LANSING, Mich. — For new Michigan teachers, the average starting salary is almost $39,000. But new legislation aims to change that amid the ongoing teacher shortage exacerbated by the pandemic.
Over the last six months, FOX 17 sat down with a number of educators to talk about the state of teaching in Michigan.
What they all told us, repeatedly, was that raising pay is only one part of rebuilding the teacher workforce.
One of our first stops was the 4th-grade classroom of Kentwood teacher Dave Schmidt, who's been teaching for eight years. As Mr. Schmidt walked around his classroom, he offered plenty of words of encouragement, smiles, and laughs with his students.
"This is a way for me to find balance, and it works for me. I get to give to kids, but at the same time, I'm also getting my bucket filled by these kids," says Schmidt.
He adds that teaching is his "small way of fixing the world."
"I can't solve everything, but I can solve a small corner of the world every year with 26 minds every year, and that constantly inspires me, and it gives me hope."
Hope, in a time when many teachers are burnt out and as some put it:
"There's just a whole array of what I would call attacks on public education," says Dr. Mitchell Robinson, current State Board of Education member and professor at Michigan State University.
Dr. Robinson trains future teachers within Michigan State's College of Music.
"I've got a fair number of teachers that are grads of our program who have left the profession over the last three or four years. And when I talk to them one on one, it's not pay that pushed them out. It's a lack of respect."
Adding to that, Ellen Sherratt with the Teacher Salary Project says her work is about changing the public perception of what it means to be a teacher in America.
The latest data from the 2023 American Teacher Survey by Merrimack College and the Winston School says that 35% of teachers were "very or fairly likely to leave the profession in the next two years."
Sherratt says the number one reason behind that statistic - low pay.
"The pay isn't as good as it could be," adds Dave Schmidt, explaining that there are a lot of stressors associated with teaching, which leads to burnout.
Enter The American Teacher Act, federal legislation co-authored by the Teacher Salary Project and Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Introduced in February of 2023, the legislation would raise the minimum salary for teachers to $60,000 per year.
The bill would also invest in a new public awareness campaign to showcase the value of teaching and encourage students to consider education as a career.
Throwing her support behind the legislation is West Michigan Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, one of six Michigan representatives to co-sponsor the bill.
"This is such an important bill for so many people across West Michigan, not only teachers but the families who rely on teachers to educate their children and increasingly care for their social-emotional health," urges Scholten.
According to the National Education Association, the nationwide average starting salary for teachers is $42,844.
In Michigan, the starting salary is about $4,000 less — $38,963. On top of that, that starting salary is roughly $8,000 under the recommended minimum living wage for one parent and one child — $47,235.
The legislation aims to raise salaries for experienced teachers too — as the congresswoman puts it, "It's a floor, not a ceiling."
She says the bill would make sure that teachers already making $60,000 or above would also receive raises.
Sherratt adds that the expectation is to maintain the existing steps and salary schedules so there isn't a sudden compression in salaries and all teachers, regardless of experience, are earning $60,000.
The funding to initiate the raise would come from grants and federal dollars, in order to help schools reach that new salary benchmark. Districts able to meet that already, will not have to apply.
Congresswoman Scholten explains that this would directly impact West Michigan. "This is targeted towards low-income neighborhoods as a priority, first of which, Grand Rapids would certainly qualify."
However, the legislation faces an uphill battle in a GOP-controlled House. Of the 73 co-sponsors, only one is a Republican - Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick.
Republican Congressman Tim Walberg, who represents Michigan's 5th District, sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee.
If picked up, that committee would be the first stop for the American Teacher Act.
But as Walberg puts it bluntly — "this bill isn't going anywhere."
"To mandate a minimum salary level for teachers sounds wonderful. But that doesn't happen any other place. Those are negotiated things."
The congressman believes that raises should be merit-based and that salaries and support, should be up to the local districts.
"I don't think a teacher should be forced to have to buy the crayons, or the paper or the construction paper for their classrooms. I mean, if that's the case, then I think we need to look at other areas of what's taking those dollars, and making it difficult for those teachers to do what they want to do, and a passion that they have," says Walberg.
It's a sentiment that Dr. Robinson agrees with. "I think a lot of teachers don't feel supported by either by their administration, or by the community that they work in, and if we can somehow flip the script on that — those teachers can lead us through a lot of this. But I think it comes back to valuing and listening to teachers."
Valuing and listening to teachers, like Dave Schmidt — who just want to make a difference.
"I think that the idea that teaching can solve the world's problems, I mean that is why I am a teacher."
