VIRGINIA BEACH
Lakesha Hardy gave up a job as a school custodian to work as a teaching assistant two years ago. She was willing to take a pay cut to work with children.
But she's having a hard time making ends meet on the $14,594 salary. To economize, she and her daughter live with her mother. She avoids cell phone calls before 6 p.m., when rates drop.
Teaching assistants do far more than photocopy papers and decorate bulletin boards. They explain concepts, grade papers and enforce discipline. In many classrooms, students can't tell which adult is the teacher.
Most assistants are paid less than half of what teachers make.
"I love what I do," said Hardy, 25, a special-education assistant at Christopher Farms Elementary. "But it's not taking care of home."
A group of teaching assistants in Virginia Beach is calling for higher wages as part of a national campaign. They say their pay doesn't reflect their responsibilities.
"We do most of the same work as a teacher," Hardy said.
Hardy works in Cindy Rickert's fifth-grade classroom. Assistants have "tough jobs for very little pay," Rickert said. She said the only things Hardy doesn't do in her class are lesson planning and report cards.
Teaching assistants are assigned to classes with special-education students, kindergarten and pre-K classes, Title I schools and computer labs.
After 23 years in Beach schools, Carolyn Ward is earning $24,278. A special-education assistant at King's Grant Elementary, she pleaded with the School Board last November to give teachers a living wage. She also is on the Living Wage Committee, part of the Virginia Beach Education Association.
Teaching assistants make an average of $22,820, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Virginia Beach, teaching assistants this fall will start with salaries as low as $13,359. College degrees, experience and other qualifications bump up pay, with a maximum salary of $30,220 for special-education assistants, who are paid extra.
Teachers, by comparison, will make $38,596 to $65,585 next year.
On a recent afternoon, Lynn Hubert, a teaching assistant at Pembroke Meadows Elementary, sat cross-legged on the carpet with a bunch of first-graders. She prompted them to talk about the life cycle of butterflies, which they'd been studying.
Over the course of about an hour, she took students to the drinking fountain, quizzed them on science and history facts, read them a book, and looked over their hand-drawn maps.
"In Virginia Beach, we're expected to step up and be as responsible as teachers," Hubert said.
According to the education association, most teaching assistants would earn thousands more a year if their salaries were tied to teacher pay as they once were. Under that system, assistants were paid 40 to 50 percent the wages of teachers with the same years of experience.
They're calling for a simplified pay scale that gives them credit for years of experience.
Ward said she shouldn't have to return to school for a teaching certification to get a raise.
"I should be paid for what I do," she said.
More than two years ago, a consultant told Beach schools their noninstructional staff pay was 9 percent below market rate. Since then, annual pay raises of 5 percent and 3.5 percent have been approved.
The school administration was not able to find $13 million in next year's budget to increase the pay rates.
School Board members, who voted in November to double their own pay to $12,000, have asked the administration to find ways to fix the scale over the next few years.
Meanwhile, Hardy, the Christopher Farms assistant, juggles work, motherhood and school. She's studying to become a teacher, but it'll be as long as two years before she is certified.
Until then, she'll try to make do.
"I'm thinking about a second job," she said.
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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When you interview and accept....
When you interview and accept any position, you agree to provide maximum productivity for the agreed upon wage. All employers expect the best of their employees and all prospective employees agree to give their best, if hired. Teachers are ultimately responsible for the class room. Yes, an assistant must go to school for certification in order to get equal pay as a teacher. If the assistants are working so hard, perhaps the teacher is abusing the level of help. Having a degree does not make any person a teacher's equal. One may have barely graduated from college with a worthless, unemployable degree. Most teachers do not have an assistant. Plastered, you mention short workdays for teachers. Yesterday and today, I started at 6:30 a.m. and was still at work past 8 p.m. I also teach summer school. Don't stereotype.
I wish I could hire on for a
I wish I could hire on for a gig and then demand higher pay AFTER the fact.
DFW
If the low-paid school educators (teachers, TA's, etc...) all quit and got better paying jobs, where would that leave our children and their education? Our kids are having a hard enough time learning basic skills for various and sundry reasons, why compound the issue? I don't see a problem in raising their salaries. I'd consider it a long term investment for the better. They're practically paid at poverty level as it is.
jfr
Apparently you're in the same position as some of these assistants. Instead of complaining about them, why don't you go out and find a better job and make more money? Whose fault is it that you're so bitter because you don't have enough money to take care of all of your wants and needs? Teachers and assistants deserve a lot more pay. Many choose to stay at their jobs because of its intrinsic value-they love working with young children and making a difference in their lives. Unfortunately, we all need to make a living wage in order to make ends meet. What's wrong with keeping qualified people at their jobs by paying them enough so that they have reason to continue doing what they love to do?
I am a Clinic Assistant in
I am a Clinic Assistant in the Chesapeake Public Schools and our pay is about the same. We don't do it for the money, we do it because we love our jobs, saying that, the pay is terrible. I'm a single mom and it is very hard to make ends meet. In our schools we have to clock in and out. That means we don't get paid for the extra things we do (or the extras have to be approved, and that rarely happens). Many of my friends are TA's and the responsibilities places upon them should definitely earn them better pay!
what?
don't like what your job pays??...GET A DIFFERENT JOB!!!
Supply and Demand
While I empathize with the assistant that has difficulty making ends meet on her salary, the real answer is for her to find a job that pays better. It won't have the convenient hours and short work year enjoyed by public school personnel, and it will probably demand results in addition to effort. There are thousands of jobs in this area that she could do that pay better but go begging. We are all products of decisions that we make. If she decides to remain a teacher's assistant instead of pursuing better opportunities, then she has chosen her lifestyle and financial circumstances.
I'm going to start a firestorm by stating that teacher's assistants and public school teachers are NOT underpaid, with the exception of higher math, science and foreign language specialists. Please consider the following with an open mind and contest it, if you must, with facts and reasoning rather than emotion. The simple, honest measure of whether pay is appropriate for position is the law of supply and demand. Freshman economics indicates that if positions are frequently gapped, pay is below market value. If there is an oversupply of qualified personnel, then pay is artificially too high. In Virgini
Glad to see they're speaking out!
I was a teacher for 30 years. More than half of those years included valuable Teaching Assitants. It's a travesty what these men and women earn. As the article stated, their roles go far beyond the duties one would think they entail. My assistants taught small groups of children, helped in the endless assessments of students, kept me organized, and were my eyes, ears, right/left brain, right/left hands all day long. What's more, they never once complained! One day I learned what my most recent assistant earned and I wanted to weep. My teaching salary wasn't much but hers was an embarrassment to the system. TA's are required to pass a test similar to the PRAXIS certified teachers must pass. If this is a requirement, salaries must reflect their abilities and endless duties. Thank you, TA's!
They Deserve More Pay!
JFR~You're completely missing the point. The aide in this article is not complaining about her situation. She's simply stating facts. She's not looking for any handouts.
I teach 3rd grade in Virginia Beach and see how hard the assistants in my school work each and every day. The fact that some of them aren't able to support their families on the salary they make is not fair. They should make at least half of what teachers make and the ones that have college degrees or special endorsements should make at least 2/3 of a teacher's salary. Ask any Kindergarten teacher if they could be as effective in their classroom WITHOUT their assistant and I guarantee you the answer would be a loud NO!
pay raise for everyone
I've worked for Portsmouth Schools for 26 years and make a little over $21,000 as a secretary.
As a teacher, my pay is
As a teacher, my pay is going to be just a hair under $43K next year. Teacher Assistants should make at least half a teacher's salary (that's a good starting point). That would be equivalent to about $10 an hour; they should be making more, but it's almost criminal that so many of them make less.
Assistant Pay
I teach in Norfolk, and my assistant doesn't earn enough to get off welfare. It is a travesty that needs to be addressed state-wide. With such low wages, many qualified assistants leave the field to the detriment of the students. In Norfolk, the wages seem to be much lower than in Va. Beach - the latest pay scale shows new assistants earn less than $10 an hour. When I did the math, it came out to barely $10K a year.
No wonder a large number of skilled assistants leave to work in Va. Beach.