“Stop calling teachers heroes and start paying us as professionals,” Hamden teacher Cinzia Lettieri told legislators today. She was among the more than 20 educators and aspiring educators testifying before the Education Committee on a bill that would establish a minimum teacher salary and secure state funding to increase pay for all educators.
Lettieri said that calling teachers heroes might allow society to sleep better at night, but paying teachers as professionals is the only way to recruit and retain educators and allow them to pay their bills, support their families, and save for their futures.
SB 1459 would establish a minimum teacher salary of three times the federal poverty level for a family of two—which is $63,450 in 2025—and provides state funding to increase pay for all teachers.
“Raising starting salaries will send a message to people considering becoming teachers that this profession is valued and that the state backs that up with dollars and cents,” Danbury High School teacher Julian Schafer told legislators. “It would go a long way toward encouraging people to become teachers. Given the costs of rent, health insurance, and more, I can’t imagine how teachers starting out right now manage to pay their bills.”
Despite being in his 40s, Southington teacher Shawn Grindle is an early-career educator. He left his first career at A&E Television because he felt a calling to teach; however, the low pay he earns as an educator is causing him to second guess his choice.
“I left a 15-year career and took a pay cut to make a difference in the world, but passion alone doesn’t pay the bills,” he said. “Living paycheck to paycheck as a 42-year-old father of two and fifth-year teacher is starting to weigh on the longevity of my career.”
Grindle said many of his colleagues work second and third jobs after putting in 50 or 60 hours for their students because it’s the only way they can make ends meet.
“Teachers are exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically. It’s no wonder that so many talented educators are leaving the profession. The financial strain is relentless,” he said.
Wearing their #RedforEd shirts, Danbury teachers Heather Lorenz and Julian Shafer joined CEA President Kate Dias and Vice President Joslyn DeLancey in testifying before the legislature today.
“It’s no coincidence that we are having this discussion now, just over 37 years after the first Education Enhancement Act,” CEA President Kate Dias said. “Teachers must teach for 37.5 years to receive their maximum pension benefit, so most of the people who benefitted from the Act in 1986 have now left the profession. Teacher salaries have not kept pace with inflation, and the current teacher shortage is evidence of the urgent need to act.”
“When I started teaching in Darien in 2004, my starting salary was $37,000 with a bachelor’s degree,” CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey told legislators. Using an inflation calculator, DeLancey found that her 2004 starting salary today is worth $63,000—almost exactly the starting salary called for in the bill.
“The starting salary in 2024-25 in Darien for a teacher with a bachelor’s is $53,000,” she said. “Not only have we not invested in teacher salaries, but we pay teachers less now than we did 20 years ago.”
CEA Aspiring Educator and UConn student Hannah May Murray is finding it daunting just affording the costs of becoming an educator and isn’t sure how she’ll make ends meet once she graduates to the low salaries paid to beginning teachers. She currently works two jobs to afford her education, which limits the time she can devote to her schoolwork and classroom time with students.
“I would earn more at my current Trader Joe’s job without the expensive education than as a teacher,” she said. “When an education degree is so expensive and starting salaries are so low, the field is only accessible to the wealthy few in our communities who don’t represent the majority of the children in our schools.”
In addition to the educators testifying before the Committee, more than 700 teachers submitted written testimony sharing their stories with legislators.
“I hope you read all the written testimony submitted because we have teachers who are making decisions like staying in an abusive relationship because they cannot financially afford to leave,” Dias told legislators. “That is the impact of our failure to act. We have teachers who say, ‘I have to have a partner. I cannot afford life in this state without additional financial support.’ We have teachers who will tell you that they have to work two and three jobs in order to have the privilege of being an educator.”
She continued, “These are not people who want to leave the profession. They are people who are being beaten out of this profession because they’re being offered jobs with better salaries. And when Trader Joe’s offers salaries competitive with education, we have a problem. We cannot continue to push this off.”
Watch for action alerts from CEA for more opportunities to speak up and help pass measures to raise teacher salaries.
