[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-583727-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-583727-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","raising-pay-in-public-k12-schools","Raising Pay in Public K–12 Schools","","Raising pay in public K–12 schools is presented as a critical response to staffing shortages intensified by the pandemic. The report links employment declines across teachers and support roles to COVID risks, older workforces in education services, and longstanding low wages. It argues for immediate use of federal COVID relief funds to increase compensation and benefits, strengthen COVID protections, fund teacher development, and support part-time and part-year staff, while planning sustainable long-term investment.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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urgent?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The report frames pay and staffing gaps as essential to solving broader shortages, noting employment declines across teachers and many support roles since the pandemic began.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does COVID influence shortages for nonteacher education support staff?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The report suggests COVID concerns are a factor because education support staff are more likely to be older and therefore at higher risk of severe COVID compared with the overall U.S. workforce.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What actions does the report recommend policymakers take using federal COVID relief funds?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Policymakers should raise pay and strengthen benefits for both teachers and support staff, enact strong COVID protections, invest in teacher development, and pilot support for part-time and part-year staff, alongside planning sustainable long-term 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can provide a down payment on long-needed investments in the education workforce  \nReport • By David Cooper and Sebastian Martinez Hickey • February 3, 2022  \nKey takeaways  \n▪ Since the beginning of the pandemic, state and local public education employment fell by nearly 5% overall, with much larger declines in some states, according to establishment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Household survey data indicate that the number of employed public K–12 teachers fell by 6.8%, school bus drivers by 14.7%, school custodians by 6.0%, and teaching assistants by 2.6% .  \n▪ COVID concerns are likely a factor in nonteacher staff shortages. Education support staff tend to be older—and thus more at risk of severe COVID—than the average U.S. worker. Less than a third (31.6%) of U.S. workers overall are age 50 or older, compared with 66.2% of bus drivers, 55.4% of custodians, and 50.4% of food service workers in the K–12 public education workforce.  \n▪ Low pay is a long-standing issue for support staff. From 2014 to 2019, the median weekly wage (in 2020$) for food service workers in K–12 education was $331, while school bus drivers received $493 and teaching assistants $507. In contrast, the median U.S. worker earned $790 per week.  \n • Washington, DC View this report [at](at epi.org/244445)[ epi.org/244445](at epi.org/244445)  \n▪ Inadequate pay is a long-standing issue for teachers. Past EPI research shows that public K–12 school teachers are paid 19. 2% less than similar workers in other occupations.  \n▪ Policymakers should tap into the hundreds of billions of dollars in federal COVID relief funds available now to raise pay for education staff, enact strong COVID protections, invest in teacher development programs, and experiment with ways to support part-time and part-year staff when school isnot in session. They also need to plan for sustainable long-term investmentsin the K–12 public education workforce.  \nThis research was first presented on January 27, 2022, to a task force of the American Federation of Teachers on the teacher and school staff shortage.  \nEver since students began returning to classrooms in the late summer and fall of 2021, countless news stories have described intense staffing shortages in primary and secondary schools.1 The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the country’s K–12 educational workforce, with overworked educators retiring or leaving the profession, insufficient substitute teachers to fill in when COVID hits a district, too few paraprofessionals and teaching assistants there to support students who are struggling after more than a year of virtual learning, not enough bus drivers to get students to and from school, and skeleton crews of custodial and food service workers trying to make do (Sainato 2021; Truong 2022; Elsen-Rooney 2021; Klein 2021; Lee and Attanasio 2022) .  \nInadequate safety measures and, in some cases, public officials’ outright opposition to commonsense steps to protect staff and control the pandemic have undoubtedly exacerbated staffing problems.2 Many K–12 school support staff—particularly bus drivers, food service workers, and custodial staff—tend to be older and thus more susceptible to severe COVID. But the reality is that staff shortages in K–12 schools are a problem that policymakers in much of the country have had for decades. Calling in the National Guard, as some state governors have done, may get the buses rolling for now, but it will not solve the underlying issue: a lack of investment in public schools and school employees, both teachers and support staff (Lee and Attanasio 2022) .  \nFortunately, many states and localities confronting shortages have capacity right now to begin reversing this long-running underinvestment. Pandemic relief in the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) have provided unprecedented levels of federal funding to states, counties, mu","cbCaimzEQEkGL5wb","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimzEQEkGL5wb","pdf",396286,16,"English","# Key takeaways\n## Employment declines since the pandemic began\n## COVID concerns and workforce age risk\n## Wage gaps for support staff and teachers\n## Policy recommendations for federal relief and long-term funding\n## Context: staffing shortages and underlying underinvestment","[{\"question\":\"Why are staffing shortages in public K–12 schools considered urgent?\",\"answer\":\"The report frames pay and staffing gaps as essential to solving broader shortages, noting employment declines across teachers and many support roles since the pandemic began.\"},{\"question\":\"How does COVID influence shortages for nonteacher education support staff?\",\"answer\":\"The report suggests COVID concerns are a factor because education support staff are more likely to be older and therefore at higher risk of severe COVID compared with the overall U.S. workforce.\"},{\"question\":\"What actions does the report recommend policymakers take using federal COVID relief funds?\",\"answer\":\"Policymakers should raise pay and strengthen benefits for both teachers and support staff, enact strong COVID protections, invest in teacher development, and pilot support for part-time and part-year staff, alongside planning sustainable long-term investments.\"}]","Raising Pay in Public K–12 Schools | PDF",1792048191]