As a candidate for president in 2020, Kamala Harris introduced a plan to raise teacher salaries by $13,500.
Why that specific dollar amount? Harris was thinking along economic lines, and she sold the policy as one that would erase the teacher wage gap, as documented over the years by the Economic Policy Institute. As of the most recent report, with data through 2022, the institute estimated that educators earn 26% less in weekly wages than other workers with similar academic credentials.
Never mind some of the flaws with the institute’s calculations, like the fact that it uses weekly wages and teachers don’t work the same number of weeks as other employees. Is the economic argument for raising teacher salaries a good one?
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It’s not as iron-clad as you might think.
Consider a recent policy change in Arkansas. In 2023, the state raised the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000 and guaranteed raises of at least $2,000.