August 22, 2018 The Skanner Page 7 BACK TO SCHOOL America’s Teachers Need More Community, Parental Support who rent out their apart- ments, homes and spaces on Airbnb are teachers. Low salaries, compared with other college grad- uates, may inhibit high- ly-effective profession- als from pursuing a career in education; spe- cifically for people of col- or who currently make up just seven percent of public school teachers. By Dr. Elizabeth Primas Program Manager, NNPA ESSA Campaign T he latest data from the Center for American Progress shows that the av- erage salary for an at- torney is more than two times that of elementary and middle school edu- cators. The Washington Post reported last week that nearly 1 in 10 hosts I come from a family of educators. My moth- er, both of my grand- mothers, and one of my sisters were teachers. However, the family tradition of educating children ended after me. None of my daugh- ters, nieces, or nephews decided to pursue a ca- reer in education. Data comprised from surveys completed during the NNPA’s National Black Parents’ Town Hall Meet- Poll associate professor of ed- ucation at Harvard Uni- versity and a co-author of the report. Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools said the findings “demon- strate through the educa- tional choices they make for their children - fam- ilies want high-quality charter school options for their kids. “Above all else, parents care that their child has access to an excellent school, and as educa- tion advocates it is our job to ensure that wish becomes a reality,” Rees added. Support for publicly funded vouchers given to low-income families to help them pay tuition at private school rose from 37 percent to 42 percent over the past year. The Education Depart- ment welcomed the re- sults of the poll. “The data consistently show that parents want more education options for their kids and when they are empowered with options, they like it and their kids benefit,” said press secretary Eliz- abeth Hill. “Education freedom is the future.” Meanwhile, Americans seem to be more satisfied with their local police and the post office than with their neighborhood school. While 51 percent of respondents said they would give their local schools a grade of A or B, 68 percent gave the local post office a similar grade and 69 percent the local police. African American re- spondents gave their local police much low- er marks than other respondents, but their views of their local schools were even worse. Thirty-nine percent gave their local schools an A or a B, while the local po- lice force received such marks from 43 percent of African-American re- spondents. The study also found that many Americans AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER, FILE cont’d from pg 6 In this June 5, 2018, file photo, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies during hearing on the FY19 budget on Capitol Hill in Washington. Support for charter schools and private school voucher programs has gone up over the past year, with Republicans accounting for much of the increase, according to a survey published Tuesday, Aug. 21. The findings by Education Next, a journal published by Harvard’s Kennedy School and Stanford University, come as DeVos promotes alternatives to traditional public schools. favor raising teacher salaries and increasing school funding in the aftermath of teachers walking out of schools in six states earlier this spring to protest pay and other issues. Informed about aver- age teacher earnings in their state, nearly half said they support raising teacher pay. That num- ber was 67 percent when respondents were not told explicitly how much their local teachers were making. Nationally, the average teacher’s salary was $58,950 in 2017, ac- cording to the National Center for Education Statistics. “The sense of economic insecurity for teachers is very strong and there is growing support for higher pay, not just from teachers but from the broader community,” said Evan Stone, CEO of Educators For Excel- lence, a teachers’ advoca- cy organization. West said that while many believe teach- ers should be making more, there is disagree- ment over whether they should be compensated based on how much their students learn or using some other metric. “To the extent that the debate moves from how much are teachers are paid to how they are paid, there is potential for continued conflict,” West said. The Education Next survey was based on in- terviews with 4,601 adults across the country. The margin of error was 1.4 percentage points. ing echoed this senti- ment. When asked what they believed is needed to close the academic achievement gap, re- spondents selected com- munity participation and funding over the ac- quisition of highly-effec- tive teachers. Many reasons have led to frustrations with teaching in the United States. Work-to-pay ra- tio, a lack of resources, and an increased focus on standardized testing has made it increasingly difficult for teachers to be highly-effective. This year, teacher strikes broke out in several states concern- ing school funding and teacher pay. Teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Okla- homa, Kentucky, and West Virginia left the classroom for the state house to protest the lack of resources in the pro- fession. NPR reported in April that teachers have begun to seek support outside of the education- al bureaucracy; forming “supply shops” where teachers can swap edu- cational materials for free or at a dramatically reduced cost. A first-year teacher who attended the Na- tional Black Parents’ Town Hall Meeting in Norfolk, VA, said that she stepped into the role of teaching, initially ex- cited, but found by the end of the year she was extremely drained phys- ically and emotionally. “I stepped into the role, mid-year, with no lesson plan. What can be done to keep teachers teach- ing and encourage new teachers coming into the program? I really want to teach, but there is very little support.” Highly-effective teach- ers require competi- tive pay, professional support, and access to innovative resources. President Barack Obama signed the current na- tional education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 with educators in mind. Title II of ESSA provides program grants to states and districts that can be used for teacher preparation, re- cruitment and support. 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