Half Of Maryland's Teachers Must Work Second Job To Survive

MARYLAND — Research has uncovered that Maryland teachers earn considerably less than other professions requiring a similar education -- 85 cents on the dollar to be exact. Furthermore, more than 24,000 education support professionals like cafeteria workers, custodians and paraprofessionals, don't even make a living wage in Maryland and half of all educators must work a second job just to get by.

The poll revealing the startling results was conducted by GBAO Strategies on behalf of the Maryland State Education Association. The survey of 800 public school employees who are members of MSEA was conducted July 8-11 and reached respondents on both landlines and cell phones.

Almost all educators in Maryland paid for their own school supplies, an increase of three percent from last year's poll. Half of all educators in the state must work a second job just to make ends meet, which is up nine percent from last year's figures. Among educators younger than 30 years old, 57 percent worked a second job in the last year. Debt also is a problem for many educators, with 44 percent running up personal debt in order to make ends up, which is up 10 percent from last year's poll.

“Educators should be able to focus on their students—not on running to a second job or running up debt just to make ends meet,” said Baltimore County elementary school teacher and MSEA President Cheryl Bost in a statement. “While the passage of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future during the 2019 legislative session was a good first step, we need to take action during the coming school year to finally end the underfunding of our schools and make sure that every neighborhood in the state has a great public school for our students.”

Surprisingly, Patch discovered that teachers in Maryland are among the best paid in the country, according to a nationwide analysis published in May by the National Education Association, based in Washington, D.C. According to its annual "Rankings and Estimates" report, overall, the national average for teacher salary increased from $59,539 in 2016-17 to $60,477 in 2017-2018.

Teachers in Maryland earned on average $69,627 a year in 2017-18, ranking 8th highest in the country; and teachers who were just starting out in Maryland earned $45,147, the 10th highest in the U.S.

During the 2019 session, the General Assembly passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which added $1.1 billion in new school funding over the next three years, including an average 1.5 percent increase in teacher salaries, funding to expand pre-k and community schools, additional resources for special education and mental health and more. The blueprint was passed following the March for Our Schools, the largest rally Annapolis had seen in nearly a decade with more than 8,500 educators, parents, and students from across the state.

The Kirwan Commission is developing final recommendations to address the $2.9 billion in annual underfunding of Maryland’s public schools identified by an independent analysis overseen by the Maryland State Department of Education. The commission’s recommendations will be taken up by the 2020 General Assembly with the expectation that the state will revise its school funding formula for the first time in nearly two decades.