[Senate Hearing 118-468]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-468
THE IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC
SCHOOL TEACHERS: LOW PAY,
TEACHER SHORTAGES, AND
UNDERFUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC SCHOOL
TEACHERS, FOCUSING ON LOW PAY, TEACHER SHORTAGES, AND UNDERFUNDED
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
__________
JUNE 20, 2024
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-244 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
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BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont, Chairman
PATTY MURRAY, Washington BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana,
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RAND PAUL, Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
TED BUDD, North Carolina
Warren Gunnels, Majority Staff Director
Bill Dauster, Majority Deputy Staff Director
Amanda Lincoln, Minority Staff Director
Danielle Janowski, Minority Deputy Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2024
Page
Committee Members
Sanders, Hon. Bernie, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement......................... 1
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from the State
of Louisiana, Opening statement................................ 3
Witnesses
Arthur, John, Teacher at Meadowlark Elementary, Holladay, UT..... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 8
Summary statement............................................ 11
Keyes, Gemayel, Teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School,
Philadelphia, PA............................................... 11
Prepared statement........................................... 13
Summary statement............................................ 15
Kirwan, William E., Dr., Vice-Chair of Maryland's Accountability
and Implementation Board, Rockville, MD........................ 16
Prepared statement........................................... 18
Summary statement............................................ 20
Pondiscio, Robert, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute,
Medusa, NY..................................................... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Summary statement............................................ 26
Neily, Nicole, President and Founder, Parents Defending
Education, Arlington, VA....................................... 26
Prepared statement........................................... 29
Summary statement............................................ 41
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Cassidy, Hon. Bill:
Illinois Policy, Chicago Teachers Union Fails to Turn $68K
per Student Into Even 1 Academic Win....................... 57
THE IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC
SCHOOL TEACHERS: LOW PAY
TEACHER SHORTAGES, AND
UNDERFUNDED PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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Thursday, June 20, 2024
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:04 a.m., in
room 562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Bernard Sanders,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Sanders [presiding], Casey, Baldwin,
Kaine, Hassan, Hickenlooper, Markey, and Cassidy.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SANDERS
The Chair. The Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions will come to order for a hearing on an
issue of enormous consequence.
I want to thank all of our panelists and guests who are
here with us this morning. And during the course of the
morning, Senators will be coming in and out, but I know that
this is an issue of interest to every Senator. In a moment, we
will hear directly from educators from across our Country about
the enormous effort it takes to provide a quality public
education for every child in our Country.
In my view, if we are serious about the need for a bright
and hopeful future for our Country, we must understand that the
children, the young people of this country are our future. And
there is, in fact nothing more, nothing more important that we
can do than provide a quality education to all of our young
people.
Yet, for decades, public school teachers have been
overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most
importantly, underappreciated. Compared to many other
occupations, our public-school teachers are more likely to
experience higher levels of anxiety, stress, and burnout, which
was only exacerbated by the pandemic.
As a result, nearly 8 percent of teachers leave their
profession each and every year, double the rate in countries
like Canada and many other countries around the world.
According to the most recent statistics, some 300,000
teaching positions, nearly 10 percent of all teaching positions
nationwide, have been left vacant, or filled by teachers not
fully certified for their assignments. In addition, teacher
turnover rates are 50 percent higher in school districts with
high poverty rates than districts that serve wealthier
students. In other words, the areas where we need the best
teachers the most, are the areas where we're seeing the highest
turnover.
Incredibly, 44 percent of public-school teachers are now
quitting their profession within 5 years. Now why is that? Why
are so many public-school teachers, people who came into the
profession because of their love of kids, and their wanting to
do the right thing, why are they leaving that profession? Why
do we have a massive shortage of teachers in America?
Well, there are many reasons, but one of the primary
reasons is the extremely low pay teachers receive. According to
the statistics that I have seen, the average starting teacher
salary in America is less than $45,000 a year. Nearly 40
percent of school districts in our Country pay teachers a
starting salary of less than $40,000 a year.
Incredibly, the average public-school teacher in America is
making nearly a hundred dollars a week, less than she or he did
28 years ago after adjusting for inflation. In other words, the
real salaries of teachers are actually going down in inflation
adjusted numbers.
Wages for public school teachers are so low that in 36
states throughout America, the average public-school teacher
with a family of four qualifies for food stamps, public
housing, or other government benefits.
In America today, nearly 20 percent of public-school
teachers in our Country are forced to work two or three jobs
during the school year. Maybe they're driving an Uber, maybe
they're waiting tables, maybe they're parking cars. In the
richest country in the history of the world, we have got to do
a lot better than that.
Meanwhile, because of lack of resources and tight school
budgets, about 80 percent of public-school teachers are forced
to spend their own money on classroom supplies without being
reimbursed, which comes out to about 13 percent of their first
monthly paycheck.
The situation has become so absurd, and this tells us not
just about how we feel about education and teachers, but maybe
our sense of priorities as a Nation. The situation has become
so absurd that 4 hedge fund managers on Wall Street made more
money last year than every kindergarten teacher in America,
nearly 120,000 teachers. Four hedge fund managers, more money
than 120,000 kindergarten teachers.
Public school teachers should not be forced to work two or
three jobs just to make ends meet. They should not be forced to
be on food stamps. Further, as bad as everybody in this room
knows it's not the teacher alone that keeps the classroom
going, they need support service. And as bad as public-school
teachers are paid, our Nation's school custodians, food service
workers, and other school staff earn even less in America
today. Nearly 40 percent of support staff in our public schools
earn less than $25,000 a year.
Now, it would seem to me that we would want as a nation to
attract the best and the brightest people into the enormously
important profession of education. And if we're going to do
that, if we're going to encourage teachers to teach in
underserved communities, if we're going to improve teacher
retention and morale, and if we're going to improve student
academic outcomes, then in my view, we need to pay teachers in
America decent wages and decent benefits. Not a very, I think,
radical or controversial concept.
That is why I've introduced the Pay Teachers Act with nine
of my colleagues in this Congress. This bill would make sure
that no teacher in America is paid less than $60,000 a year. It
would increase wages for teachers who have made teaching their
profession. Those who have been on the job for 10, 20, or 30
years. It would triple Title I funding, get money into those
school districts that need it the most.
It would invest in Federal programs to provide teachers
with the training, education, and preparation they need to
succeed. And it would benefit every public school district in
every state in our Country.
Now, here is the good news and it is very good news. And
that is a result of local organizing led by public school
teachers. Some states are beginning to do the right thing. In
recent years, the State of New Mexico has increased teacher pay
by an average of 20 percent. State of Maryland recently became
the first state in the country to require all teachers to be
paid a competitive salary that is at least $60,000 a year by
July 2026.
The State of Arkansas recently increased minimum teacher
salaries from 36,000 a year to 50,000, and provided a minimum
$2,000 raise for all teachers during the 2023-2024 academic
year. And the State of Mississippi recently increased teachers'
pays by 11 percent.
Raising teacher salaries to at least 60,000 a year, and
ensuring competitive pay for all of our teachers is one of the
most important steps we can take to address the teacher
shortage in America and to improve the quality of public
education in our Country.
Bottom line, as everybody knows, the young people are our
future, and we've got to deal with the reality that we have the
highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation on
earth, and that we are not attracting because of inadequate
salaries the kinds of people we need into teaching.
Let me just conclude by thanking the hundreds and hundreds
of thousands of teachers in this country. You are heroes, you
are heroines. You are doing enormously important work. You are
saving children's lives every single day, and I thank you very
much for what you do.
Senator Cassidy.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASSIDY
Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Chair Sanders. I too thank the
teachers. I still remember the names of all my elementary
school teachers and particularly one who they all, I think,
believed in a guy with a lot of ADD, a lone child who couldn't
focus, who didn't read during the day. And so, one of them kept
me afterwards and drove me home. Could you imagine that? She
would drive me home after everybody had left, because my ADD
would not allow me to kind of focus. So, I just applaud all the
teachers, you are formative in a child's experience.
But as we begin to speak about the current state of K-12
education, we have to recognize the world as it is. Two thirds
of U.S. public school students don't read proficiently in
fourth grade, 40 percent are essentially non-readers.
Almost two thirds of fourth graders, three quarters of
eighth graders are below proficient in math. Less than half of
public-school parents, say their child is definitely prepared
academically for the next year. A related issue is the rising
absenteeism. 28 percent of students miss nearly 4 weeks of the
school year.
Now intuitively, but also borne out by research, students
who miss more than 4 weeks have difficulty learning to read by
third grade. Think about that. These are not middle schoolers
or high schoolers skipping out when their parents are not
watching. These are children less than their first, second, and
third grade, and they're missing 4 weeks of school or more. And
so, if you don't learn to read by third grade, you don't read
to learn after that.
How did we get here? Well, in many places, primary and
secondary education is broken. Schools have lost sight of their
core mission of educating children. Some education leaders
prioritize social agendas and progressive ideology over
academic progress. This negatively impacts children's success.
It leaves them ill prepared to enter a competitive workforce.
Now, parents, studies show, are the most important
educators in their children's life. I think I read once that
the mother is the most determinative of a child's future in
academic success, which kind of illustrates, it's the hand that
rocks the cradle, that rules the world.
But unfortunately, many parents feel as if they've been
forced to be bystanders or even silenced by fear of retaliation
from school leaders. In 2023, 72 percent of parents considered
moving their children to a new school, a 35 percent increase
from 2022.
Now, I have to point out that it's been more than a year
and a half into this Congress, and we're just now having our
first hearing on K-12 education. We are the Committee with
jurisdiction over Federal K-12 funding, and we have a
responsibility to examine this broken system.
Our kids will spend roughly 15,000 hours in school between
kindergarten and 12th grade. If they are not learning, what are
they doing? I'm not sure throwing more money at the problem is
the solution. The Committee needs to determine root causes
concerning the state of public education and how to fix it.
Now, one thing that cannot be ignored, we are spending more
money per child on education than ever before in our Nation's
history. So, if you look here, here's spending, here's
inflation. So, spending has greatly exceeded inflation. But,
even beginning before the pandemic, we saw a decrease in math
scores and a decrease in reading scores. The reading is fourth
grade, the math is eighth grade.
Now, in 2021, Democrats through a partisan bill gave $121
billion in one-time Covid spending, with little accountability
or requirements for how the money would be used. And it begs
the question, where was it spent? Some school districts added
new faculty positions like assistant principals that have
limited impact upon classroom learning. There are now more
staff collecting paychecks at schools than ever before. And yet
we see grades falling.
Now let's be clear. Teachers are important, for a child to
learn they must have a teacher focused on teaching. But there's
evidence, anecdotal, teachers are overwhelmed by policies that
prevent them from truly managing classrooms and in some cases
ensuring the safety of their students. We'll hear more about
this from one of our witnesses today.
Now, the Democrat solution to this challenge has been to
create a Federal minimum salary for teachers. Improving teacher
pay is important. In fact, out of 11 states that passed laws
this year increasing take home pay for teachers, 10 have
Republican led legislatures, including Louisiana.
But the Federal Government dictating how states spend their
money, does not address the root cause of why teachers are
struggling to teach in the classroom. More mandates and funding
cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine
broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve.
This should not be the only hearing Congress has examining
education.
We need to understand shortcomings in K-12 and commit to
resolving them so kids can read and become productive citizens.
With 11 legislative weeks left, it seems we're not going to get
to this, but the longer we wait, the more students suffer. We
need to be looking at different issues. For example, how to
address the learning loss and severe mental health issues among
adolescents as a result of COVID school closures.
We need to implement better strategies, like the science of
reading, to address falling literacy rates so children can read
properly and do not fall behind. We need to begin to scream for
dyslexia, a condition which affects 20 percent of children, but
when undiagnosed condemns the child to underperformance.
We need to address the negative impact of TikTok and social
media on students and whether a phone shouldn't be in the
classroom, and what were the costs of making school optional
during the pandemic, as was done by many school districts
across the Nation.
By the way, the Committee also hasn't had a hearing to
address our broken higher education system. We should be
discussing the botched rollout of the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, that delayed millions of
students and families from accessing crucial financial aid
information. Without this information, students don't know if
and how they can afford college and may just decide not to
attend.
We need to address the rising cost of college that is
crushing students and families, forcing them to take on more
loans which may or may not return on their investment. And we
need to hold universities and the Biden administration
accountable for the rising rate of antisemitism on campuses
which have culminated in violence and chaos.
With the limited time left, we have this Congress, I urge
the Chairman to prioritize how we can help our students and
keep them from falling behind. Our children, our Country's
future is at stake. With that I yield.
The Chair. We will now turn to our witnesses and we thank
all of them for being here. Our first witness is Mr. John
Arthur, the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year and National Teacher
of the Year finalist. He's now entering his 12th year of
teaching sixth grade at Meadowlark Elementary, a Title I school
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mr. Arthur, thanks very much for being with us.
STATEMENT OF JOHN ARTHUR, MAT, MED, NBCT, TEACHER, MEADOWLARK
ELEMENTARY, HOLLADAY, UT
Mr. Arthur. Thank you, Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member
Cassidy, and distinguished Members of the Committee.
I'm grateful for this opportunity to share my love of
teaching and insights from my classroom. My name is John
Arthur, as you said. And again, I am the 2021 Utah Teacher of
the Year, a National Board-Certified Teacher, and a proud
member of the National Education Association.
For the last 11 years, I have dedicated my professional
life to uplifting and educating the children at Meadowlark
Elementary, a Title I Public School in Salt Lake City.
As we consider the challenges facing public school teachers
today, there is one statistic that worries me the most. The
majority of American parents do not want their children to
become teachers. My mother, who was a Korean immigrant, was one
of those parents. Suka Arthur, like so many immigrant parents,
wanted me to grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer.
When I finally worked up the courage to let my mother know
that I was going to be a public-school teacher, she asked
doctor-teacher? I said, no, ma', elementary school teacher. I
don't want to read into the record what my mother said after
that, but she was upset, not because she didn't respect
teachers. Quite the opposite.
In Korea, teachers hold a position of high esteem and
receive high pay, prestige, and respect. That's what my mom
wanted for her son. That's what doctors and lawyers receive in
the United States. And that's what I want for every public-
school teacher in this country. High pay, prestige, and
respect.
You used to be able to raise a family on a teacher's
salary. Now, the only reason I'm able to be a public-school
teacher is because my wife makes much more money than me. I
appreciate the attention the Chairman brought to this issue
through the Pay Teachers Act. And the No. 1 reason we have to
appreciate when we're talking about root causes, like Senator
Cassidy mentioned, the No. 1 reason teachers leave the
profession is the pay.
The No. 1 reason parents don't want their children to
become teachers, is the pay. So, the No. 1 solution to
addressing the issues we face must be increasing teacher
salaries.
In teaching, prestige is rooted in relationships and
professional practices. And there is no relationship more
important than the ones we build with our students and their
families.
When I became a teacher, I knew I wanted to plant deep
roots, teach in one school, and build powerful relationships
with parents for the next 30 years. Sometimes when I'm writing
really fast, I accidentally miswrite parents as partners
because that's how I see them. I'd like to think in this
moment, it's like the Oscars here, I'd like to thank every
parent I've ever partnered with in my classroom.
We teachers also build communities of our own. In my first
year of teaching, I saw teachers in my district step outside
the comfort of their classrooms to advocate and champion the
children in mines. I was inspired by them, and that's why I
joined the Salt Lake Education Association, the Utah Education
Association, and the National Education Association, because I
wanted to be a champion for our public-school teachers and
children just like them.
In my second year of teaching, I saw teachers delivering
lessons and carrying on conversations with kids like conductors
in an orchestra. And when I found out that they were all
National Board-Certified Teachers, I said, I want that too.
I was immediately embraced by a community composed of our
Country's most accomplished educators. I pursued my National
Board certification and I learned that no teacher survives in
isolation and thrives alone. In order to strengthen the
teaching profession, we have to support and uplift the
communities and organizations that make teachers strong.
Teachers are driven by a powerful need to be better for the
children we serve. That's why we pursue advanced degrees and
certifications. During my Master of Arts in Teaching program, I
began working with two students. One of them had dyslexia and
the other one had an emotional disturbance, had been identified
in that way. I realized very quickly that I did not have the
tools to support these kids the way they needed to be.
I already had one student loan going. So I said, rack it
up, and I added a second master's degree program to my
workload. I got a special education master's in education. And
I recognize now that in order to increase the level of respect
that people have for teachers, all we need to do is shine a
spotlight on our best and brightest educators, elevating the
excellence that America's teachers exemplify.
Senators, there are teachers in your home states that are
right now leading from their classrooms. And all you have to do
is show the public the wonders that they are and the hearts of
even our harshest critics can be moved. You remember my mother,
who did not want me to be a teacher just before she passed
away, she left me this email. She said, ``Hi son. This is Omma.
I just want to say, I am so proud of you as a teacher. You're,
a great teacher, you're a wonderful son. I love you.''
I followed my heart into teaching and my love for teaching
won my mother's heart too. We can do this. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Arthur follows.]
prepared statement of john arthur
Thank you, Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and
distinguished Members of the Committee.
I am grateful for the opportunity to share this snapshot of my
profession and my story with you today. My name is John Arthur, I am a
National Board Certified Teacher, the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year,
and a proud member of the National Education Association. I have spent
the last 11 years educating and uplifting children at Meadowlark
Elementary, a Title I public school in Salt Lake City, and I can
honestly say that despite the difficulties we face, I am still madly in
love with teaching.
As we consider the challenges facing public school teachers today,
there is one statistic that worries me the most is the majority of
American parents do not want their kids to become teachers. In 2018,
the percentage of parents who said they would like one of their
children to become a public school teacher in their community fell
below 50 percent for the first time in the U.S., and in 2022 that
number dropped down to 37 percent (PDK International, 2022). As someone
who has dedicated his professional life to public education, these
numbers trouble me because we cannot sustain a healthy, effective
public school system when so few parents want their kids to join me and
my friends in the classroom. I am still hopeful that many of our youth
will still choose teaching as their profession despite their parents'
objections because I, too, was once that kid. My mom, who used to work
here in the gift shop in our Nation's Capitol, did not want me to
become a public school teacher. Suka Arthur immigrated to the U.S. from
Korea shortly after marrying my father, Alan, a West Point graduate
patrolling the DMZ. Like so many immigrant parents, my mom wanted me to
grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer. Finally, in my late-twenties, I
worked up the courage to tell my Omma that I was going to graduate
school to become a teacher. After a long pause, she asked, ``Doctor
Teacher?''
I said, ``No, Omma . . . elementary school teacher.''
In Korea, teachers hold a position of high respect and esteem,
rooted deeply in cultural and historical values. My mom recognized that
here in the United States, public school teachers are treated
differently, and more than anything she didn't want her son to have,
what she considered, a hard life. And the fact that my mother was so
desperate for me to become a doctor or lawyer tells you everything
about how we as a society view those professions. Prestige. High pay.
Respect.
That is what my mother wanted for me, and honestly that's what I
want for myself and every other teacher in this country. I want that
for my two little girls, who I desperately want to become public school
teachers. I tell my daughters and every other kid who walks into my
classroom that they ought to become teachers one day. I have this
saying that I repeat constantly in my class:
``Children are the best people, teaching is the best job, and
there's no better way to spend a day than in a classroom with
kids!''
My 6th graders get excited (most days) when I get hyped about
teaching and learning, which translates into their own higher quality
and more joyful work. As public school teachers, we often squander the
ultimate homecourt advantage when it comes to recruiting our Nation's
top talent, our best and brightest students, into our profession. We
have them in our classrooms for 13 years; posters promoting the
teaching profession should hang on every wall, and our children should
be hearing all the reasons we decided to become public school teachers
every single day. And yet, like my mom, we often don't because we want
to protect our children from what we know can be, even on the best of
days, a hard life. That's why 52 percent of the teachers in our
classrooms today wouldn't advise a young person to join our profession
(Lin et al., 2024).
I recently presented at a special education conference, and in my
keynote I told the teachers the same thing I tell my students:
``Children are the best people, teaching is the best job, and
there's no better way to spend a day than in a classroom with
kids!''
Afterward, a teacher approached me and said, ``There is a part of
me that resents your joy. I don't want to bring you down, but I'm going
to ask this anyway--how are you thriving when I'm barely surviving?''
His words broke my heart, and I know he's not alone. In 2022, only 12
percent of teachers reported being very satisfied with their job (Will,
2022). This year, the number of very satisfied teachers jumped up to 33
percent (Lin et al., 2024). And while that increase in job satisfaction
might sound like good news, it belies the truth: satisfaction amongst
our teachers isn't going up, dissatisfied teachers are walking out the
door. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022,
there were 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than there were
before the pandemic (Jotkoff, 2022). I have watched Rock Star teachers
leave the profession brokenhearted because they love their students,
but they just cannot endure the low pay and disrespect any longer. One
of them, a friend who earned his Master of Arts in Teaching with me,
now works for an educational technology company. He recently walked
into my classroom, not knowing it was mine, to show my grade-level team
how to better use his product; when he saw me, his face went pale, and
when he was leaving he told me he was afraid I'd be disappointed in him
for having chosen more money and better working conditions over working
with our kids.
``How are you thriving when I'm barely surviving?''
I had to think long and hard about that question before I found my
answer. I think there are four things teachers need in order to thrive,
even in these difficult times:
Compensation
Community
Respect
Room to Grow as Professionals
First: Compensation
The No. 1 reason teachers leave education is the pay. The No. 1
reason parents do not want their children to become teachers is the
pay. That is why the first necessary step in revitalizing our teaching
workforce must be increasing the pay for all teachers. We cannot
continue to run our public education system on the backs of saints and
martyrs. We must raise wages to the level at which we can successfully
recruit and retain the talent we need to effectively educate all
children, regardless of zip code.
You used to be able to raise a family in this country on just a
teacher's salary. Now, I can afford to be a public school teacher
because my wife makes much more money than me. If it wasn't for her, I
would have long since joined the exhausted 20 percent of teachers who
work a second job during the school year (Walker, 2019). Without her, I
would look to the exit like the 48 percent of educators planning on
leaving teaching due to compensation, or I would follow the 42 percent
who already left for the same reason (Bryant et al., 2023).
I appreciate the attention that the Chairman has brought to raising
teacher pay, and leaders in Utah have recognized the same need. In
2020, a report called A Vision for Teacher Excellence was released that
called for average new teacher salaries in Utah to start at $60,000
annually and grow to $110,000 a year over the course of a career
(Envision Utah, 2020). Envision Utah, a nonpartisan organization
composed of our state's top community, business, and governmental
leaders, declared that improving teacher compensation is likely the
single-most effective and impactful strategy for better preparing Utah
students for the future, and the same holds true for all our Nation's
children.
Second: Community
When I became a teacher, I knew I wanted to plant deep roots and
teach in the same school, serving the same neighborhood, for the next
30 years. At Meadowlark Elementary, I found that home. Besides working
with my students, my favorite thing about teaching are the
relationships I have developed with their parents and families. The
relationship between teachers and parents is the cornerstone of a
child's educational experience. I cherish the shared goals, open
communication, collaboration, mutual support, and celebrations I get to
share with my students' parents every year, and it's the community we
have built together in my classroom that keeps me running back to
school each fall.
Teachers who also connect with supportive communities of educators
are more likely to remain in the teaching profession. As a first-year
teacher, I was inspired to join the Salt Lake Education Association
(SLEA), and thereby the Utah Education Association (UEA) and National
Education Association (NEA), after watching teachers in my own district
selflessly step outside the comfort of their classrooms to fight for
greater funding and opportunities for the students in mine. I soon
joined them in leading marches and speaking at rallies. In 2019, we
rallied against a change to our district's salary schedule that would
have increased starting salaries, but cost our teachers hundreds of
thousands of dollars over the course of our careers. In 2020, I
delivered a speech to over 1,500 UEA members who had marched up the
steps of our state capitol to insist our legislature raise our per
pupil funding by 6 percent. And they did. The thrill of those actions
taken together in community with my fellow public school teachers
continues to inspire me and keeps me motivated in my work with students
today.
I also draw inspiration from another community I am proud to belong
to. When I pursued my National Board Certification, I was immediately
embraced by our Country's most accomplished educators, without whose
support and guidance I might not have made it through the pandemic. No
teacher thrives alone or survives in isolation. To strengthen the
teaching profession, we must support the communities and organizations
that make teachers strong.
Third: Respect
A few years ago, my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As
scared as she was, my mom was most worried about my sister, who was in
her mid-thirties and single at the time. Afraid my sister might end up
alone forever, my mom asked me if I knew any single men in the DC area
for her to date. I told her that a close friend of mine, the 2021
Washington DC Teacher of the Year, was a great guy and newly single. My
mom thought about it, then said, ``No.'' It took me a moment to realize
what was wrong--even facing death, my mother still didn't want her
daughter dating a teacher.
While teachers in the U.S. are appreciated by the majority of
Americans, there is a negative narrative of the profession that is
impacting our ability to recruit and retain highly qualified educators
into the profession. One way to counter this negative perspective and
boost the level of respect our public school teachers receive is to
shine a spotlight on our best and brightest educators, thereby
elevating excellence within our profession. I am the Co-Director of the
Teacher Fellows, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization committed to
developing the next generation of Utah teacher leaders. On our monthly
podcast, we feature incredible classroom teachers and give them a
platform to highlight the work they do with students and other
educators they think the whole world needs to hear about. Amplifying
stories like these is an easy way to flip the script on what it means
to be a teacher in America.
Fourth: Room for Professional Growth
The last thing teachers need to thrive is room to grow as
professionals. We are professionals. Driven by the need to be better
for the children and families we serve, public school teachers
everywhere pursue advanced degrees and additional credentials.
During my Master of Arts in Teaching program, I began working with
a student with dyslexia and another identified with an emotional
disturbance. I quickly realized I didn't have the tools to meet their
needs, so I decided to add a second Master's degree in K-6 Mild/
Moderate Special Education to my program. I am also certified to work
with multilingual learners, and currently I am pursuing my Doctor of
Education degree in Policy and Leadership--all so I can be a more
effective 6th grade teacher.
I am also National Board Certified as a middle childhood
generalist. National Board Certification is a voluntary, advanced
certification that shows a teacher is an instructional expert in their
subject and age range. It requires teachers to demonstrate a deep
understanding of the content they teach by subject and age, the ability
to meet individual student needs, develop strong relationships with
students, families and colleagues, and maintain ongoing critical
reflection of their practice. Similar to board certification in
medicine, National Board Certification assures policymakers, parents,
and the public that teachers have met the profession's highest
standards. Over a decade of research has demonstrated that students
taught by National Board Certified Teachers learn more than their
peers. National Board Certified Teachers are also more likely to remain
in the profession, leaving the classroom at just one-third the average
rate. Over 137,000 teachers have achieved board certification in all 50
states and the District of Columbia, nearly half in high-need schools.
I also mentor other teachers of color pursuing their National Board
Certification, ensuring that, like me, they have the opportunity and
support necessary to improve their practice and advance their careers.
We teachers are also taking the lead in bringing new teachers into
the classroom. For example, in collaboration with the Salt Lake
Education Foundation, I have helped start a pilot program at Meadowlark
Elementary called Our Community, Our Teachers, through which any school
staff member, including our custodian or head secretary, can receive a
scholarship to pursue a degree in education.
There are teachers in every school and district in our Nation
proudly leading from their classrooms, and it is time we elevate the
excellence that America's teachers exemplify. When we do, even the
hearts of our harshest critics can be moved.
Just months before she passed, my mom left me this voicemail:
``Hi Son, this is Omma. I just want to say hi to you, how is
everything going with you, and I am thinking of you. And I love
you so much.
I just want to say I am so proud of you as a teacher. You are a
great teacher, you are a wonderful son.
I love you so much.''
I followed my heart into teaching, and eventually won my mom's
heart, too. When we improve teacher pay, strengthen our communities,
elevate the professionalism of our incredible educators, and provide
greater opportunities for professional growth, then more young
Americans will become teachers. Not despite their parents' wishes--to
make their parents proud.
______
[summary statement of john arthur]
Mr. Arthur's testimony will focus on his experience as an educator
of 11 years at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City, Utah and as a
parent of two young children.
John will highlight:
the importance of prestige and satisfaction in the
teaching profession;
the difficult tradeoffs and sacrifices that educators
have to make due to low pay and poor working conditions;
the various efforts and credentials he holds to
better support the diverse needs of a Title I school; and
four components to ensuring educators can thrive:
compensation, community, respect, and room to grow as
professionals.
Key data points:
Only 37 percent of parents in the U.S. would like
their child to become a public school teacher.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, in 2022, there were 567,000 fewer educators in
public schools than there were before the pandemic.
20 percent of teachers who work a second job during
the school year.
48 percent of educators planning on leaving teaching
due to compensation, and the 42 percent who already left for
the same reason.
Over 137,000 teachers have achieved board
certification in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,
nearly half in high-need schools.
______
The Chair. Thank you very much.
[Applause.]
The Chair. Our next witness is Mr. Gemayel Keyes, a special
education teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of the Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers, Paraprofessional to Teacher Program.
Mr. Keyes, thank you very much for being with us.
STATEMENT OF GEMAYEL KEYES, TEACHER, GILBERT SPRUANCE
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA, PA
Mr. Keyes. Thank you, Senator Sanders, and the Committee
for addressing this critical issue. My name is Gemayel Keyes
and I am an educator and a member of the Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers and AFT Local. On behalf of the PFT, the
AFT and my colleagues, again, I want to thank you Chairman
Sanders and the Committee for addressing this critical issue.
I teach middle-years special education in the third largest
elementary school in Philadelphia. I was born and raised in
Philadelphia and educated in Philadelphia public schools. I'm a
product of teachers who molded me into a lifelong learner and
have left an indelible mark on my life.
Just last week, after 18 years with the School District of
Philadelphia, I completed my first year as a classroom teacher.
While this is the third position I've held in my district,
starting my career as a bus attendant, I've spent most of my
career in education as a paraprofessional, and that's how I
stumbled upon what I would find was my calling.
For the entirety of my 18-year career, I've worked in the
same school primarily with students who have disabilities and
complex needs. And I've worked alongside veteran teachers, all
of whom are now retired. Those now retired veteran teachers
told me that I was meant to be a teacher even when I didn't see
it.
At the time I moved into my career as a paraprofessional.
The starting salary was $16,000 with the maximum salary of
$30,000 per year and it's still pretty much the same. For those
of you who don't know, paraprofessionals work alongside
teachers to keep the train on the track, so to speak. And
they're essential for working with students who need additional
attention and support. So, as I began to recognize that I did
want to pursue a career as teaching, I also started looking
into schooling.
My major concern with going to school was going into debt.
I ultimately understood that it was necessary to get to where I
needed to be in my career. I obtained my associate's degree in
early childhood education with honors. I continued to earn my
bachelor's degree in the same area.
At that time, I had the option to obtain my teaching
certification while doing my coursework, but this also meant
that I would have to take an unpaid leave from my job to
complete the student teaching component. And this was something
that I could not afford to do.
At the same time, my union, the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers was in the early stages of negotiating our next
contract. And I used this time to speak with my union
leadership about my journey to becoming a teacher and some of
the obstacles. It was from this meeting that the seeds for the
Para Pathways program were planted.
As our district was facing vacancies my union and the
district agreed that the best potential teachers were already
working in classrooms, serving children daily as
paraprofessionals, and that alleviating barriers would allow
access to the teacher pathway. The Para Pathways program became
part of our contract and eliminated as much of the financial
burden as possible, ultimately making, obtaining a degree cost
free for paraprofessionals in the program with the multi-year
commitment for teaching in Philadelphia public schools.
Through the Pathways program, I entered the teacher
residency program, which meant I would work for 1 year under a
mentor teacher in a Title I school while taking coursework to
obtain my master's degree in special education. Many don't
understand that you're not only responsible for content, but
you also take on many roles in the classroom based on the needs
of your students. All starting with a salary of around $45,000.
Teachers are constantly putting money back into the
classroom for everything, from school supplies to snacks for
hungry children. And just this school year alone, I've spent
over a thousand dollars on those things, just so that I can be
effective at what I do.
Even as a teacher, I still have an additional part-time
job. On top of personal monetary contributions for teachers in
special education, there's also hours of paperwork that cannot
possibly be completed during the workday if we're expected to
actually teach and work with our students.
According to a report in 2023, the PA Needs Teachers, it
stated that there are 2015 teacher vacancies, this means that
Philadelphia is facing a severe shortage. And at the start of
next school year, there will be a hundred paraprofessionals who
would have gone through the Pathways program. If there's no
steady pipeline of teachers coming in from outside of this
program, things won't change in my profession.
As a teacher, I wake up every day and make a choice to be
an urban educator in a district where many of the school
buildings are crumbling from decades of deferred maintenance
and have issues with asbestos, and where many of my students
have diverse needs.
I hope that school districts look at the success of the
Pathways program and decide to invest in school employees, Grow
Your Own programs. And I also hope that the Federal Government
can make providing funding for those programs a priority, and
invest in teachers like Senator Sanders Pay Our Teachers Act
proposes with a starting salary of $60,000. Other countries
take their education seriously and they value their educators.
I hope that you guys in Congress, who are the policymakers
and shape education in America, can do the same. Thank you for
letting me share my experience with the Committee today, and I
appreciate it.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Keyes follows.]
prepared statement of gemayel keyes
My name is Gemayel Keyes, and I am an educator and a member of the
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, an AFT local. On behalf of the
PFT, the AFT and my colleagues and students, I want to thank Chairman
Sanders and the Committee for addressing this critical issue.
I teach middle-years special education in a Philadelphia public
school. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and educated in
Philadelphia public schools. I am a product of the teachers who molded
me into a lifelong learner and left an indelible mark on my life. Just
last week, after 18 years with the School District of Philadelphia, I
completed my first year as a classroom teacher. While this is the third
position that I've held in the district, starting my career as a bus
attendant, I've spent most of my career in education as a
paraprofessional, and that's how I stumbled upon what I would come to
find was my calling.
For the entirety of my 18-year career, I have worked in the same
school, primarily with students who have disabilities and complex
needs, and alongside veteran teachers, all of whom are now retired.
Those now-retired veteran teachers told me that I was meant to be a
teacher, even when I didn't see it. They saw a gift in the way I was
able to bond and build relationships with even the most challenging of
students, getting them to work and complete tasks when others couldn't.
As time progressed, I began to see what those veteran teachers saw and
pondered the question of what could be next for my career.
At the time I moved into my career as a paraprofessional, the
starting salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000 per year. For
those of you who don't know, paraprofessionals work alongside teachers
in the classroom to help ``keep the train on the tracks'' when needed
and are essential to working with students who need additional
attention and support. Many paraprofessionals work multiple jobs just
to keep their heads above water and stay a centimeter above the poverty
line. As I began to recognize that I did want to pursue a career as a
teacher, I also started looking into schooling. Seeing costs in
comparison to my salary was off-putting, so much so that it caused me
to delay going back to school for some time. Then my school's special
education compliance manager presented me with a flier for a college
program that was offered through a partnership with Harcum College and
the district that accepted a limited number of paraprofessional
applicants. However, this program did not include any type of direct
financial assistance or commitment from the school district.
My major concern with going to school was going into debt, but I
ultimately understood it was necessary to get to where I wanted to be
in my career. I applied, was accepted into the program and obtained my
associate degree in early childhood education, with honors. I continued
to Eastern University to earn my bachelor's degree in the same area.
While at Eastern, I had the option to obtain my teaching certification
while doing my coursework, but this also meant that I would have to
take unpaid leave from my job to complete the student-teaching
component in a different school district from the one I work for. This
was something I could not afford to do.
My situation was not unique, as I knew of several other
paraprofessionals in the exact same boat--literally steps away from
being able to teach but facing that same student-teaching hardship. At
the same time in 2019, my union, the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers, was in the early stages of negotiating our next contract, and
I used this time to speak with my union leadership about my journey to
become a teacher and some of the obstacles. It was from this meeting
that the seeds for the Para Pathways program were planted. After 2020,
our district was facing more vacancies than in the past, as many
teachers had retired or left the profession over the course of the
pandemic.
My union saw that the best potential teachers are already hard at
work in classrooms serving children daily as paraprofessionals and that
alleviating barriers would allow access to the teacher pathway. The
Para Pathway program was a priority for my union and the district
agreed. The district understood that paraprofessionals know the
schools, live in the school community and share similar life
experiences with our students. To make this happen, the school district
agreed to make the Para Pathways program contractual and eliminate as
much of the financial burden as possible, ultimately making obtaining a
degree cost-free for paraprofessionals in the program with a multiyear
commitment to teaching in Philadelphia schools.
Through the Para Pathways program, there are multiple pathways to
teaching that are available to paraprofessionals based on their
education level. Since I already had my bachelor's degree, I entered
the Teacher Residency program, which meant I would spend 1 year working
under a mentor teacher, in a Title I school, while taking coursework to
obtain my master's degree in special education. Alongside me in the
residency program were career-changers coming from every profession,
ranging from corporate America to the military. All of us were
following our passion to become educators. Many of my residency
classmates, especially those coming from careers outside of education,
were unprepared for what it meant to teach in urban public schools, and
in under 2 years, a few had already quit due to burnout from the
stresses that come along with the job.
Many don't understand that you are not only responsible for content
but must take on many roles in the classroom based on the needs of your
students, all with a starting salary of around $45,000. Teachers are
also constantly putting their own money back into their classroom,
providing necessities for the job and their students' needs, like
school supplies and snacks for hungry students. In just this school
year, I spent over $1,000 on classroom supplies so I could be
effective.
But even as a teacher, I still have an additional part-time job. I
can't even achieve the American dream of homeownership because of a
high student debt-to-income ratio----even though I have saved for a
down payment and can qualify for a mortgage. Since I've been a
paraprofessional, with a top income significantly less than a first-
year teacher, I know the American dream is also out of reach for many
of my colleagues. On top of the personal monetary contributions for
teachers in special education, there's also hours of paperwork that
cannot possibly be completed during work hours if we're expected to
actually teach and work with our students.
The ``PA Needs Teachers'' report from 2023 stated that Philadelphia
needed 2,015 teachers. This means that Philadelphia is in a severe
teacher shortage. In my district, there are about 200 vacancies. At the
start of the next school year, due to the Para Pathways program, 100
paraprofessionals will have earned teaching positions. But, if there is
no steady pipeline of teachers coming in from outside of this program,
things will not change for the profession.
We must invest in our teachers but also in our paraprofessionals.
If we continue to underinvest in the pay and working conditions and
don't match the responsibilities and job expectations, the
paraprofessionals shortage will rise, the same way the pipeline of
teachers has declined. I must also acknowledge and fully recognize that
my job as a teacher would be impossible to do without my
paraprofessional staff.
Each of us is here because a teacher taught us, inspired us, lit a
spark and encouraged us to expand our minds, exploring our dreams.
Becoming a bus assistant, a paraprofessional or a teacher is a
respectable profession. As a teacher, I wake up every weekday and make
a choice to be an urban educator in a district where many of our school
buildings are crumbling due to decades of deferred maintenance and have
issues with asbestos, and where many of our students have diverse
needs.
I hope more school districts look at the success of Philadelphia's
Para Pathways program and decide to invest in their school employees
and offer a ``grow-your-own'' program. I also hope that the Federal
Government can make providing funding for those programs a priority.
Our counterparts in other countries take education seriously and invest
in and respect their education professionals. Something must change,
and that change can be driven by Congress, the policymakers who help
shape what education in America looks like.
Thank you for letting me share my experience with the Committee
today, and I welcome any questions.
______
[summary statement of gemayel keyes]
Mr. Keyes' testimony will be about his experience as a first-year
educator in special education and school district employee of 18 years
in the School District of Philadelphia, including the importance of
Philadelphia Federation of Teacher's ``Para Pathways program.''
Key points will include:
the role of veteran teachers in supporting and
mentoring new educators;
addressing teacher shortages through internal
pathways to become teachers;
challenges facing paraprofessionals and educators
with low pay and high student debt;
multiple roles and responsibilities educators are
balancing; and
the importance of teacher residency programs and
retention in local communities.
______
Senator Sanders. Thank you, Mr. Keyes, for all that you're
doing and your testimony. Our next witness is Dr. William
Kirwan, the Chancellor Emeritus of the University System of
Maryland, and the former Chairman of the Maryland Commission on
Innovation and Excellence in Education.
Dr. Kirwan, thanks very much for being with us.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM E. KIRWAN, VICE-CHAIR OF MARYLAND'S
ACCOUNTABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION BOARD, ROCKVILLE, MD
Dr. Kirwan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member
Cassidy, and Committee Members. I'm grateful for the
opportunity to discuss the recently enacted Pre-K-12 education
reform legislation in Maryland entitled, The Blueprint for
Maryland's Future.
The Blueprint is a multi-year comprehensive plan that
addresses all aspects of children's education from birth to
high school completion, including most especially the
recruitment, retention, and compensation of high-quality
teachers.
To understand the magnitude and rationale of the changes
called for in the blueprint, I need to take you back to the
fall of 2016, when the Governor and General Assembly asked me
to chair a 27-member commission, the Commission on Innovation
and Excellence in Education. The charge to the commission was
bold, make recommendations so that Maryland's Pre-K-12 system
will perform as well as the top performing school systems in
the world.
The commission spent 3 years examining in great depth the
elements of several of the world's highest performing school
systems, including Finland, Shanghai, China, Singapore, and
Ontario, Canada. These systems all scored at or near the top on
international student assessments, and almost all of their
students completed a rigorous course of high school study.
During the commission's work, we discovered a remarkable
thing. Even though the high performing systems we studied were
on three different continents and operated in various economic,
political, and cultural context, they all adhered to five basic
principles that led to their success.
First, invest in early childhood development and education.
Second, prepare, compensate, and treat teachers like true
professionals. Third, develop a fully aligned, periodically
updated, and rigorous K-12 instructional system. Fourth, invest
significantly in students needing the most support to be
successful, and fifth, require a high degree of accountability
at the school level.
These principles became the five pillars of the
commission's recommendations. Our recommendations were sent to
the General Assembly and incorporated into the Blueprint for
Maryland's Future legislation and enacted in 2021.
In my written testimony, I briefly described the elements
of the five pillars on how they were built through the
extensive research we did on high performing systems
internationally. Given the focus of this hearing, I'll restrict
my oral comments to the Blueprints Pillar 2; high quality
teacher recruitment and retention. The commission observed that
in every country it studied with high performing school
systems, teaching is a well-regarded and well compensated
profession that attracts talent similar to other high-status
professions in these countries.
Their teacher preparation programs are rigorous, and
certification standards are high. Moreover, teachers are
treated as true professionals. They're given a significant
degree of classroom autonomy and actively engage in research on
upgrading curricula and improving pedagogy.
Pillar 2 of the Blueprint is built on the strategies
embraced by these high performing systems. Maryland's teacher
preparation programs are in the process of upgrading the rigor
of their curriculum, and the State Department of Education is
raising certification standards.
The Blueprints principle for teacher compensation is that
as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same
level as other professionals requiring similar levels of
education, such as architects and CPAs.
Based on a comparison of starting salaries in these similar
professions, as the Chairman said, the Blueprint sets the
starting salary for all teachers at $60,000 no later than July
1st, 2026. We are delighted to see that the Pay Teachers Act
independently reached the same conclusion on compensation
levels for teachers.
However, the Blueprint goes much further in addressing
compensation and the work environment for teachers. To ensure
high quality teachers are incentivized to stay in the
classroom, the blueprint includes a career ladder for teachers
modeled on what we learned from the high performing systems.
The career ladder has multiple rungs of advancement and
compensation based on a teacher's classroom success with
students. To be and stay on the career ladder, a teacher must
be board certified by the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards.
There is ample research-based evidence that board
certification improves a teacher's classroom effectiveness. The
Blueprint provides an annual $10,000 bonus for board
certification. Teachers can also earn an additional $7,000
annually for teaching in schools serving communities with a
high concentration of poverty. With the Blueprint, successful
teachers could earn six figure salaries after a half dozen
years in the profession.
A U.S. Department of National Survey showed that Maryland
led the Nation in the increase of students entering teacher
preparation programs, an encouraging sign that the Blueprint
strategies for treating teachers as true professionals are
already having an impact.
Mr. Chairman, if you'll permit me, I'll conclude with this
thought. As you have noted, one of our Nation's most
significant challenges today is the declining quality of Pre-K-
12 education. Student absenteeism is at an all-time high, and
teacher shortages are at crisis levels in most states.
Our nation's students do not perform well on international
assessments. Alarm bells should be ringing across the country.
Our nation simply can't sustain its global leadership in the
decades to come if our children don't have access to an
education at the level presently offered in other advanced
countries.
The Blueprint's goal is to ensure that Maryland's children
receive as good an education as students anywhere else in the
world, and the state has made a remarkable commitment to
achieve that end. We hope the Blueprint will become a model for
other states to emulate. Our nation's children need and deserve
no less. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Kirwan follows.]
prepared statement of william e. kirwan
Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and Committee Members, I
am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the recently enacted Pre-K-
12 education reform legislation in Maryland, entitled The Blueprint for
Maryland's Future. The Blueprint is a multi-year, comprehensive plan
that addresses all aspects of a child's education from birth to high
school completion, including most especially the recruitment,
retention, and compensation of high-quality teachers.
To understand the magnitude and rationale of the changes called for
in the Blueprint, I need to take you back to the fall of 2016 when the
Governor and General Assembly asked me to chair a 27-member commission,
the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education. The
Commission included members of the General Assembly, the business
community, collective bargaining entities, state and local Pre-K-12
school officials, the State Superintendent, and higher education
representatives.
The charge to the commission was bold: Make recommendations so that
Maryland's Pre-K-12 system will perform as well as the top-performing
school systems in the world. Supported by staff from the National
Center for Education and Economy, the Commission spent 3 years
examining in great depth the elements of several of the world's
highest-performing school systems, including Finland, Shanghai, China,
Singapore, and Ontario, Canada. These systems all scored at or near the
top on international student assessments, and almost all of their
students completed a rigorous course of high school study.
During the Commission's work, we discovered a remarkable thing.
Even though these high-performing systems were on three different
continents and operated in various economic, political, and cultural
contexts, they all adhered to five basic principles that led to their
success: invest in early childhood development and education; prepare,
compensate, and treat teachers like other professionals; develop a
fully aligned, rigorous Pre-K-12 instructional system; invest heavily
in students needing the most support to be successful; and require a
high degree of accountability at the school level. These principles
became the five pillars of the Commission's recommendations. Our
recommendations were sent to the General Assembly and incorporated into
the Blueprint for Maryland's Future legislation, codified in 2021.
I'll briefly describe the five pillars of the Blueprint but spend a
little more time on the pillar involved with preparing and developing a
high-quality teaching corps since this is the focus of today's hearing.
Pillar One is a significant new state investment in early childhood
development and education. This investment is based on what we learned
about the high-performing systems we studied. For example:
All countries benchmarked as top performers offer
free or very low-cost, high-quality early childhood education
for three-to 5-year-olds (compulsory schooling typically begins
at age six in these countries).
Finland, for example, ensures that at least one-third
of the childcare workers and the lead teacher in every
preschool program have a bachelor's degree.
In Ontario, all teachers of four-and 5-year-olds must
have full certification as regular teachers. Full-day
kindergarten is free for all four-and 5-year-olds in Ontario,
and almost all 5-year-olds are enrolled.
Based on this analysis, the Blueprint expands existing centers and
creates new centers across the state to support low-income families
with young children on issues such as parenting, nutrition, and early
child development. It also calls for high-quality full-day preschool,
free for all three--and 4-year-old children from low-income families.
Following the lead of the benchmarked countries, the Blueprint
requires preschool lead teachers to hold a bachelor's degree and an
early childhood certification. They are compensated at levels
comparable to K-12 teachers. Pre-school teaching assistants must have
at least a Child Development Associate certification.
Because of the initiatives in Pillar One, we have already seen
indications of an increase in the number of children coming to
kindergarten ready to learn.
Pillar two concerns high-quality teacher recruitment, preparation,
and retention. I'll return to it in a minute.
The third pillar concerns the Pre-K-12 instructional system. Based
on what the Commission learned from high-performing systems, the
Blueprint requires periodic reviews to ensure that the state's
standards and curriculum are comparable in rigor and standards to other
high-performing systems and are aligned and properly sequenced. The use
of high-quality instructional materials by teachers trained in their
use is a critical component of this pillar. It also includes
intervention strategies to keep struggling learners on grade level.
This pillar aims to build an instructional system that allows most kids
to meet the college and career-ready (CCR) standard by the end of the
10th grade and no later than high school graduation. Incidentally, the
Blueprint defines college and career readiness as getting students to
the level to take credit-bearing entry-level college courses without
remediation. Once students are CCR, they can follow one of three
pathways: an advanced placement international baccalaureate curriculum,
early college/dual enrollment with the possibility of earning an
associate's degree for free in high school, or a rigorous career and
technical education pathway, with apprenticeships, to achieve an
industry-certified credential. This later pathway is modeled on the
highly successful and rigorous technical education pathways in the
high-performing systems studied by the Commission.
The fourth pillar involves investments in students who
traditionally have struggled to be successful, including students from
low-income families, multilingual learners, and students with
disabilities. A significant component of this pillar is the creation of
community schools, which serve districts where 55 percent or more of
students come from low-income families. Community schools are allocated
extra resources for tutors, after-school and summer academic
programming, counseling, and social services.
Addressing childhood poverty is a fundamental element of the
Blueprint. One of the Commission's ``aha'' moments was the recognition
that while nations with top-performing systems may spend less on
education per student than systems in the U.S., these countries have
comprehensive social safety nets and do not allow their children to
grow up in poverty. Some in the U.S. would argue that the social safety
net provided by community schools for students and their families is
beyond the role of public schools. The Commission concluded, however,
that it must make this investment for every student, no matter their
zip code, to receive a high-quality education. After all, if a student
cannot see the chalkboard because of a lack of glasses or their
stomachs are rumbling because they haven't had breakfast, we cannot
expect them to learn.
The fifth pillar concerns accountability. Given the massive changes
called for in the Blueprint, which involves state agencies outside of
the state Department of Education, the legislation created a new
oversight entity called the Accountability and Implementation Board
(AIB). This Board comprises seven individuals appointed by the Governor
from names provided by an independent nominating body. The AIB has
plenary powers to approve local Blueprint implementation plans, to send
in expert teams to address the underperformance of individual schools,
to require personnel changes in low-performing schools, and even
withhold funds from districts not meeting the Blueprint's goals and
expectations.
I'll now return to Pillar Two, which is high-quality teacher
recruitment and retention. The Commission observed that in every
country it studied with high-performing school systems, teaching is a
well-regarded and well-compensated profession that attracts talent
similar to other high-status professions in these countries. Their
teacher preparation programs are rigorous, and certification standards
are high. Moreover, teachers are treated as true professionals. They
are given a significant degree of classroom autonomy and are actively
engaged in research on upgrading curricula and improving pedagogy.
Teaching is such a desired profession in top-performing countries
that teacher preparation programs must recruit prospective teachers
from the upper academic ranks of the college-bound graduating cohort:
the top 50 percent in Shanghai, 33 percent in Singapore, 30 percent in
Ontario, and 25 percent in Finland. Admission to teacher preparation
programs in these countries is highly competitive. For example,
admission to teacher preparation programs in Finland is more
competitive than law school. The proportion of acceptances to
applicants for places in university teacher education programs in top-
performing jurisdictions ranges from one acceptance for every ten
applicants to a little more than one acceptance for every four
applicants. In addition to presenting a strong academic record, top-
performing systems require that successful candidates complete
demanding interviews and assessment processes involving their passion
for teaching, ability to relate to children, and ability to collaborate
with colleagues. Starting pay for teachers in these countries is
comparable to other high-status professions.
The Commission learned that in Shanghai and Singapore, the world's
leaders in teacher development, teachers progress up a well-defined
sequence of steps. As they progress, they acquire more responsibility,
authority, status, and compensation, much as one would in a large law
firm in the United States progress from associate to junior partner, to
senior partner, to managing partner. Ontario, Shanghai, and Singapore
have well-developed systems to induct new teachers into the profession.
They are tightly structured and monitored. Mentors are recruited and
selected through an interview process. They are then trained and
evaluated on their effectiveness as mentors.
Essentially, all of these strategies are embedded in pillar two of
the Blueprint. Our teacher preparation programs are upgrading the rigor
of their curriculum, and the State Department of Education is revising
certification standards.
The Blueprint's underlying principle for teacher compensation is
that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same
level as other professions requiring similar levels of education, such
as architects and CPAs. Based on a comparison of starting salaries in
these similar professions, the Blueprint sets the starting wages for
all new teachers at $60,000 no later than July 1, 2026. Many of the
large school districts in Maryland are already close to this goal, and
starting salaries will likely exceed $60,000 as they compete with each
other and neighboring states to attract high-quality teachers.
However, the Blueprint goes much further in addressing compensation
and the work environment for teachers.
To ensure high-quality teachers are incentivized to stay in the
classroom, the Blueprint includes a career ladder for teachers modeled
on what we learned from the high-performing systems. The career ladder
has multiple rungs of advancement and compensation based on a teacher's
classroom success with students. To be and stay on the career ladder, a
teacher must be board-certified by the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards. There is ample research-based evidence that Board
certification improves a teacher's classroom effectiveness. The
Blueprint provides an annual $10,000 bonus for board certification.
Teachers can also earn an additional $7,000 annually for teaching in
schools serving communities with a high concentration of poverty. With
the Blueprint, successful teachers could earn six-figure salaries after
a half dozen years in the profession.
As teachers move up the career ladder, the Blueprint requires them
to assume greater responsibility for mentoring new teachers, supporting
professional learning communities among teachers, and engaging in
research on curriculum development and new teaching and learning
strategies. In sum, they will collaborate with other teachers to
advance the success of their schools, not spend the entire day working
alone, isolated in a single classroom. A recent national survey showed
that Maryland led the Nation in the increase of students entering
teacher preparation programs, an encouraging sign that the Blueprint
strategies for treating teachers as true professionals are already
having an impact.
One of our Nation's most significant challenges today is the
declining quality of Pre-K-12 education. Student absenteeism is at an
all-time high, and teacher shortages are at crisis levels in most
states. Our Nation's students do not perform well in international
assessments. Alarm bells should be ringing across the country. Our
Nation can't sustain its global leadership in the decades to come if
our children don't have access to an education at the level presently
offered in other advanced economies. The Blueprint's goal is to ensure
that Maryland's children receive as good an education as students
anywhere else in the world, and the state has made a remarkable
commitment to achieve that end. We hope the Blueprint will become a
model for other states to emulate. Our nation's children need and
deserve no less.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I look forward
to responding to any questions you may have.
______
[summary statement of william e. kirwan]
Dr. Kirwan's testimony focuses on the recently enacted Pre-K-12
education reform legislation in Maryland, entitled The Blueprint for
Maryland's Future. The Blueprint is a multi-year, comprehensive plan
that addresses all aspects of a child's education from birth to high
school completion, including most especially the recruitment,
retention, and compensation of high-quality teachers.
Key points will include:
The role of the Commission on Innovation and
Excellence in Education--made up of members of the General
Assembly, the business community, collective bargaining
entities, state and local Pre-K-12 school officials, the State
Superintendent, and higher education representatives--to make
recommendations so that Maryland's Pre-K-12 system will perform
as well as the top-performing school systems in the world.
Lessons learned from 3 years spent examining in great
depth the elements of several of the world's highest-performing
school systems, including Finland, Shanghai, China, Singapore,
and Ontario, Canada.
The five pillars of the Commission's recommendations:
invest in early childhood development and education; prepare,
compensate, and treat teachers like other professionals;
develop a fully aligned, rigorous Pre-K-12 instructional
system; invest heavily in students needing the most support to
be successful; and require a high degree of accountability at
the school level.
Based on a comparison of starting salaries in these
similar professions, the Blueprint sets the starting wages for
all new teachers at $60,000 no later than July 1, 2026.
Many of the large school districts in Maryland are
already close to this goal, and starting salaries will likely
exceed $60,000 as they compete with each other and neighboring
states to attract high-quality teachers.
To ensure high-quality teachers are incentivized to
stay in the classroom, the Blueprint includes a career ladder
for teachers modeled on what we learned from the high-
performing systems.
A recent national survey showed that Maryland led the
Nation in the increase of students entering teacher preparation
programs, an encouraging sign that the Blueprint strategies for
treating teachers as true professionals are already having an
impact.
______
The Chair. Thank you, Dr. Kirwan.
[Applause.]
The Chair. Senator Cassidy, do you want to introduce your
panelists?
Senator Cassidy. Yes, please. It's my privilege to
introduce our fourth witness Mr. Robert Pondiscio. Mr.
Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute on their education policy team. He left his career in
journalism to become a fifth-grade teacher at a struggling
school in the South Bronx. Now he's a recognized and respected
expert in curriculum, teaching and school choice. We're
thankful to have your perspective today, sir, please.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT PONDISCIO, SENIOR FELLOW, AMERICAN
ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, MEDUSA, NY
Mr. Pondiscio. Thank you. Senator Chairman Sanders, Ranking
Member Cassidy, and distinguished Members of the Committee.
Thank you for inviting me to discuss the challenges faced by
America's classroom teachers.
I'm Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow in education policy
at the American Enterprise Institute. It is truly an honor to
be here. In 2002, as Senator Cassidy mentioned, I left a career
in publishing and I took an 80 percent pay cut to teach fifth
grade in a South Bronx public school. I did this willingly,
even proudly. I wasn't thinking about what I would make. I was
thinking I'd make a difference.
When I reflect on my days in the classroom and teaching as
a profession, I don't think about paychecks, staffing, or per
pupil funding. I think about the things that get in the way of
teacher success. Teachers are told they must know the ``why''
behind every decision we make in the classroom.
If we expect higher pay to improve student outcomes, if
that is the ``why'', then I fear we'll be disappointed. Higher
pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours
to their day. The problem we seldom discuss is that we have
made teaching too hard for mere mortals.
Teaching is the easiest job in the world to do badly. It's
the hardest job to do well. Make no mistake, America's
teachers, most of the 4 million men and women who do it full-
time, strive to excel. Visit a struggling school and you'll
meet people who are trying hard but failing.
I'd like to focus on some of the factors behind those
failures, the factors that lead to teacher frustration and
burnout, and that higher pay will not change. Poor teacher
preparation, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy
curriculum, and the quasi-therapeutic roles teachers are now
expected to play in addition to their core academic roles.
Bluntly, we are asking teachers to do too many things for
them to do any of them well. The U.S. already spends
significantly more per student than the OECD average, yet
student achievement remains static, as Senator Cassidy pointed
out, despite increased spending and staffing.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 84 percent
of teachers feel there isn't enough time to complete their
work. 68 percent feel their jobs are overwhelming. Nearly half
of new teachers leave the classroom within 5 years. No
profession sends its people to work more poorly prepared than
education.
That same Pew poll found that only 36 percent of teachers
feel they have the resources they need, and only one third are
satisfied with their training or professional development
opportunities. The former head of the National Council on
Teacher Quality, Kate Walsh, criticized the inadequate
preparation of teachers, she likened it to a hazing ritual. And
invariably, the teachers who struggle the most are in front of
the students who can afford it the least.
When the teacher is unprepared, forced to learn on the job
and struggling, students do not get a do over. They only fall
further behind. Why do good teachers leave? Primarily, it's not
the pay. Student behavior is out of control, creating
intolerable classroom conditions that drive teachers away. A
2022 National Education Association poll, showed that nearly
half of all teachers planned to quit due to school climate and
safety.
An EdWeek survey last year found over 70 percent of
teachers reported increased disruptive behavior since 2019. A
shocking 40 percent of teachers have faced physical violence
from students. Louisiana's State Superintendent of Education,
Cade Brumley, recently advocated for removing habitually
disruptive students from classrooms to allow teachers to teach
and students to learn. That view is refreshing, but rare.
Teachers often find themselves blamed for student misbehavior,
told that more engaging lessons would prevent student
disruption.
Another under-discussed issue is curriculum. A RAND study
found that nearly all teachers in America create or select
their own instructional material, spending hours each week that
could be better used analyzing student work, giving feedback,
building relationships with students and parents, or developing
their own expertise.
Social and emotional learning has added another layer of
responsibility for teachers who are now expected to act as
something like therapists and social workers. Teachers may be
unqualified or unsuited for these responsibilities with
potential negative consequences for students.
The inconvenient fact is that we need 4 million men and
women to staff America's public-school classrooms. A number
that large means that by definition, they will be ordinary
people, not saints, not superstars. Improving outcomes, not a
little, but by a lot requires making the job doable by the
teachers we have, not the teachers we wish we had.
By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it
will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the
classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions,
shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already
challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably.
Good teachers deserve our thanks, our praise, and to make a
decent living. More importantly, they deserve the opportunity
to make a difference. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pondiscio follows.]
prepared statement of robert pondiscio
Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and distinguished Members
of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions: thank you
for inviting me to testify today about the challenges faced by
America's classroom teachers. My name is Robert Pondiscio and I'm a
senior fellow in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
In 2002, I left the magazine business to become a 5th grade public
school teacher in the South Bronx. I took a pay cut of greater than 80
percent to teach in the lowest-scoring school in New York City's
poorest-performing school district. I did so willingly, even proudly. I
was not thinking about what I would make. I was thinking I would make a
difference.
When I reflect on my time in the classroom, I don't think about my
paycheck, the staffing, or the per-pupil funding at my school, which
seemed quite generous. Instead, I think about the impediments that
stood--and still stand--in the way of teachers being successful.
Teaching is the easiest job in the world to do poorly, but the
hardest one to do well. And make no mistake, the vast majority of our
four million full-time teachers deeply want to do it well. So let me
say at the outset that no one should begrudge paying hard-working
teachers more, but we should be clear-eyed about our reasons for doing
so. We work in the service of children. If our hope is that improving
teacher pay will improve student outcomes, then we will likely be
disappointed. Higher pay does not make a hard job easier to perform. It
lifts no burden off a teacher's shoulders, nor does it add hours to a
teacher's day.
I'd like to focus my testimony on a few of the factors that lead to
teacher frustration and burnout that higher pay, however well-intended,
does not change. They include, but are not limited to, poor teacher
preparation, deteriorating classroom conditions--specifically classroom
disorder and disruption--shoddy curriculum, and increasingly the
expectation that they will not just teach reading, math, or their
subject areas effectively, but also play a quasi-therapeutic role in
response to students' behavioral and mental health needs. We are asking
teachers to do too many things to do any of them well at any salary.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 84 percent of
American teachers feel there is not enough time during their regular
work hours to get all of their work done; two-thirds (68 percent) feel
their jobs are overwhelming.
Spend any time in a struggling school and you will soon see that
common complaints miss the mark. They are not filled with incompetent,
lazy, or indifferent teachers. In the main, struggling schools are
filled with good people trying hard and failing. And, as often as not,
they are failing not despite their training but because of it. Nor are
they failing because schools are underfunded. The U.S. spends 38
percent more per students than the average of OECD member countries,
and student achievement has remained static despite four decades of
increased education spending.
Teachers are trying hard and failing because we have made the job
literally too hard for mere mortals to do well.
Let's start with teacher training. Nearly half of new teachers
leave the classroom within 5 years. And no wonder.
No profession sends its people to work more poorly prepared than
education. A 2024 poll from the Pew Research Center found that only 36
percent of American teachers feel that they have ``access to the
resources they need to do their job.'' The same survey found that only
one-third of American teachers feel satisfied with their training or
opportunities to develop new skills.
The former head of the National Council on Teacher Quality, Kate
Walsh, said, ``We treat the first-year teaching like it is some
sorority or fraternity hazing. Educators expect a new teacher to be
sick to her stomach every day at the thought of how she is going to
survive the day just because that's what they once did. It's
appalling!"
She's right. If we trained air-traffic controllers the way we train
new teachers, we'd tell them that deadly crashes are just how you
learn. We'd tell surgeons there's no substitute for hands-on
experience, and not to worry: Their patient mortality rate will decline
over time as they got better and more confident.
As Kate Walsh implied, the idea that every teacher struggles in his
or her first year is not merely accepted but celebrated. We tell war
stories in the teachers' lounge about our disastrous first years in the
classroom. And almost invariably the teachers who struggle the most are
in front of the students who can afford it the least.
We must never forget that while a teacher is learning on the job,
it's their students' only year in that grade. Students don't get a do-
over when the teacher is unprepared and struggling. They only fall
further behind.
A New York City teacher described in his memoir how 2 years of
graduate school and 6 months of student teaching left him unprepared
for the realities of the classroom. ``I had taken courses in lesson
planning, evaluation, psychology, and research,'' he said. ``Next to
nothing was said about what a first-year teacher most needs to know:
how to control a classroom.''
He described his ed school experience as--quote--``a mix of folk
wisdom, psycho-jargon, wishful thinking, and out-and-out [BS].''
Why do good teachers leave the profession? Why do new teachers
leave before they have time to reach classroom competence? It's not
primarily the pay. Student behavior is out of control. It creates
classroom conditions that are intolerable, makes it impossible to
succeed, and drives people out of the classroom. Don't take my word for
it: A 2022 poll from the National Education Association showed that
almost half of all teachers report a desire or plan to quit because of
school climate and safety. An EdWeek survey last year found that more
than 70 percent of teachers report increases in disruptive behavior in
the classroom since 2019. The same Pew study I mentioned earlier
revealed that a shocking 40 percent of American teachers report having
had students who were physically violent toward them.
Cade Brumley, Louisiana's State Superintendent of Education, said
in a recent interview with the Independent Women's Forum, ``Students
who are habitually ungovernable should be removed from teachers'
classrooms . . . so teachers can actually teach and students can
actually learn.'' It was refreshing to hear a state superintendent say
that out loud, and to recognize that disruptive student behavior is
classroom cancer. But attitudes like Brumley's are far too rare. Nearly
every teacher has had the experience of asking for help with an unruly
student and being asked what they did to trigger the disruption, or
being told that students wouldn't act out if their lessons were more
engaging.
Another example of how we make teachers' jobs needlessly difficult
doesn't get a lot of attention, but it should. It pertains to classroom
content, to curriculum.
One RAND study found that nearly every teacher in America--99
percent of elementary teachers, 96 percent of secondary school
teachers--draws upon ``materials [they] developed and/or selected
[themselves]'' in teaching English language arts. The numbers are
virtually the same for math. Nearly half of teachers in the study
reported spending more than 4 hours per week creating or searching for
instructional materials. New teachers spend the most, and at the time
they should be developing and mastering their craft.
High-quality instructional materials--curriculum--should be non-
negotiable and available to every teacher. Expecting them to find or
create their own is like expecting a great actor to also be a great
playwright, or asking a talented chef to also be the waiter and go
grocery shopping the night before. Or perhaps moonlight as a farmer.
Time spent creating lessons from scratch or searching for materials
on the Internet is time not spent analyzing student work, giving
students feedback, building subject matter expertise, cultivating
strong relationships with students and their parents--all of which are
higher-yielding uses of teachers' time and energy. Worse, studies have
consistently demonstrated the teacher-created lessons tend to be below
standard and lacking in rigor--another drag on student outcomes.
One more example of the increasing demands placed on teachers is
the rising emphasis on ``social and emotional learning,'' or SEL. COVID
disrupted the routines and rhythms of schooling for multiple school
years. It had a discernible impact on student achievement, well-being,
and mental health. This has only exacerbated the challenge faced by
classroom teachers. SEL is an under-discussed change in the role of the
teacher, from a pedagogue to something more closely resembling a
therapist, social worker, or member of the clergy. The increased focus
on SEL is a fundamental shift in teachers' responsibilities, forcing
them into roles that they may embrace reluctantly (or not at all) and
are unqualified or unsuited to play, with potential negative
consequences for students.
As damaging to children as it might be for a teacher to perform
poorly at teaching reading, math, or history, the effect of being a
poor mental health counselor could be even more dire.
It is hardly ever the case that teachers are knowingly doing things
that are unproductive. But as Dylan Wiliam noted in his 2016 book
Leadership for Teacher Learning, Dylan Wiliam, ``the essence of
effective leadership is stopping people from doing good things to give
them time to do even better things.''
This insight deserves careful reflection among education leaders
and policymakers alike. Decades of education policy have evinced
unshakable faith that the way to raise student outcomes is to improve
teacher quality, whether through training and certification, unlocking
excellence through incentives, or by luring away the cognitive elite
from better paying careers through some combination of higher pay or
enhanced prestige. None of these strategies has been fruitful at scale,
nor are they likely to be effective in the future.
The inconvenient fact is that the Nation needs more than 4 million
people to teach our children. Any number that large means the men and
women who staff our schools and teach our children will be, by
definition, ordinary people--not saints, superstars or miracle workers.
In sum, there is a conceptual problem at the heart of our decades-
long effort to improve student outcomes. We are seeking to raise and
enhance the capacities of millions of teachers, while, at the same
time, placing ever greater burdens on them. We have known for several
decades that some teachers are more effective than others. But
identifying what makes them so has proven elusive. No consistent or
clear relationship has been found, for example, between teacher
credentialing or certification exams and classroom effectiveness. If
achievable, sustainable progress is our aim--and it must be our aim--we
should endeavor to make the job one that can be done by the teachers we
have, not the teachers we wish we had.
Once again--and emphatically--none of this is to suggest we
shouldn't raise teacher pay. But there is no reason to expect that
doing so will solve teacher shortages, or persuade good teachers to
stay in the classroom.
Again, don't take my word for it. A 2023 RAND study concluded that
``pay increases alone--without improvements in teachers' working hours
or conditions--are unlikely to induce large shifts in teachers' well-
being or intentions to leave.'' The uncomfortable fact is we have made
one of the most important and challenging jobs in America nearly
impossible to do well.
Good teachers deserve our thanks, our praise, and to make a decent
living. But more than this, they deserve to go home at the end of each
day knowing they're making a difference.
______
[summary statement of robert pondiscio]
Challenges Beyond Pay:
Y Poor Teacher Preparation: New teachers often feel ill-
prepared due to inadequate training. Nearly half leave the
profession within 5 years.
Y Classroom Conditions: Disruptive behavior and classroom
disorder significantly contribute to teacher burnout. Surveys
indicate a high prevalence of violence and disruption in
classrooms.
Y Curriculum Issues: Teachers spend excessive time creating or
sourcing their own materials due to the lack of high-quality,
standardized instructional resources.
Y Role Expansion: The rising focus on social and emotional
learning (SEL) forces teachers into quasi-therapeutic roles,
adding to their burdens without necessarily improving academic
outcomes.
Impact of Current Policies:
Y Increasing education spending has not correlated with
improved student achievement, suggesting inefficiencies in how
resources are utilized.
Y Structural issues in education policy have created
unrealistic expectations for teachers, placing undue pressure
on them to perform miracles with insufficient support.
Recommendations:
Y Rethink Teacher Training: Improve teacher preparation
programs to better equip new teachers for classroom realities.
Y Address Classroom Conditions: Implement measures to manage
and reduce disruptive behavior, ensuring a conducive learning
environment.
Y Provide Quality Curriculum: Ensure that teachers have access
to high-quality, ready-to-use instructional materials, allowing
them to focus on teaching rather than content creation.
Y Refocus Teacher Roles: Clarify and streamline teachers'
responsibilities, prioritizing core educational functions over
supplementary roles like mental health counseling.
Conclusion: Pondiscio stresses that higher pay does not address the
factors that make teaching overly burdensome and drive teachers out of
the profession. Teachers need better preparation, support, and clear
roles to truly make a difference in students' lives.
______
Senator Cassidy. I would like to now introduce our fifth
witness, Ms. Nicole Neily. Ms. Neily is the president and
founder of Parents Defending Education a national grassroots
nonprofit empowering parents to advocate for classrooms that
educate. She's a leader in the Parents' Rights Movement and
founded Speech First, a national campus Free speech
organization.
I chuckled when I read that you're also the mother of two
school age children. I told folks my hair turned gray when my
daughters became two teenagers. So, you look better than I do.
We're also grateful to have you here with us today to share
what parents are concerned about when it comes to their
children's education.
Ms. Neily.
STATEMENT OF NICOLE NEILY, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, PARENTS
DEFENDING EDUCATION, ARLINGTON, VA
Ms. Neily. Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and
distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting
me today.
We are grateful that the Committee has finally turned its
attention to Education. America faces a lost generation of
students who were negatively impacted by decisions made during
the pandemic. NAEP scores have shown the proficiency levels and
core subjects fell precipitously due to school closures. So,
today's hearing is a bit of a mystery because the issues the
parents care about are not the ones that are being discussed
today.
Families worry about the quality of their children's
education. 2023 NAEP scores dropped across the country at all
grade levels. In Vermont, eighth grade math deficiency dropped
11 points down to 27 percent. In Pennsylvania, it dropped 12
points to 27 percent and in Oklahoma, it dropped 10 points.
Only 16 percent of children are proficient in math.
But that's not all, in students in America, they cannot
read. In Virginia, only 32 percent of fourth graders are
proficient in reading. In Minnesota, only 30 percent of eighth
graders are, and in New Mexico, only 18 percent of eighth
graders are. Yet, districts are eliminating advanced classes in
the name of equity, claiming that gifted and talented programs
are racist if enrollment doesn't mirror community demographics.
In schools where AP classes have been eliminated, parents
have watched their children regress to the level of their least
able classmate. Brilliant students are discouraged from getting
too far ahead because inequity perpetuates systemic racism.
Hard work, objectivity and self-reliance are traits that
made the American economy the envy of the world. Yet now those
characteristics are derided as white supremacy. Kids are in
school for approximately 7 hours each day, but instead of using
that time to address learning loss, it's spent on identity
politics.
In Lawrence, Kansas, Elementary School students march to
celebrate Black Lives Matter at school week, at a school where
only 32 percent of children are proficient in math. In
Appleton, Wisconsin, teachers were given resources recommending
that students do privilege walks, in a district where only 38
percent of middle schoolers are proficient in reading and math.
America's education system is failing the very students it
was designed to serve. Trust between parents and districts has
shattered. For decades, public schools have operated in loco
parentis and administrators worked with families in the best
interest of students. Pandemic era closures fractured this
bond.
It's hard to say that districts prioritize learning when
groups like the Chicago's Teachers Union asserted that the push
to reopen schools was rooted in racism, sexism, and misogyny.
And the head of the LA Teachers Union said, ``There is no such
thing as learning loss, our kids didn't lose anything. It's
Okay that our babies may not have learned their timetables,
they learned resilience, they know the words insurrection and
coup''.
But there has been a shift away from partnering with
families to working against families. Consider parental
exclusion policies, which explicitly state the parents don't
have the right to know their child's gender identity at school.
PDE has identified nearly 1100 districts around the country
with these policies impacting over 11.4 million children.
Although framed as a safety issue, school officials are already
mandatory reporters. If an employee thinks at a school that the
student is in danger, they're legally obligated to file a
report.
America spends billions of dollars on mental health.
Perhaps teachers shouldn't tell children that Mommy and daddy
won't love them if they change genders, and that the solution
is to lead a double life.
Another area of concern is school safety. CDC data shows a
rise in drug overdose deaths among adolescents between 2019 and
2021. While another report suggest that 20 to 30 non-fatal
overdoses occur for every death.
In Massachusetts, one student's kill list was swept under
the rug by the superintendent who called for empathy for the
creator of the list, while creating an LGBTQIA plus affinity
group and anti-bias training for the district.
Frequently parents find out about school-based incidents
via social media or local news, not from the schools
themselves. And following October 7th, Jew hatred has swept
across K-12 schools just like on college campuses. Yet lesson
plans about blood libel and swastika are largely ignored. This
unequal adjudication of civil rights law threatens to undermine
not only faith in our education system, but the rule of law
writ large.
Schools don't have a resource issue--they have an
allocation issue. There's a saying, don't tell me where your
priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I'll
tell you what they are. Education leaders routinely choose to
spend money on programs and personnel that don't directly
benefit students. Like Glassbrook Elementary in California,
where only 15 percent of students are proficient in math, which
spent $250,000 on woke kindergarten.
Federal data shows that between 2000-2019, the student
population grew 7.9 percent and the teacher population grew 8.7
percent, yet administrators grew 87.6 percent. Why? DEI.
The Heritage Foundation documented the growth of Chief
Diversity Officer positions in K-12 districts. Finding that
standardized test results show that achievement gaps are
growing wider over time in districts with CDOs. Maybe it's not
a lack of money that's the problem, but instead how the money
is being spent.
We want our children to stay in classrooms to learn how to
read and write, not March for climate change. We want our
children to know how to get the right answer in math class, not
be told that showing their work is white supremacy. We want our
children to be safe when we drop them off, and we don't want
teachers to tell them to keep secrets from mom and dad. Fixing
the American education system is hard, which is why it is
essential to identify and grapple with the real problems and
not pre-election sloganeering. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Neily follows.]
prepared statement of nicole neily
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[summary statement of nicole neily]
Families worry about the quality of the education their children
are receiving.
NAEP scores released in 2023 showed significant drops
across the country at all grade levels.
The terrifying reality in 2024 is that students in
America cannot read.
Children are in school for approximately 7 hours each
day--yet rather than spending finite classroom time making up
learning loss, classes now spend hours each day on extraneous
programming related to identity politics.
We do not send our children--or our tax dollars--to
schools to improve students' self-esteem. We send them to
school to learn.
Trust between parents and districts has been shattered since the
pandemic.
Over the past several years, there has been a marked
shift away from partnering with families to working against
families--and this trend hurts the very people this system is
designed to serve.
Since the dawn of time, the role of families has been
to protect the next generation, guiding and supporting children
on their journey to adulthood. It is truly a slap in the face
to have taxpayer-funded schools acting as though their sacred
duty is to protect children from their families.
Schools don't have a resource issue--they have an allocation issue.
From coast-to-coast, education leaders routinely
choose to spend money on programs and personnel that do no not
directly benefit students.
Between 2000-2019 the student population grew 7.9
percent while the teacher population grew 8.7 percent; however,
administrators grew a staggering 87.6 percent--so it is
imperative that any discussion of education spending (or the
lack thereof) must address the explosion of administrator
positions vis-a-vis principals and teachers.
______
The Chair. Thank you to all of the witnesses. One way or
another, you all touched on issues that go beyond the
classroom, what's going on in our Country.
I'd like to start off by asking Mr. Arthur and Mr. Keyes
and Dr. Kirwan, what are some of the realities that teachers
are experiencing in the classroom? How many of our kids are
walking into school from dysfunctional families? How many kids
maybe sleeping out in cars? How many kids have seen violence in
their community and with the trauma that might bring about? How
many kids are suffering from emotional disturbances, and are
acting out in the classroom, making the teacher's job that much
more difficult? Mr. Arthur, what are teachers around the
country seeing in the classrooms?
Mr. Arthur. Chairman, the answer to your question is too
many. All of your questions can be summed up by too many of our
children are struggling, too many of our families are hurting.
And as you mentioned and was mentioned by other speakers, we
are understaffed, under resourced and under prepared to deal
with this moment because no one has experienced this moment in
history before.
Nobody has learned how to teach during a pandemic in our
Country's history. We didn't know what we were doing, but we
did it anyway and we got it done. And every teacher right now
who is in the classroom, who taught through the pandemic, we're
not just teachers anymore. We're survivors.
As we try to give each other grace, as we deal with these
large issues and try to figure out how it is that we best come
through this, I think that the strongest show of support that
we could make to our classroom teachers and our students and
our parents and our families is just to recognize we're doing
something unprecedented.
As we do that, we're going to fumble, we're going to try,
but you cannot do something remarkable if you're under-
resourced. We do need more tools and more means of making this
happen.
The Chair. Mr. Keyes, what are teachers in the classroom in
Philadelphia seeing in their kids, kids coming in, well fed, et
cetera.
Mr. Keyes. I'll have to agree with much of what Mr. Arthur
said. Not only are they coming to school, they're coming to
school from traumatic experiences, traumatic backgrounds, and a
lot of the issue has to do with things that they see in their
environment. And a lot of what they see in their environment
has to do what they see in society. Things like Black Lives
Matter and racism and all of those kinds of things.
I spent a year working with high school students with
autism. And it just baffled me how aware they were about the
political climate and just things that are going on. Because I
normally work with younger kids, so some of the questions that
they came to me with and some of their concerns were very adult
and had to do with racism, it had to do with gun laws, it had
to do with elections. They're aware of these things and those
things weigh heavily on them.
The Chair. Thank you. Let me jump to Dr. Kirwan.
Congratulations for doing what we don't do enough in this
country and looking to what's working in other countries around
the world. You mentioned early childhood education is one of
the five principles. The general assumption is that in a nation
where most working-class people, mom and dad are both working,
what is the quality of early childhood education that allows
kids to do well in the first grade in this country right now?
Dr. Kirwan. Senator, can I tell you what we're doing in
Maryland now through the Blueprint on this very issue?
The Chair. What did you see? I mean, what I want to know
is, our kid's mom and dad have to work. Because despite some
peoples thought that we are the envy of the world economically,
60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck,
struggling to put bread and food on the table.
Dr. Kirwan. Right.
The Chair. Is our childcare system in this country
providing well for the kids, enabling them to do well as they
enter to school?
Dr. Kirwan. No, it is not.
The Chair. What are you doing about it in Maryland?
Dr. Kirwan. Well, it's a very important component of the
Blueprint, it's pillar one of the Blueprint. And so, we've done
a number of things. We've created and expanded centers around
the state that work with low-income parents from zero to three,
on issues of nutrition, child rearing, child development. We've
also as part of the Blueprint created free full day, high
quality preschool for all low-income children.
The Chair. Are people taking advantage of it?
Dr. Kirwan. Absolutely. Yes, indeed they are. And we've
seen already in our assessments at kindergarten level, our
children ready to learn, a significant increase in Maryland
because of these preschools. It has another benefit, not just
for the children. When there is free full day preschool
available, parents can work and it has a benefit for the family
beyond just the development of the child.
The Chair. That's a very important point.
Senator Cassidy.
Senator Cassidy. Just to make the point, because people
have spoken about children being hungry or, or not having
glasses, that sort of thing. But I will point out that we have
Federal programs which provide free lunch and breakfast for
high poverty districts. And there is the early and periodic
screening, diagnosis, and prevention program part of Medicaid,
which screens for vision. I'm not minimizing the challenges,
but I also don't want to ignore that which has already been
done. And Dr. Kirwan and I both know that Maryland has both
these programs.
Ms. Neily look at that, spending is way up relative to
inflation. Oh, I should also say, I asked unanimous consent to
enter into the record a report from Illinois Policy showing
that Chicago Public School spending has increased 97 percent
while student achievement has dropped by 63 percent in reading
and 78 percent in math.
The Chair. Without objection.
[The following information can be found on page 57 in
Additional Material:]
Senator Cassidy. Ms. Neily, look at that. How do we begin
to restore the trust when folks say we need to spend more
money, but we see so much more money being spent and yet scores
are falling?
Ms. Neily. Well, let's remember that this illustrious body
spend $187 billion in the wake of the pandemic to address
learning loss. In the State of Wisconsin, 28.2 percent, more
than one out of every $4 of Wisconsin ESSER money was allocated
toward new additions or renovations despite that not addressing
learning loss.
When all those bills were passed, I think many parents,
myself included, assumed that it would be to help reopen
schools, for masks, for air purifiers, for sanitation. That is
not what that ESSER money was spent on. It was spent on pet
projects, it was spent on social emotional learning, it was
spent on things like that. And in many cases, districts did not
open.
Children in inner cities were set back years and years and
years. I mean, I remember seeing from Virginia, one of the
Virginia education association speakers said that, the nice
thing about this is that everyone went back equally. That's not
true.
Everyone wasn't set back equally by the pandemic. Those who
were more set back were families that didn't have the time or
resources to help their children read, to pay for tutors or
things like that. This disproportionately hurt low-income
students more than anyone else.
You have more money that has been thrown at schools. They
can't spend it fast enough. All this ESSER money is running out
at the end of the September. And yet now we still see teacher
shortages.
Let's talk about in Hartford, they're about to lay off 300
teachers in San Diego. They just laid off 234 and are
announcing that they're laying off 60 more. There are teachers
coming out of our ears. They're not in the right places right
now. So, we don't have a teacher shortage, we have an
allocation issue. And that is what is hugely concerning,
particularly when we look at the fact that our children cannot
read. They are not thriving. They are doing very, very badly.
Senator Cassidy. Mr. Pondiscio, you're nodding your head
yes as she spoke. What would you add to her comments?
Mr. Pondiscio. As a former teacher, now policy advocate, I
remember my first days in the policy world, and it was a
surprise to me then and still is, how little those of us who
think of ourselves as policymakers spend thinking about what
kids do all day. Curriculum, instruction, school culture,
perhaps it's because I'm a former teacher. Those are the focus
of my work, and I think that we give insufficient attention to
that.
I would call your attention to a remarkable series of
reports over the last couple of years produced by a woman named
Emily Hanford of American Public Media, who has documented the
frankly appalling way that we teach reading to children in
America. And it's fascinating because it says something about
our expert class, it says something about teacher training,
that we know how to do this, we train teachers badly. Her
reports were called Hard Words and Sold. Please.
Senator Cassidy. It seems as if you are indicting teacher
training very much so. That universities, colleges are doing a
poor job of preparing teachers for the classroom.
Mr. Pondiscio. No question.
Senator Cassidy. Is there a statistical relationship
between some universities and their Department of Educations
and poor performance by their graduates in certain schools?
Mr. Pondiscio. I'm sure there is. But I think perhaps at
the risk of painting with too broad of a brush, the larger
problem is that I'm not sure that our colleges of education
view it as their job to train teachers. In my written
testimony----
Senator Cassidy. Wait, I'm sorry. That just strikes me as
odd.
Mr. Pondiscio. Yes, that's correct, Senator. And it should
strike you as odd. In other words, they may be more concerned
with your professional disposition and with theory as opposed
to the practical means of controlling a classroom, of
curriculum, of instruction.
Senator Cassidy. In my limited time, Mr. Keyes points out
that some of the kids do present with emotional disorder, et
cetera. You point out that teachers are being asked to wear
many hats and so therefore distracts them from their primary
function. But granted that some kids--now granted it may be the
kids who are from a poorer background, what do we do about that
kind of set of issues that are there in addition to----
Mr. Pondiscio. I don't want to diminish the reality of
that, Senator, it's absolutely a fact. The question that we
seldom ask is why are we asking, what in many cases is the
poorest performing institution in a community, to do more, to
be a social services provider, to provide services beyond their
core function? In other words, are there other NGO's? Are there
other organizations in a stressed-out community that would be
better suited to be a mental health provider, to be a social
services provider than putting all of this on the back of our
teachers.
Senator Cassidy. A school-based clinic with mental health
professionals embedded within a school with a high need would
be a better alternative than asking teachers to do that.
Mr. Pondiscio. That's complicated, whether it should be
based in the school. Again, the need is real. Whether you want
a low functioning institution with all respect, to be the
service provider, and supervise and hold that service
accountable, is the question to be asked.
Senator Kaine. Thank you.
Senator Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I want to thank you all for
appearing here today, and especially to our teachers on the
panel. You do the essential work of educating our children,
oftentimes doing whatever it takes to ensure that your students
have access to the information and materials that they need to
learn.
But we know that comes at a cost, and we need to make more
investments in you, our Nation's educators. Wisconsin is facing
what our state superintendent of public instruction Jill
Underly, has referred to as an education workforce in crisis.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently
released their annual report on educator preparation and
workforce in our state.
This year's report found that we have shortcomings,
including with teacher retention. Four out of every 10 teachers
either leave the profession or leave the state in their first 6
years. This shortage of teachers is especially pronounced when
it comes to special education teachers. 74 percent of the
schools in Wisconsin, state that they have one or more
vacancies for a special education educator, and more than a
third of those schools were not able to find a teacher to fill
that vacancy.
Dr. Kirwan, I want to thank you for your testimony.
Educators are the key in-School factor for student success, and
I appreciate your testimonies that focus on the need to support
and pay them accordingly. I want to focus on the fourth pillar
of Maryland's plan, related to investments in students from
low-income families and multilingual learners and students with
disabilities.
Last year, the House Education Appropriations bill crafted
by the House Republicans would have cut Federal education
investment by 80 percent for Title IA. That's a program that's
intended to provide extra support to schools serving low-income
students. It also proposed eliminating the $890 million Title
III program that supports multilingual learners, and it
proposed cutting $2 billion for the Supporting Effective
Instruction state grant program.
This year their planned cuts to non-defense spending looks
likely to produce a bill that does much of the same that I just
described them drafting last year. So, does this sound like the
approach of the high performing systems that the commission
reviewed? And what would be the ramifications? And can you say
something about the government buy-in, in those other
countries, Finland, Singapore in Canada for their high
performing systems?
Dr. Kirwan. Yes. Thank you, Senator Baldwin, for that
question. As you noted, one of the principles that we
discovered in these high performing systems is the investment
they make in students with the greatest need, and including
most, especially students coming from low-income families.
That's why the Blueprint has really focused on what we call
community schools. A community school in Maryland is one that
is serving 55 percent or more of low-income students. And these
schools get significantly extra funding for tutors, for after
school academic program, programming for summer academic
program, they have extras health services in the school. They
have a coordinator who can connect children in those schools
with the social services in the region.
It's our recognition that we need to concentrate resources
on these kids that are growing up in very difficult
circumstances. And any kind of reduction in Title I funding
would just, in my mind, exacerbate the problems we're facing.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you. Mr. Keyes, as communities
grapple with the shortage of teachers, more schools are
establishing, so-called Grow Your Own Programs. These programs
are often focused on either introducing and encouraging high
school students to pursue the field of education or providing
programs focused on helping individuals already in the
profession such as paraeducators and substitute teachers
gaining teachers licenses.
You have a remarkable story on how you came to the
education profession starting as a school bus attendant. I
understand you worked as a paid teacher resident while earning
your teaching credential and master's degree in special
education. Can you explain the paraprofessional to teacher
program you participated in, and the benefits of these Grow
Your Own programs and how the Federal Government can better
support these programs?
Mr. Keyes. The Paraprofessional to Teacher program that I
was a part of, it's called Para Pathways. Pretty much what it
does is open up the pathway to teaching to the paraprofessional
staff, many of whom, like myself, have been working in that
paraprofessional position for years.
I was a paraprofessional for 16 years. And what it does is
it looks at the paraprofessionals based on their level of
schooling. If you got some college credits, you start off on
this one, if you got a bachelor's, you start here. If you got
an associate's, you start here.
I went through the residency program because I had my
bachelor's. And what that did was that put me in a position to
work under a mentor teacher for a whole school year, meaning I
didn't have to do any student teaching. I didn't have to have a
period of time where I was without pay.
To me, the benefit of that was I got to learn the ins and
outs of the paperwork side of it. Because when you're working
in education and when you work with children every day,
regardless of if you're certified or not, how to teach. You
know how to be there for your students on every level, from bus
attendant to a paraprofessional. You work with these kids every
day; you know what you're doing.
What that Pathways program does is it gives an insight on
what it takes to deliver the curriculum, what it takes to be
effective at the way that you deliver the curriculum, what it
takes to understanding the special education laws and the ins
and outs of what it is to be a special educator. It also gives
you a kind of inside look on some of the different challenges
that you're going to face when going into the classroom.
Now, with that Para Pathways program, some of the people
who were in the residency portion didn't go through that
Pathways program. There were people coming from corporate
America, coming from the military, because this, residency
program is open to anyone that wants to be a teacher.
What I realized, and what my school Temple University
realized, that a lot of the people coming from outside of
education, they don't have a clue what it's like in the
classroom. And some of them didn't even make it through the
program, and some of them made it through the program, but once
they got in the classroom on their own, they didn't make it. We
have some who quit less than a year in.
I think for me, the grow your own type of program, you have
people who have been doing the job, you have people who want to
do the job. The only thing that's holding them back is the
financial part. I know myself, what held me back years from
going back to school was the financial aspect of it, was going
into debt.
Like I said, as a classroom assistant, $16,000 is what you
start with and 30 is what you end with. Me looking at that and
everything else that I have to do, rent, food, taking care of
myself, paying for school was like can't do that. But with this
program, it makes it accessible. It makes it something that can
happen. It's wonderful.
We got a hundred people who have gone through this program
as of fall, and more and more are interested every day because
they see the need for high quality teachers, and they see that
it's time for them to step up to the plate and be that high
quality teacher.
Also, another aspect of the program that hopefully will
start to come to fruition, is to start recruiting in high
school. Recruiting some of the people who are in high school
that may be interested in education, having them start as
paraprofessionals, just so that they know what it's like to be
in a classroom environment. They know what it's like to teach.
Senator Kaine. Mr. Keyes, if I could ask you to summarize,
you're well over time.
Mr. Keyes. Oh, my bad.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Keyes. That's my thing, and I love this program.
Senator Kaine. I let you, because I'm really interested in
this.
Mr. Keyes. That's the answer.
Senator Kaine. Thank you. And thanks to all the witnesses.
This is a really important topic. I think I have some Virginia
teachers in the room, maybe some from Fairfax. They recently
had a collective bargaining vote that I applaud you on.
[Applause.]
Senator Kaine. The title of this hearing is long. The piece
I'm interested in is teacher shortages and everything that
contributes to them, and you've all talked a little bit about
that. My wife is a member of the Virginia State Board of
Education appointed by the Governor to oversee K-12 schooling
in Virginia. She's the last one on the board appointed by a
Democratic Governor. Everyone else on the board is appointed by
the current Republican Governor. But I can tell you the one
non-partisan issue they grapple with is teacher shortages all
over the Commonwealth, particularly in high poverty schools.
There was a study out of UVA this spring. 80 percent of all
vacant positions were in the 20 percent of schools with the
greatest number of vacancies. And those schools tend to be high
poverty schools, which tend to be either within central cities
or in rural Virginia.
Some of the shortages are acute in some areas. Special ed
is a topical area where the shortages are acute, but they're
generally acute in high poverty schools. The students who most
need good teachers in the classroom are the students likely to
be in schools with high numbers of vacancies.
I think you've all done a good job of kind of explaining
some of the challenges. One thing that was not mentioned that I
do think should be mentioned is teachers fears for their own
safety. Some of you touched upon it, but no one mentioned gun
violence. Nobody mentioned gun violence.
Teachers do active shooter drills with their kids, that
wasn't the case when I was in school. It wasn't really the case
when my kids were in the Richmond Public Schools. It's the norm
now. And a teacher said to me recently, we all do a moment of
silence now and I don't know what the kids are thinking about,
but I know what every adult in a school is thinking about
during the moment of silence. And it's, let today not be the
day, let today not be the day. And that's got to be daunting
for teachers and other adults who work in school systems, just
like it's daunting for parents.
My kids went to an urban school system, probably 90 percent
free and reduced lunch. I didn't worry when I dropped them off
in the morning about picking them up at the end of the day. I
didn't worry about it. And they finished school just 15 years
ago. But this is something that parents worry about now,
teachers worry about now, kids worry about now.
I was going to ask that question Mr. Keyes about the
Pathway program, because I think that really is a solution.
Senator Collins and I have a bill called the PREP Act that
looks at Grow Your Own. Because if somebody has been a
paraprofessional in the school system and has demonstrated the
ability to compassionately deal with all kinds of students, but
they don't have the credential yet to be a teacher, you know
they're going to be a successful teacher if you can get them to
that credential.
I'm a big supporter of programs like the one you described,
and we do have bipartisan legislation to try to advance that
here. Mr. Arthur, I wanted to ask you about a part of your
background, which was National Teacher Certification. Dr.
Kirwan talked a little bit about this.
My experience is in Virginia, but I'm wondering about the
Utah experiences. Every once in a while, in Virginia, we would
do a one-time bonus for people that got National teacher
certification. But then if the budget was bad. next year, it
would disappear. So you wouldn't get a continued salary bump
and the person who wanted to get board certified next year
wouldn't have that incentive to do it.
I think while teacher salary is something that is primarily
a state and local responsibility, I think it could at the
Federal level be a Federal thing. We're talking about national
certification. If we wanted a high percentage of our teachers
to have national certification, that could be something at the
Federal level that would be smart to incentivize.
Talk a little bit about, were you incentivized in Utah to
do this? Did you just take it on because you wanted to do it?
What was the Utah program under which you became certified and
did it increase your salary?
Mr. Arthur. Absolutely, Senator. I receive a stipend every
year, both from my district and my state. When I first went
through National Board certification, I did so just because I
wanted to be better for children. I was motivated by what I was
seeing in the classrooms of National Board-certified teachers.
But when someone told me I would get paid more, I was like,
Okay, that's nice. I won't have to ask my wife so much for the
money. And it's not much, it's not enough right now to move
people into this.
I get about roughly in Utah, about $4,000 extra a year or
every year because I teach in a Title I school and I teach in a
district that supports that. But not all districts do, states
have different programs for this. So if there was a way to make
sure that teachers across our Country, we're all incentivized
to become the most accomplished educator that they could be,
the benefits to our children the research shows would be
profound.
Senator Kaine. Dr. Kirwan, again, remind me in the Maryland
plan, what do you do around National Board Certification?
Dr. Kirwan. Yes, when a teacher becomes board certified,
they get an increase in salary of $10,000. And that continues
in their salary, it is independent of the year. That's part of
their base as long as they are board certified. So, when they
have to be renewed, they continue.
Senator Kaine, that has had a very interesting consequence.
I just learned today in fact, that Maryland led the Nation and
the number of teachers who got board certified last year.
Maryland is a relatively small state, 6 million people, but it
led the Nation more than California, more than New York. And I
think that salary increase has obviously played a big role in
making that happen.
Senator Kaine. If I could, it's a salary increase but it's
a salary increase for doing a lot of work that makes you a
better teacher.
Dr. Kirwan. Absolutely.
Senator Kaine. Salary increase, even in your case in Utah
where it's somewhat modest, it's a sign of respect for the
profession. And so, I think that has a number of positives. And
I am now over time, and I'm going to yield to Senator Markey.
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. And I
want to start by highlighting that I am proud of the Boston
Public School system for their prioritizing of equity and
inclusion for their students. They aim to ensure that Black and
Brown students have the same opportunities to achieve, and that
we address the systemic racism that plagues our schools
nationally. And they work hard to guarantee that LGBTQ kids are
not shamed for their identity.
I strongly disagree that programs that aim to support and
include students based on gender, sexuality, or race detract
from student learning. In fact, I'm proud that Boston Public
Schools look to include and celebrate all children because that
is how we guarantee that every student has the opportunity to
grow and to learn.
Right now, one third of K-12 public school staff working
full-time make less than $25,000 per year, less than 25,000 per
year, one-third of those staff in public schools in our
Country.
I received a letter from a paraprofessional named CJ, who
works with students with autism in the Boston Public School
system and is a member of the Boston Teachers Union. CJ, like
far too many paraprofessionals is being forced to choose
between the profession he is called to and basic financial
security.
CJ's students and their families will suffer if he has to
leave the field of education. But if CJ can't make rent or care
for his elderly mother, how can we expect him to stay in the
school system? We cannot expect school staff to keep our
students safe and healthy and learning when they are paid
starvation wages. We need the Pay Teachers Act, and we need a
Pay Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff act as well.
Mr. Keyes, how did your wages as a paraprofessional impact you
and your students?
Mr. Keyes. My wages as a paraprofessional, how they
impacted me. They impact me because I needed a second job. I
couldn't survive off of just paraprofessional wages. I was at
the 30,000 when I switched over to teaching. Even that wasn't
enough. And a lot of my paraprofessional colleagues, they're
looking to other districts and they're seeing that there's no
real difference in the pay and the things that they deal with,
they absolutely deserve to make more money.
My paraprofessionals, they run the show for me when I
can't. The last week of school, they did everything because I
was so swamped with paperwork. They deserve to be paid for
that. Paraprofessionals are teachers, they're just not
certified. All of the teachers who I worked with; they treated
me with the same level of respect that they wanted to be given
in return. So I feel as though there definitely should be
fairness in pay when it comes to paraprofessionals. They're
just like me.
Senator Markey. Yes. And my first year out of college, I
worked for that whole year as a substitute teacher which is not
a paraprofessional, but I could also see how indispensable they
were to making sure that the school worked.
Mr. Keyes. Couldn't do my job without them.
Senator Markey. Mr. Arthur, as a teacher, why is it
important to guarantee school buildings are as resilient to
climate change as the resilience educators and students
demonstrate in the face of intensifying climate crisis?
Mr. Arthur. I apologize Senator, could you restate that
question?
Senator Markey. Yes. Why do we need to ensure that the
working conditions of teachers, but also the studying
conditions of students are healthy environments within which
they will be working?
Mr. Arthur. Absolutely. Unhealthy adults, adults who are
dealing with stress and burnout have a hard time helping to
prepare children to be healthy going forward in life. Our
school climates are beautifully determined by the school
community in which those people work. And I tell you, it makes
me think this graph, I keep looking at it. It's not just
because I teach sixth grade math. It's just fascinating to me.
I just, I swear I have sharpies in my room, I change graphs
all the time. I just wish I could go up to that graph, cross
out spending and write salaries for school staff, and then just
like, leave it and watch over the next 5 years what those two
cuddled lines do in terms of student achievement.
If suddenly you have fully staffed schools with highly
paid, not just teachers, but paraprofessionals, school
counselors, and all the other people that are critical in
helping to educate and uplift children, then you will not only
have better school climates, you'll have better student scores.
You'll have everything that we're looking for in education.
Like, man, anybody got Sharpie? Thank you.
[Applause.]
Senator Markey. No, you're right on the money. And it's why
I introduced my Preparing and Retaining All Educators to PARA
Educators bill to provide grants to schools for the types of
pathway programs that allow school staff to grow and to thrive,
increase wages, scholarships for credentialing, further
education, and high quality professional development.
It's just essential that every paraprofessional in every
state, have access to and financial resources for high quality
career pathway programs. I heard you Mr. Keyes. I heard what
you were saying. I agree with you. We just have to focus upon
the resources to make sure we get that job done.
The Chair. Senator Casey.
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I want to
thank you and the Ranking Member for having this hearing. I
know I'm running late, we're all juggling different hearings
and engagements today. But I wanted to start with Mr. Keyes and
I really appreciate the work you're doing in Philly.
I wanted to focus on what we all would hope every student
has the opportunity to experience, which is a safe, inclusive,
and supportive learning environment. With that goal in mind,
I'm working to advance bills that will provide schools,
educators, and students with the resources they need to thrive.
One piece of legislation I've introduced now for a number of
years, the Safe Schools Improvement Act would require school
districts to establish codes of conduct that specifically
prohibit bullying and harassment among students which supports
the safety and inclusion of all children.
Another bill I've recently introduced is the Showing Up for
Students Act, which will provide additional funding for the
Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. This
office's mission is to ensure that all students have equal
access to education, that all students can learn in a safe and
supportive classroom. This has become especially urgent in the
wake of the antisemitism that we see on campuses, but it's also
important in every era when we have on, whether it's a college
campus or any other educational environment, instances of
racism or antisemitism or any kind of discrimination.
The Department of Education is charged with the
responsibility to make a determination, a very specific
evidence-based fact-based determination as to whether or not
there is a hostile environment on that campus or in that school
setting for students.
That Office of Civil Rights in no way has the resources
that it needs. It needs to hire, in my judgment, hundreds more
to carry out its responsibility to complete the investigations
they've already undertaken. So I'll continue to fight for that
funding. And anyone who says they care about what's happening
on our campuses should support the funding for the Office of
Civil Rights.
Mr. Keyes, with that predicate, what resources do you need
and do you feel that are necessary, both as an educator and as
a leader to ensure that all students can succeed, especially
students with disabilities in the district?
Mr. Keyes. What resources do I need? Better training, more
focused training on the specifics to the populations that we
work with, whether it's autism, whether it's a child with
multiple disabilities, whether it's somebody who needs learning
support.
There needs to be better focused training, not just for
teachers, but for paraprofessional staff as well. Because 99
percent of the time, we are the ones training our staff on how
to work with these students.
Now, mind you, we have to teach, we got to maintain
paperwork, we have to make sure that our kids are happy and
healthy and safe. It's a lot of things under the umbrella for
the salary that we make. And most of the times you have
teachers who are not very well seasoned and able to effectively
train their paraprofessional staff because they've never been
trained effectively themselves.
I was lucky every teacher I worked with had been there 30-
29 years, so I got that training. So what I do is I pass that
on to everybody who I crossed paths with within my school, even
down to school climate staff, which a lot of those were former
paraprofessionals as well.
That goes in tandem with what you said about making sure
that children are safe and they're able to access their
education and not have to deal with all of the harsh realities
of the world that we're dealing with while they're in that
school building.
Senator Casey. I appreciate that, and I appreciate your
leadership and the fact that you've served as both a teacher
and a paraprofessional, I think indicates your experience is
significant.
I wanted to highlight that both the Philadelphia Federation
of Teachers and the district recognizes the talent and
dedication of their paraprofessionals in their thinking of ways
to creatively address the teacher shortage. What aspects of the
paraprofessional to teacher program were most helpful to you?
And second, what can the Federal Government do to encourage the
development of these Grow Your Own programs at the local level?
Mr. Keyes. What was most helpful to me, and what's going to
be most helpful to my colleagues, is eliminating that debt that
comes along with going back to school. Because again, when you
think about paraprofessionals, remember, they're some of the
lowest paid in education. They still have to survive out here
in the world while they're trying to get to that next level of
their career.
Even myself, I didn't have to pay for this master's degree,
but I got two other degrees that coming soon, I'm going to have
to start paying back. So the financial aspect was the most
helpful part of it. And what kind of scares me about it is
there's no guarantee that money is going to be there in the
future.
I think the Federal Government can help by ensuring that
there's funding for a program such as the Para Pathways program
to again, promote and grow your own, because you have the
people there, you have the teachers there already. They just
need that last bit of help.
Senator Casey. Thank you very much.
The Chair. Senator Hickenlooper.
Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you
all for being here. I'm going to try and get in three
questions. So, I'm going to cutoff the answers at about 40
seconds. Famous last words. Dr. Kirwan you talked a little bit
about learning things from other countries. In Colorado, we've
worked a lot on creating apprenticeship programs. We studied,
took a whole group, 50 people to Switzerland to study their
processes. How have you seen other countries use
apprenticeships to recruit and retain educators?
Dr. Kirwan. Senator Hickenlooper, thank you for that
question. The commission I chaired studied in great depth these
apprenticeship programs. And were so impressed by the impact
they're having on the economy in these countries, and so we
have built that into the Blueprint.
The goal of the Blueprint is to get most kids to career and
college ready by the end of the 10th grade. And then they have
the option of three pathways; One would be advanced placement,
another would be early college, and a third pathway is a career
and technical education pathway.
In that pathway, students would be expected to complete an
apprenticeship or some other industry certified credential just
based exactly on what we learn from these countries. Not every
kid needs to go to college. There are wonderful jobs out there.
Senator Hickenlooper. I got it. And I'm going to cut you
off. I apologize. Thank you. This is a new Hickenlooper at the
table. Mr. Keyes, I think that the experience as a
paraprofessional and an educator, teacher, is so valuable.
Earlier this year the Walton Family Foundation in Gallup
did a poll that showed that 48 percent of Gen Z, middle and
high school students feel motivated to go to school. That's 48
percent. The rest don't. I think it's critical that kids feel
inspired and motivated to go to school. And whether you're
going into apprenticeship or 2-year program, a 4-year program.
What should we be doing to reach out to students who may be
struggling to find inspiration at the school where they're at?
How can we reach out to them in the first place to encourage
them to consider a future career, let's say in teaching, when
they're struggling in school themselves?
Mr. Keyes. What I would say is give them options. Show them
that it's not--while they might be having difficulties, now you
provide additional supplemental support. You give them options
on what's next. Like myself, I didn't go to college right out
of high school. I wish that I had someone sit down with me and
explain it. Well, you can do this, well, you can move into a
technical school. You can do career training.
There are so many different options out there. School is
hard. It is. But when you have somebody in your corner
supporting you, it makes it a little less hard and it makes you
want to push through, so to speak.
Another thing that we could do as far as recruiting those
same students into education, offering them positions, starting
off at the lower tiered education positions such as bus
attendant and paraprofessional. These allow them time to figure
out what they want to do. And if it's for them, like it did for
me.
Senator Hickenlooper. I like it. Nice. Appreciate that.
Thank you. And then I want to talk a little bit about early
literacy. And I think this notion of how do we get the right
guidance counselors, the right support? I think Dr. Kirwan,
you've made that clear that that's a big part of this. I look
at and I have struggled when I was younger, still struggle with
dyslexia, very, very slow reader. Senator Cassidy and I have
both worked on this in various ways.
I look at the recent assessment by the NAEP that 33 percent
of fourth graders were reading at grade level. That's
unacceptable and obviously several points back from where we
slipped in 2019 from where we were. Mr. Pondiscio, what does
your research experience tell you about why so many people are
still struggling? And what does the Federal Government need to
do to better to prepare teachers, students, to significantly
improve the literacy?
Mr. Pondiscio. The bad news is we've struggled to teach
reading properly for decades. The good news is we have an
emerging so-called Science of Reading movement in this country
which I'm encouraged by with a caveat. If we have the idea
that, is it loose in the land, that it's, about phonics then we
will fall short.
I like to point out that in my South Bronx classroom, which
was literally the lowest performing school in New York City's
lowest performing district, where I taught for several years, I
literally never had a single child who was a non-reader. They
could all decode, as we say, the kids could read, they
struggled with comprehension. So I'm optimistic about the
science of reading movement. It should be encouraged at all
levels of government. But that's the starting line. The
decoding and phonics practices get kids to the starting line.
I am a disciple of a man named Eric Hirsch Jr. who's the
son of Virginia, and his core knowledge curriculum because
that's exactly what my students in the South Bronx were
lacking. Rich contents in history, in art, in music in
literature, et cetera. Once we get kids to the decoding
starting line, then it's all that rich vocabulary and content
that needs to be encouraged in order for kids to become
language proficient.
Senator Hickenlooper. Appreciate that. I'm over time, I
apologize.
The Chair. It's the old Senator Hickenlooper.
[Laughter.]
Senator Hickenlooper. No, no. I was in under the wire there
with the question.
[Laughter.]
The Chair. Thank you.
Senator Cassidy, do you want to say yours?
Senator Cassidy. Yes. Mr. Arthur said he would love to take
this graph, which shows spending in schools far exceeding the
inflation rate, yet scores going down and change it in which he
would look at teacher pay.
I think you agree with Ms. Neily. She pointed out that
there's a lot of money going for things which seem unrelated to
instruction. And in the document, which I submitted for
adoption, it points out that there's a school in Chicago, with
35 students in a building which holds over 900 and there are 23
staffers. The average cost per student is $68,000.
Let's assume there's two teachers there, say four, it's a
lot of money. And that the union will not let them close the
huge building for these 35 students. And indeed, their latest
contract wants to add eight more staffers. There'll be 33
staffers for 35 students.
I think that if there's a conclusion from this, it is that
there is a misallocation of dollars. And if you want to raise
teacher pay, recognizing how much more spending we're doing, we
have to focus on teachers and not on things which are
extraneous. I yield back.
The Chair. I think when we look at the issue of education
in America and the significant challenges we face, it's also
important to take a look at how as a nation we feel about our
kids. Are our children a very high priority? Does anyone really
think that as a Nation, we believe that?
Now, if we believe that, we would not have 9 million
children living in poverty, we would not have the highest rate
of childhood poverty of almost any nation on earth. Dr. Kirwan
has looked at countries around the world, many countries around
the world understand that the most important years of emotional
and intellectual development are 0 through 5. That's what we
are told by every psychologist who studies the issue.
Yet, we have a childcare system, which (a), is unaffordable
for millions of working-class families, (b), pays childcare
workers even worse than we pay public school educators. People
are working for less than at McDonald's, doing some of the most
important work in the country.
Yet, as Dr. Kirwan mentioned, there are countries around
the world, and perhaps Maryland is beginning to do that. He'll
say what? Childcare is enormously important. If kids are going
to get off to a good start in life, open the doors. Let's have
decent paid teachers, and let's not worry about the cost of
that because we're going to save money long term if these kids
do well in school. Okay?
I think as a Nation, we do have to ask ourselves a
fundamental question about our priorities. If four hedge fund
managers today, at a time when we have massive income, wealth
inequality in America, four hedge company executives making
more money than every kindergarten teacher in this country,
maybe there's something wrong with our national priorities.
This country does not survive unless we have the best
education in the world for our kids, we're not going to compete
economically. We're not going to see our kids flourish.
I'm always impressed that when it comes to defense
spending, hey, we could spend a trillion dollars a year. Bills
come out of committee, 20 to 1, no debate. Massive tax breaks
to billionaires, hey, not a problem. But maybe to address why
it is that we're paying teachers in this country, inadequate
wages, oh my word, just an impossible task, Federal Government
can't get involved in it.
I think it's time, not only to take a hard look at
education in general, but to take a look at our national
priorities and to take a look at how we treat the children of
our Country. With that, this hearing comes to an end.
Any Senators who wish to ask additional questions must do
so by June 27th at 5 p.m.
The Chair. The Committee stands adjourned. Thank you.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
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[Whereupon, at 10:43 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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