Prices Have Gone Up — Cost-of-Living Adjustments Aren't Cutting It Anymore
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses how inflation has outpaced educator salary adjustments, making the profession increasingly unaffordable.
Key Takeaways
- COLAs aren't keeping up - Standard cost-of-living adjustments haven't matched actual price increases
- This drives teachers out - When the salary can't cover basic expenses, talented people leave for other careers
- Real raises are needed - Meaningful salary increases, not just percentage adjustments, are necessary to retain educators
Transcript
Have you noticed that prices have gone up on just about everything, whether you're looking at housing or...
I was at the store the other day and I was shocked that you can hardly find anything for less than like six or seven bucks at the store now.
Stuff that used to be like a buck ninety-nine.
And I was thinking about how this affects the education workforce, right?
If we're used to paying people on a fixed salary schedule and doing little cost of living adjustments every couple of years...
We're not going to be able to keep pace with the increased cost of things like housing and groceries and household goods.
And I think this is going to be a real issue when it comes to retaining staff because I'm seeing other industries have really adjusted, right?
Like other people are saying in the comments, rather than sub or rather than be an instructional assistant, an EA in a school, I can go work at fast food and make $20, $24 an hour in some places.
And I think we've got to really get our minds around what has shifted in our economy in the last couple of years.
Prices are just not what they once were.
So the cost of living increases that we've been used to negotiating are not going to get the job done.
If we want to keep people in this profession, if we want to attract people to this profession, I think we've really got to rethink everything.
educator salaries from administrators and teachers but also all of the other crucial staff who make school possible our classroom aides our lunchroom staff our custodians like if you can go and work at chick-fil-a and make more money like why would you put up with all the challenges of working in a school this is good work this is a a wonderful career a wonderful profession to be a part of but it has to pay well let me know what you think