What is Teaching Worth?

3 things to consider about East Penn's teachers

image by Irina_kukuts via pixabay

East Penn teachers are without a contract for the first time since I moved to the Lehigh Valley more than two decades ago. As teachers continue to negotiate with the district's administration over pay, job conditions, and the changing needs of East Penn students, here are three principles to consider in finding an agreement that is best for our community and our kids.

East Penn Teacher Salaries Should be Competitive

I think we can all agree that we want the best teachers in the region to come to, and stay in, East Penn schools. We can't attract or retain high quality teachers if there are many better-paying options in neighboring districts. This is true now more than ever given the ongoing teacher shortage in the state. Unfortunately, there are many nearby school districts that pay their teachers better than East Penn.

This past school year, teachers in Easton earned 4.4% more on average than did East Penn teachers; Southern Lehigh teachers earned 4.8% more; Saucon Valley teachers 6.8% more, and Parkland teachers earned 7.2% more. I checked these figures myself against the latest data available from the PA Department of Education.

There are other districts in the Lehigh Valley where teachers earn less than they do in East Penn, to be sure. But we can't expect the best, most innovative, most motivated teachers to stay in East Penn if they continue to have better-paying opportunities in a variety of neighboring districts. The next teachers contract should address this by making teacher salaries more competitive with these districts, for both new and experienced teachers.

Teachers Should Not Pay for Covid the Rest of Their Lives

The outbreak of the covid pandemic in spring 2020 brought with it enormous uncertainty and fears about the future. The district received dire forecasts about covid's likely impact on school finances in the first year of the pandemic. It was in this context that East Penn teachers agreed to take a pay freeze that year. The freeze was voluntary; the district was contractually obligated to provide raises of 1.33%. But teachers, along with most other employee groups, agreed to a voluntary pay freeze in order to help the district and the community overcome what many people thought would be economic catastrophe.

Thankfully, the dire financial forecasts did not materialize. Instead of a massive budget shortfall, the district moved a $10 million SURPLUS into its capital reserves at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. This surplus was at least partially the result of the pay freeze taken by teachers. Hindsight is always 20/20. The district administration asked for pay freezes in the good faith belief they would be needed to balance the district's budget and avoid layoffs. But given the district ultimately didn't need the freeze to balance their budget and deposited the savings for future use, I think restoring wages lost from the freeze since 2020 is an appropriate starting point for any future contract.

This might seem like it isn't a very big issue- one (small) raise in a single year-- but the impact on a person's lifelong earnings is far greater, because this shortfall compounds every year they continue to work. For example, a teacher who just finished college in 2020 and began their career in East Penn can expect that this single pay freeze will cost them at least $100,000 dollars in lost earnings over the course of a 35-year career. And that doesn't include the substantial losses to their retirement benefits.

The next teachers contract should make teachers whole financially in the wake of covid.

The Best Teaching Requires Preparation Time

Money isn't the only thing that's important in contract negotiations. As parents and community members, we also have a stake in how much time teachers have to prepare new lessons, revise older ones, set up classroom activities, give feedback on student work, and the many other things quality teaching requires that can't be done when they have students in front of them.

Elementary school teachers in East Penn are supposed to receive just under 4 hours (225 minutes) of such preparation time each week of the school year. Maybe they need more. But I know that even this limited time has been chipped away, as it increasingly gets filled up by district administration with meetings, committees, and paperwork. I think our students deserve-- and need-- teachers who have significant blocks of times each week for focused classroom preparation.

The next teachers contract should therefore protect meaningful preparation time for all classroom teachers.

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At the last school board meeting, both the teacher's union leaders and the school board president expressed a shared commitment to a fair contract and optimism that an agreement could be reached soon. Contract negotiations are complex, and I'm sure there are many concerns that both teachers and district administrators bring to the table as they hammer out a new contract. It can therefore be helpful to have a small number of key principles to guide our thinking about the current negotiations. I've now shared three. Do you agree or disagree with these principles? What is most important to you?