with other K-12 teaching issues, into mainstream media and into the national discourse among most Democratic presidential candidates.

While baseline compensation is one important factor in attracting and retaining strong teachers, other factors can be just as important. Teachers may decide to leave their school or the profession due to things like insufficient initial preparation, lack of meaningful professional development and opportunities for advancement, and poor working conditions such as taking on an overwhelming number non-instructional tasks. Research has found that roughly 30 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first three years and between 40 percent and 50 percent leave within the first five years.

Given the value that teachers provide to their communities and our nation’s civic and economic future, increasing frustration and disillusionment with the teaching profession is cause for concern for all Americans, regardless of whether they have students who are currently attending public schools. Teachers deserve strong preparation, competitive salaries that align with local professional labor markets and cost of living, and school conditions that enable them to focus on continuously improving teaching and learning, and advancing in their careers. Without these elements, many of our teachers, and especially our most motivated and talented ones, will find employment elsewhere or leave the teaching profession altogether. Below is an analysis of where the candidates stand on the critical issues of teacher pay, career advancement, working conditions, preparation, and diversity.

Increasing salaries is the teacher issue that has captured the most media—and presidential candidates’—attention, and for good reason. An Economic Policy Institute analysis finds that teachers earn 21 percent less—11 percent less when considering non-wage benefits—on average, than other college-educated workers, despite earning only 5.3 percent less 25 years ago.

Most candidates have made statements of support for increasing teachers’ salaries, but not all have laid out detailed plans for how to do so. Senator Cory Booker (no longer in the race), Tom Steyer (no longer in the race), and Andrew Yang (no longer in the race) all made statements of support for raising teacher pay, but do not provide details on how they would do so. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (no longer in the race) “Progress Partnerships” plan would have provided matching federal funds to states that pledge to, or have already, increased teacher pay, but does not explain where the funding would come from.

Senator Kamala Harris (no longer in the race) was the first to put out a comprehensive proposal that focuses on raising teacher pay and improving their working conditions. The plan promised to raise average teacher pay by $13,500—the equivalent of a 23 percent increase in base pay—with teachers in high-need schools receiving an even larger pay increase. Harris planned to pay for that raise by strengthening the estate tax and closing tax loopholes. Harris’ plan stated that the Department of Education would work with state education agencies to set a base salary goal for new teachers in every state, which would account for the average salary of similarly educated professionals in the state. Salary would increase based on years in the classroom and advanced qualifications.

Under the Harris plan, the federal government would invest in public schools to provide the first 10 percent of funding needed to close the teacher pay gap in every state. After that, for every $1 a state contributes to increasing teacher pay, the federal government would invest an additional $3 until the pay gap is closed. Harris would go further for teachers in high-need schools, who would receive an additional federal investment to ensure their pay is even higher. It’s important to note that teacher pay and the cost of living varies widely across, and within, states so the base pay and the investment needed in each state will be different.

A popular approach for increasing teacher salaries provided by other candidates is to increase Title I funding—federal funds that are allocated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to schools with a high percentage of students from low-income families. Mayor Pete Buttigieg (no longer in the race), former Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (no longer in the race) have all stated that they would use this approach. Buttigieg did not specify by how much he would increase Title I funds, or how he would structure the funds so that they were used for teacher salaries as opposed to other purposes. Biden has proposed tripling Title I funding and requiring schools to pay teachers competitive wages and benefits before directing funds to other purposes, although it's unclear how a competitive wage would be defined. Warren’s plan would have quadrupled Title I funding to pay for salary increases for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other education support staff with the goal of closing the pay gap between educators and other professions. Warren stated that federal funding would incentivize states to alter their funding formulas to better support students and teachers, but it’s unclear how that would happen. It’s also not clear how the legislative text of Title I of the ESEA would need to be changed to accomplish the goals in any of these plans, or how realistic that is.

Senator Bernie Sanders has pledged to work with states to set the starting salary for teachers at no less than $60,000 a year, in addition to ending racial and gender disparities in teacher salaries, but he has not explained how he would do that. He has also proposed tripling the tax deduction that teachers receive for out-of-pocket spending on classroom supplies and creating a grant program that would provide teachers with funds for classroom materials.

While some of these proposals target funding for teachers in high-need schools, candidates should also think about how funding should be targeted for high-need subject areas, particularly as states experience teacher shortages in critical subjects and hard-to-staff schools.

More indirectly related, Warren’s plan would have strengthened the ability of teachers, paraprofessionals, and other staff to organize and bargain for better compensation, for a voice in education policy, and for greater investment in public education in order to address pay issues working conditions that are problematic. Warren stated that she wants to make it easier for teachers to join a union and bargain collectively in order for teachers to earn better pay in a sustainable way, and to empower teachers. She would have made eliminating the ability of states to pass anti-union “right to work” laws a top priority. Sanders and Harris also pledged to protect and expand collective bargaining rights.

Like teacher pay, student debt is another factor in the calculus in whether someone decides to become a teacher. The need to take on debt to go into the often low-paying teaching profession may prevent many from entering, particularly students from low-income families. And once in the profession, high student debt can make it hard for teachers to make ends meet. The federal government offers several loan forgiveness programs that are intended to erase some of teachers’ loan debt in return for years of service. However, that goal has largely been unmet, particularly through the TEACH Grant program because of various issues with the administration and design of these programs. Biden, Booker, and Warren all specified debt relief for teachers in their plans in slightly different ways. Biden pledges to fix and simplify the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program so that teachers can actually have their loans forgiven, but there is no clear plan for how he would do that. Booker also supported eliminating student debt for teachers, as well as providing financial assistance for fulfilling teacher certification and licensing requirements but did not provide details on how he would accomplish these goals. And Warren planned to wipe out student debt for teachers and provide tuition-free public college so many future teachers would not have to take on debt in the first place. In addition, she would have pushed states to offer a pathway for teachers to become fully certified for free.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard (no longer in the race) is the only Democratic candidate that qualified for the November debate whose campaign website did not explicitly mention supporting an increase in teacher pay. Her webpage had a section titled “Invest in public education and our teachers” but the content included was not related to this topic. On the other side of the aisle, President Trump has not released an official policy platform for his 2020 campaign, but his presidential agenda has generally not been supportive of teachers. President Trump has consistently put forward budget requests that would eliminate funding for educators in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act, though the program has ultimately been spared by Congress each year. However, his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has publicly remarked that teachers deserve to be paid much more, albeit without any details on how she thinks that should occur.

A much less talked about issue is teacher preparation. Only two presidential candidates have touched on the need to improve the way that our educators are prepared before they enter the classroom. Effective teacher preparation should provide teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience necessary for success in the classroom, to limit the shock new teachers face when taking on their own classroom, and help prevent burnout and attrition. And preparation would be further improved by incentives to create feedback loops between higher education and the schools and districts their graduates serve and to provide better information to prospective teachers about which programs will best meet their needs and the needs of their future students. Unfortunately, this is happening in very few places, but this is one clear way the federal government can play a role in strengthening the teacher pipeline.

Senator Warren’s plan would have pushed to fully fund the Teacher Quality Partnership program—the program is funded at $43 million but authorized at $300 million—in Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA) to support teacher residency programs in high-need areas, like rural communities, and in areas of expertise like special education and bilingual education. And she would also have added funding for Grow Your Own Teacher programs that provide opportunities for teaching assistants or substitute teachers to become licensed teachers.

Senator Harris’ plan included a multi-billion dollar investment in programs that help better prepare teachers, principals, and other school leaders. This included high-quality teacher and principal residencies, early-career induction programs that pair new teachers with mentors and master teachers, career ladder models that allow for advancement opportunities for teacher leaders, and Grow Your Own programs that help increase teacher diversity. Half of the funding would have been dedicated to programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions, as almost 40 percent of all Black teachers and 50 percent of all Latinx teachers graduate from MSIs.

Once teachers enter the classroom, overall working conditions play a key role in whether a teacher decides to stay or leave a school. While there are sadly plenty of examples of schools with physical environments that are unappealing or even unsafe, the term “working conditions” includes the non-physical aspects of the school environment as well. For example, if teachers feel overwhelmed by non-instructional responsibilities, they might choose to leave their school, or the profession altogether. School leaders also often expect them to take on other tasks like staffing bus duty, engaging with parents, providing mental health support to students, and supervising students during lunch. And in the case of teachers of color, they may be given further tasks, like serving as the disciplinarian for students of color or as the the language translator between the school and students’ families. These additional responsibilities are often piled on because of insufficient school personnel, such as school counselors and teachers’ aides, which is typically due to a lack of school funding and can cause teachers to burn out and leave the profession.

Research across professions also indicates that people are more likely to experience job satisfaction when they believe that their employer is investing in their professional growth. Unfortunately, while teachers engage in a large quantity of professional development activities over the course of any school year, much research indicates that the quality of those activities are lacking, and often do not substantially impact teacher or student knowledge or practice.

Working environments can be improved by ensuring schools have sufficient support staff (psychologists, guidance counselors, special education teaching aides, etc.) to meet students’ needs, helping principals create more staffing capacity on their administrative and/or instructional teams to fulfill all of their responsibilities, and promoting higher-quality, ongoing professional development that explicitly addresses the individual needs of teachers and the needs of their students and schools. If other staff in the school do not have the support or capacity they need, teachers often have to step in and fill that gap.

Few candidates have talked about these more comprehensive ways to improve teachers’ working conditions and job satisfaction, but Biden’s plan would double the number of psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, social workers, and other health professionals in schools so that students’ mental health needs are adequately taken care of. And both Senator Sanders and Senator Warren pledged to ensure that teachers receive professional development and mentorship opportunities, which already occurs, but Warren’s plan specified what she would do differently. Warren’s plan specified that she would increase funding for programs that fund professional development and ongoing education for effective instruction, cultural competency, and child development, such as the Supporting Effective Instruction State grants and Supporting Effective Educator Development grants in Title II of ESEA. Warren’s proposal would also have invested in funding for the Institute of Education Sciences research on best practices in professional development.

Another important factor that weighs heavily on whether teachers decide to enter and stay in the teaching profession is whether they have clear career pathways that allow them to grow and advance in their profession.

And, in most professions that require a college degree, employees have multiple opportunities to advance as they demonstrate growth in their professional practice and expertise, which correspond with increasing pay and status. But these types of advancement opportunities are not the norm in teaching, and when teachers’ do receive them, they often come with little to no additional compensation, support, or reduction in current responsibilities, diminishing their status and appeal. And other evidence shows that increasing teacher pay is more effective at retaining teachers when coupled with opportunities to develop and advance professionally. The most common options teachers have to advance involve leaving the teaching profession, often by becoming a school or district administrator, although sometimes by leaving education altogether.

Clear, well-compensated opportunities for growth in expertise and advancement, can raise the appeal of teaching, and can reward our strongest teachers for taking on increasingly challenging roles and responsibilities. But our nation’s students will ultimately reap the largest benefits, as these efforts jointly raise the quality of teaching in schools.

Biden has proposed offering teachers opportunities to be mentors and coaches to other teachers, and to be leaders of professional learning communities, but does not provide details on how the federal government would encourage states and/or districts to do this. His plan states that teachers would be compensated for these additional responsibilities. Biden’s proposal states that the additional funding would also be used to help teachers who want to earn an additional certification in a high-demand teaching area, like special education or bilingual education, so they could do so without accumulating debt.

As the student population in public schools grows more diverse, the teaching workforce is not keeping pace. In 2015–2016, 51 percent of students in public schools were non-White, compared to only 20 percent of teachers. This demographic mismatch between teachers and students is problematic because research demonstrates that students benefit from having teachers that reflect their cultural, racial, and linguistic background. States and districts across the country are making efforts to diversify their teaching workforce, but the federal government can support these efforts, but Buttigieg, Harris, and Warren are the only candidates that have proposed plans to support diversity in our schools.

As stated above, Harris’ plan included a multi-billion dollar investment in programs that would help better prepare teachers, principals, and other school leaders would include funding for Grow Your Own programs that help increase teacher diversity. And half of that funding would have been dedicated to programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions.

Warren’s plan would have built a more diverse educator pipeline through financial incentives like cancelling student loan debt, providing tuition-free public college, and investing a minimum of $50 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions. She believed that this strategy would help more Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, and Pacific Islander students to become educators and school and district leaders. Warren also committed to increasing Bureau of Indian Education funding so schools can attract and train teachers, particularly those from Native communities. She committed to passing the Equality Act to guarantee workplace protections for LGBTQ+ teachers and staff.

Through federal regulation, Buttigieg planned to require new transparency around teacher hiring procedures: states would have to disaggregate their applicant and hiring by race and document teacher diversity initiatives as part of their Every Student Succeeds Act school improvement plans. A Buttigieg Administration would also have set new guidelines around the use of Title II funds to invest in recruiting, training, and supporting school leaders of color.