Despite the vital role of teachers in the early development of California’s citizenry, the importance of teaching is rarely recognized. Talented college graduates with the potential to earn a good living are unlikely to choose teaching because of its modest salaries, and this low earning potential may have in fact created the lower status that teaching now occupies.

The projected retirement of about a third of California’s teachers over the next decade and the shortage of incoming teachers implies a decline in this status over time. But what has turned people away from this profession, a noble calling with the potential for a positive impact on society? Teachers have ideal schedules too, with early hours and long summer vacations. They get to be with children, and they can make a difference in the lives of hundreds or more. What, then, would keep new recruits away?

It might just be the money. It’s not that the salaries are exactly abysmal, but they certainly don’t comfortably cover the cost of living in California, which has become astronomical. For all of California, the average teacher salary for 2007-8 was $65,808, but that might take a while to work up to, and even then it’s not that stellar for people who are talented enough to get into law or medical school.

Take San Francisco, for example. According to the California Department of Education, the average teacher salary in the San Francisco Unified School District for fiscal year 2007-2008 was $59,448. The lowest salary offered was $39,195 and the highest was $77,630. For young San Franciscans who would like to enjoy city life and live close to work so they don’t have to spend hours on BART every day, a salary below $40,000 may not seem like the greatest proposition. Furthermore, the best candidates for teaching positions in this area – those who are talented, energetic, smart and well-educated - will be tempted toward professions that can allow them to pay their bills, not live with fifteen roommates and go out once in a while to enjoy the city’s restaurants, clubs and other attractions.

Previous generations may have gotten in at a better time - older teachers who now make up to $77,630 may have come into the system at a time when the cost of living was lower in proportion to income. Now, post-housing bubble, they have salaries that can at least buy them a nice dinner or a movie ticket on the weekend. Younger teachers are not seeing the same good luck.

One option is to increase public school funding, but in an age of flailing markets and uncertain budgets, another is to shrink the gap between the bottom and the top teacher salaries. Why shouldn’t the 28-year old Berkeley graduate who’s still full of hope and inspiration be compensated at a level closer to his or her jaded, cynical colleagues who have been there for 20 years? If students are rewarded based on merit, shouldn’t teachers be too?

Essentially, what California is doing by keeping these salaries less than exciting is to hurt the school system by attracting less qualified teaching candidates. The state is giving little reward to those talented young professionals who choose to go into teaching for the love of it, and they are making one of the most important professions into an option for those unable to make it into higher-paying markets. In short, teaching isn’t high-status, and it should be. The schools are where we find and nurture the very young talents that will one day lead the state, and maybe even become great teachers themselves. That’s why we should be giving those who choose to become educators the respect and compensation they deserve.

My blog is part of a month-long series on education in California,
published in partnership with the University of Phoenix and The WIP's publishing platform
Six Apart. WIP Executive Editor Katharine Daniels is also participating.
Be sure to look for both of our articles, as features and Talk blogs each Monday in March.