In honor of Women’s History Month, I wish to pay tribute to my hard-working female colleagues and inform non-teachers of a great hindrance to our profession: misogyny.
Teachers are paid roughly 23% less than their counterparts who hold similar degrees and credentials. Teachers are also excluded by statute from Massachusetts’ Paid Family and Medical Leave Act.
Recently teachers in Newton, Boston and elsewhere have negotiated better parental leave policies in lieu of higher pay. It’s worth noting that many other employers grant far superior leaves. So why do teachers have to sacrifice pay in matters such as these?
The Commonwealth excludes municipalities in its parental leave legislation. And who makes up the largest percentage of municipal employees? If you guessed teachers, you’d be right. In a profession where 4 out of every 5 employees is a woman, the very workers who need more parental leave actually get less.
Nearly 80% of teachers are female. That percentage is higher in the elementary grades as most male teachers (myself included) are employed in the upper grades.
Consider two other public employee groups: police and firefighters. These professions are 85%-90% male. Police and firefighters are honored by society, paid higher salaries, earn overtime, and have professional replacements when they are out sick or on leave – after all, it is public safety.
What of the teachers by comparison? Starting pay is low and does not keep pace with inflation. Teachers are expected to work beyond their contractual hours, most notably by correcting papers at night and on weekends.
When a teacher is out, a substitute fills in. I am not knocking substitute teachers, I started out as one. But both the pay and respect are so low that people are not taking the jobs as substitutes. Boston even lowered the requirement from a college degree to a high school diploma, and still substitute positions are going unfilled. The result is other classroom teachers must fill in, increasing their already overburdened workload.
Imagine a police officer being ill and the city hiring a recent college graduate or retiree to fill in – and at half pay (like in education). How would the public react? Why then is it acceptable to treat education less than any other profession?
Teaching is a wonderful job. I’ve loved all 31 years of my career. However, love is not enough to pay the rent, put food on the table, and pay for child rearing expenses. But the vastly female profession is expected to ignore these needs and do the job quietly “for the kids.”
The “summers off” argument is gaslighting pure and simple. The average teacher works 55 hours a week. That’s more total hours than a typical, year round 9-to-5er. Those extra hours are uncompensated. Let me know when the lawyers hired to fight teachers’ demands are uncompensated instead of paid by the quarter hour.
Staffing is a huge issue in education, and a leading reason for teachers’ quitting the profession. Having 31 students in a room is one thing, but doing two or three jobs simultaneously is another. In Boston a general education teacher (let’s say a math teacher) is also expected to deliver special education services simultaneously with the lesson on fractions. No other district in Massachusetts does this. The Boston Teachers Union is negotiating to change this staffing abnormality so that students get the services which they both deserve and are legally entitled to.
Why would the Boston Public Schools oppose a change to their special education staffing plan? The answer is more than just saving money. Teachers are expected to do two different jobs simultaneously.
Imagine if one person were both a licensed plumber and a licensed electrician. This person would be in high demand for homebuilding, and would undoubtedly be paid more for both skills. So why aren’t teachers paid more for having a general education license, a special education license, and a license to teach children with disabilities? Now imagine we force our aforementioned tradesman to do the plumbing and electrical work simultaneously, like the BPS forces teachers to do with their licenses.
Systemic and prolonged misogyny are real issues plaguing education. Let’s make history by eliminating the undue burdens we place on teachers. Let us pay teachers for all their actual work hours. Let us fully staff and fully fund our schools. And let us say Thank You to all the amazing women who make teaching the noblest profession.
(Michael Maguire teaches Latin and Ancient Greek at Boston Latin Academy. BLA was once the Girls’ Latin School, the first college preparatory high school for girls in the United States. The ideas expressed here are his own.)