Democratic senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris isn’t playing games when it comes to wanting to increase teacher salaries across the nation. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Harris commits herself to give teachers the raise they desperately need (and deserve) if she becomes president. Even better? The presidential hopeful has specifics.
Her op-ed opens with some seriously inspiring language:
"We must acknowledge this simple truth: We are a country that claims to care about education, but not so much about the education of other people’s children. At the most fundamental level, our children are being raised by two groups of people: families and teachers. Yet, we fail to pay teachers their value."
Awesome. Now, let’s look at the specifics Harris is proposing. First, it’s important to remember that compared to educators across the world, teachers in the US make a lot less money. Even within the U.S., teachers make an average of $13,000 less per year than people who graduate with similar degrees. That’s a big difference, especially when one considers raises, promotions, and so on that generally hinge on your starting wage.
Harris’s plan is to give the average public school teacher a raise of $13,500. Nice.
How would this work? According to her official plan, the federal government would start things off with the first 10 percent for salary increases across the country. Then, the federal government would give $3 to every $1 that each state would contribute. This match would continue until the gap evaporated.
"This plan is about more than just salary. It’s about making an investment that will yield big returns for our country," Harris's official plan explains. "It’s about valuing and respecting the working people who lay the foundation of our future economy. It’s about guaranteeing the opportunity for every child to succeed."
To give even more specifics, this breaks down to about $315 billion in federal spending. Where would this money come from? Ending loopholes for the super wealthy, as well as an increase in estate tax.
"We will help these schools reduce high rates of teacher turnover, attract talented young graduates and experienced educators, and improve teaching and learning conditions for our kids," Harris continued at the Post.
In practice, this means that Harris’s plan would pay teachers at the schools with the highest need (for example, those that currently have extremely high rates of turnover) more than others, even accounting for similarities in education level.
This is important especially when one considers that structural barriers continue to harm marginalized kids; for instance, schools with mostly kids of color often get lower budgets. And on the district level, poorer schools get less money compared to other parts of their respective states. Not only is this obviously terrible for students, but it’s difficult on already underpaid and overworked teachers, too.