A Lesson On The Differences In Teacher Salaries
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Teaching is one of the most noble and important professions in any society. While there is no measurable price you can put on the true value of a quality teacher, they do, of course, receive compensation.
Just how much a teacher is paid depends on a wide range of factors for each school district. Those factors can create significant differences in pay for teachers, even those in neighboring districts.
“We live in the same community, we service the children in the community, yet our salaries are hugely different (from Santa Maria),” said Monique Segura, president, Orcutt Educators Association.
Donna Kandel, president of Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association, notes teachers can make as much as $20,000 more per year just by driving 15 minutes in the other direction.
“We see new teachers come and go,” said Kandel. “They’ll come to the district, they’ll work for a couple of years, get some training, and then move on to another district.”
Lucia Mar Unified School District assistant superintendent Andy Stenson explains schools are essentially funded on a “per-pupil allotment.”
“The state sets a threshold of where they think funding should be, and then those actual dollars are a combination of local property tax, there’s sometimes state income tax and sometimes state sales tax,” said Stenson.
It’s a formula that gives certain districts an advantage over others.
“The more students you receive every year, the more money you get from the state and federal government, which is such a huge positive for any district,” said Maggie White, public information officer, Santa Maria-Bonita School District.
Santa Maria-Bonita has experienced continuous growth for more than 20 years, increasing on average by 400-500 annually.
“That means our schools are large and our classrooms are large, but it does bring in that additional money to the district that allows the district to offer a competitive salary,” said White.
A small handful of districts statewide are called “basic aid,” such as San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
“That means your local property taxes that you bring in are so high that they’re above per-pupil threshold, so the advantages for those districts is they’re funded almost exclusively through local dollars,” said Stenson.
Stenson adds since San Luis Coastal has a stronger tax base, plus funding from PG&E, it receives a lot more local funding than what the state would provide. He notes San Luis Coastal receives $9,200 per student, compared to just $7,100 for Lucia Mar.
“San Luis Coastal salaries are higher than Lucia Mar based on the fact they receive $2,000 per student more than Lucia Mar,” said Stenson.
Each school district has a salary schedule, which is a chart showing how compensation increases over time. For example, in Santa Maria-Bonita, certificated teachers starting pay is just over $52,000.The maximum salary is more than $104,000. San Luis Coastal starts at $45,000, and tops out at nearly $95,000. Lucia Mar starting salary is over $41,500, and peaks at nearly $81,000, while Orcutt Union starts at nearly $42,000 and caps at $88,000.
By looking at the numbers in black and white, educators can clearly see the financial incentives for working in one district over another.
“You come out of college with debt up to your eyeballs and you’re looking to start your career as an educator and you see that one district that’s hiring is paying $10,000 or so to start more than another. That’s going to be part of the decision making process,” said Jose Segura, president, Santa Maria Elementary Education Association.
While those numbers are striking when compared on a yearly basis, more significantly, are the long-term financial ramifications.
“Over the life of your career, you stay in Santa Maria-Bonita for your 20, 30 or 35 year career, your total take-home at the end of that career is going to be significantly more than other districts,” said Jose Segura.
Weighing financial obligations is an important factor in determining where a teacher chooses to start, continue and finish their professional career.
“You have to think about your own family. How are you going to put my own children through college, what’s my retirement going to be like, who am I going to need to support at some point?” said Monique Segura.
With such an uneven paying field, and with a teacher shortage projected, competition for teachers, especially those with impressive credentials, could intensify.
“We could become like a minor league. We’re not going to gain the caliber of teacher s because they’re going to choose to go to a higher paying district,” said Monique Segura.
Some teachers say it’s a situation that is already happening here on the Central Coast.
“We’ve had teachers who have interviewed and who have been offered a job, and they’ve come back and said I can make more money in another district, so I’m going to have to turn down the offer,” said Kandel.
Kandel warns when new teachers are hired, but leave shortly thereafter, problems could potentially filter into the classroom.
“We feel that’s its really detrimental to our students really because having that kind of turnover is not a stable environment for kids,” said Kandel.
At Santa Maria-Bonita, new teachers are frequently coming into the district to support growth. Officials acknowledge their higher salaries are a plus, but feel it’s not what draws educators to their district.
“We attract teachers because they are interested in the professional development and training they receive here or in the amount of technology in our classrooms, which is high,” said White.
At Lucia Mar, officials say the district has remained competitive despite their economic disadvantages.
“Even though our salaries in Lucia Mar are a little bit lower than Santa Maria and San Luis, we haven’t found it’s been difficult to find teachers,” said Stenson.
Location, class environment and other factors help many local districts compensate for lower pay. But no matter what one district pays more than another, teaching is a profession that’s valued far beyond just dollars and cents.
“Pay is significant, and it’s important, but i would say for most teachers, it’s not the thing brings them to education and it’s not the thing that keeps them in education,” said Jose Segura.
