Schools across Virginia are struggling to find teachers for classrooms this fall. And, part of the problem is teacher pay.
Schools with high rates of poverty and schools with high percentages of Black students are struggling to find teachers, according to statistics from the Virginia Department of Education.
Teacher vacancies are particularly high in southside Virginia, and Laura Goren at the Commonwealth Institute says part of the problem is that people who go into teaching are essentially penalized for their career choice.
"Teachers in Virginia are paid just 67 cents for each dollar paid to their peers with similar levels of education and experience in other jobs," Goren says. "And that is the worst pay penalty in the country."
That's according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. Sylvia Allegretto is a research associate there, and she says it's important to recognize that calculating the pay penalty for teachers requires comparing their pay to the pay of everyone else in the workforce with similar levels of education.
"It could be that teacher pay is lagging or flat and the pay of other college graduates there is soaring," Allegretto explains. "It could be that the pay of other college graduates is flat and that teacher pay is declining."
Earlier this year, lawmakers approved a budget that includes a 10% pay raise for teachers spread across two budget years plus a $1,000 one-time bonus in the first year. It's possible that might improve Virginia's pay penalty rank in the future, but only if the pay in other professions remains flat or increases by a smaller amount.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
