Staying Afloat: Living on Two Teacher’s Salaries

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Education is the field I have always wanted to be in.  I have a passion for reading and teaching, which is why I decided to become an ELA teacher.  Most teachers can truthfully say that this is “our calling,” we were born for this.  

I did not come into this profession for the money.  I was aware of the expectations and pay before getting my first full-time teaching job 10 years ago (my grandmother was a teacher and handed me some of this advice).  However, being young and fresh out of college and living at home for a year or so, it was simply a dream to land my first job and get a jump start on my own classroom.  There’s nothing like walking into that empty room you’re assigned to and bringing it to life with all of your ideas and creativity.  

A few years later, I met my now-husband (ironically in a master’s program where we both earned our degrees in Special Education).  How lucky to share a passion and occupation with my spouse.  We both wanted to change the world one class at a time.  Being young and driven in this particular field, money was not a factor for us.  However, as we started our family, that dynamic changed.  

We have 3 children, and money did become a bigger factor in our lives.  I was lucky enough to be able to pay off my college debt, but my husband has been paying his off for years.  To make things more interesting, we were both working at elementary school districts (which as most teachers know, elementary educators in many areas tend to make less than high school educators).  Between pre-school, daycare, a mortgage, and other expenses, money got very tight for us.  Most of the time our paychecks went straight to bills.  

In Illinois, the state where I work, the average elementary teaching salary is between $50,000-$70,000, which is more than teachers make in other states. But in my experience, many coworkers and teacher friends of mine are able to stay in the profession and do what they love because their spouse is able to bring home more money.  Without this other half of financial stability, many teachers would not be able to pursue teaching any further.  

So, the questions arise- How will we be financially stable and happy at our careers?

How long can we sustain our career until one of us has to leave?

How do we stay financially responsible for our family of 5? 

How will our salaries affect our children’s opportunities?

These questions are also applicable to the single parent-teacher, who has to make sacrifices to support his or her family. 

In the current climate of education, we have both talked at length about other possible career opportunities and changes.  But how can we take this leap of faith if we don’t have some extra income to fall on? I don’t expect my husband to drop his passion and make more money elsewhere just because he is a male, and society tells him to be the financial support of the household. On the same token, I’m not sure if I’m ready to quit what I’ve done for 10 years and start over either. 

These past couple of years have been trying for all educators.  My husband and I love what we do, and we love the students we interact with and teach.  But something’s got to give.  One of us will have to eventually leave the profession, not just necessarily for our mental and physical health, but for our financial stability, and it is heartbreaking for educators to reconsider this occupation when they are struggling to make ends meet.  

There is no easy solution to the teacher crisis across America, but there are some tangible ways to make things better:

Offer teachers a better salary.  Many would stay in the profession longer if the compensation was better.  We love what we do; always have, always will.  But making the compensation better would really help teachers be able to raise their own families and feel confident that their talents are being put to good use. 

Rally behind educators.  Parents- at school board meetings, make your voices heard.  Support teachers in their endeavors and trust that we are doing the best that we can with what we have.  Let the board and the community know it. 

Fund our schools.  We know teachers would like compensation, but classrooms need supplies too.  Everything from masks and Kleenex to snacks and pencils.  There are so many items that many teachers pay for out of pocket, and it would be nice to be able to have enough supplies for our classrooms to last the entire year.  

School districts. School districts need to work on retaining great veteran teachers.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  But getting more veteran input into our schools is what we need, as well as finding out how to encourage our younger generation to get involved in a possible educational career.  Let interested students shadow teachers for a day, have teachers present during career days, offer more scholarships to undergraduate students in education courses.  We need more teachers, and we need to let students know that this is an important, valuable profession.  

These hardships will not be solved overnight, but there is still hope that we can turn things around and make school a better place not only for the children we teach but for the educators involved as well. 

Katy Garland teaches middle school in the south suburbs of Chicago for the last 10 years. She has two degrees, English and Special Education, both from Saint Xavier University in Chicago and is a proud mother of three children. In her spare time, she loves reading, writing, and running.