Support SF Teachers Wage Hikes! We NEED TEACHERS!
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Guest Post By: Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely
I’m a SF native, daughter of an immigrant, who works for SFUSD and I’m married to another SFUSD teacher. One year ago we purchased a two unit home in the Richmond with another educator couple in the district (who would have thought that was possible?!). We are totally dismayed at the number of teachers leaving the district because cost of living is outrageous in comparison to salaries. Our dream is to raise our children here and we want our newest educators to be able to share in that dream.Â
This is where you come in:
Please stand with us as we request that the district accept the union’s proposed 18% raise over 3 years.Â
At the start of last school year there were nearly 700 open positions. With the teacher shortage hitting The City particularly hard, 200 of these positions were filled by teachers on Emergency credentials. We thank these educators for stepping up! However, this means that the students of these 200 teachers had a teacher who did not have a teaching credential as their teacher of record. This highlights our crisis. For the past several years, there have been at most 50 teachers on Emergency credentials each year….typically more like 10.
Teachers are leaving in droves each year because they cannot afford to continue living here. And, as someone who works in new teacher support, we are investing in new teachers yearly and many of them leave and it’s other districts who benefit from our work. We need our teachers to stay here!
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The teacher shortage is a state issue but SF is feeling it more than most since cost of living has sky rocketed over the past five years. Currently, a first year credentialed teacher starts at $53,672 (see salary table) but the average cost of a 1 bedroom apt is $3364 (see article).Â
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We need our educators to be able to afford working and living in this awesome city. Many have Master’s and Doctorate degrees, so the other thing to consider is that increasing pay does not only increase recruitment and retention but it also professionalizes our profession.
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What you can do:
1) Show up May 9th at the Teacher Salary Rally at 5pm at 555 Franklin St, and bring friends!  RSVP here: Rally & Speak Out at the SFUSD Board of Education
2) Join the Instagram group SFteachers_riseupÂ
3) Post this letter or your own spin on your website and encourage readers to join the Instagram group
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