Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for July 29, 2006 AHHHHH...SUMMERS OFF!

From The Ledger...

Teaching Doesn't Add Up For Many

By Kyle Kennedy
The Ledger

LAKELAND -- If Pia Ballard had to write one of those "What I did this summer" papers, there wouldn't be much to report.

She spends her days in class and her nights at the South Lakeland Target, stocking shelves and running the cash register for $6.75 per hour. It's pretty routine stuff for an industrious high school or college student, and as it turns out, not all that uncommon for financially strapped teachers like 25-year-old Ballard.

"Some nights when you're at school until 4 or 5 in the evening and then work at Target until midnight, it takes a toll. I guess any second job will take a toll on you," said Ballard, who teaches first grade at Valleyview Elementary in Lakeland, a year-round school. "For the time being, I'll be doing both of them until... I don't know."

The summer break, often thought to be the ultimate fringe benefit in teaching, doesn't always lend itself to sleeping in late and tanning poolside. Motivated by debt, meager salaries or dreams of a more comfortable life, many Polk County teachers spend their "time off" at a second job.

Jackie Yarbrough has seemingly done it all: wait tables at Olive Garden, office work through a temp agency, camp counselor for the YMCA. This summer, she's a sales associate at Crowder Brothers Ace Hardware in Lakeland.

"I've done it since I started teaching. Pretty much every summer I've done something," said Yarbrough, 31, who teaches first grade at McKeel Elementary Academy in Lakeland, a charter school. "I kind of thought I was going to have my summers and breaks off, until reality set in."

Yarbrough earns roughly $35,000 per year at McKeel, below the $36,729 average Polk public teacher salary and $39,790 statewide average. She and her husband, Scott, earn about $60,000 together but money is still tight with two children in the family. "The extra money is nice because otherwise I can't afford to send my kids to camp," Yarbrough said. "It's expensive but it keeps them busy. Otherwise they would be sitting at home."

Current statistics on exactly how many teachers work second jobs are hard to find. The most recent survey by the National Education Association (NEA), a teachers union, was conducted with about 1,500 teachers during the 2000-2001 school year, and it found that 19 percent of teachers were working outside of school during the summer, while an additional 28 percent took extra work with their school districts.

"The old myth was that teachers got lower pay because they got summers off," said Marianne Capoziello, president of the Polk Education Association, the union for local public school teachers. "Teachers are doing an awful lot during the summer with training and attending conferences, and on top of that many of them work additional jobs."

The public school system hires about 20 teachers each summer who work as painters with the maintenance department, said David Lauer, the district's assistant superintendent of human resources. Others teach summer school or help coach new employees in Polk's new teacher induction program, he said.

"It's tough. It's tough to live on that $33,000," Lauer said, referring to the projected $33,283 Polk's new teachers will earn this school year. "The teaching salary provides an adequate living. I think it does. But if you want a nicer house, a nicer car, if you want those things above adequate living, then many times it takes another job."

Ballard can vouch for that. She and her husband, Kevin, are trying to make the jump from apartment to house but will need even more financial help for it to happen. To that end, the Ballards have agreed to share their future home with a roommate: Valleyview kindergarten teacher Kendessa Currens, who also works part time at the South Lakeland Target.

"It's kind of aggravating because we go to school for four years and then you don't make enough," said Currens, 32. "Honestly, I feel like I had more money when I waited tables. I figured teaching would be more of a steady thing, and much better hours than working nights and weekends. I thought I was getting out of that rut but it didn't really work." Young teachers in particular seem more apt to take a second job because of unpaid student loans and escalating housing costs.

Amanda Jonckheere, 27, moved to Winter Haven four years ago when life in Orlando became too expensive.

"The housing in Orlando was ridiculous. It's about what it's getting to be here. Last year, my property taxes nearly doubled," said Jonckheere, who teaches first grade at Alta Vista Elementary School in Haines City and is working this summer for the day care program at Calvary Baptist Church in Winter Haven.

In addition to her ballooning taxes, Jonchkeere is chipping away at a $52,000 debt from her days at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and graduate school. And she's doing it on a total of about $36,000 per year.

"Even working as much as I do, I still have to end up borrowing money from my parents," she said.

Today's education majors might not expect hefty paychecks, but they're not always prepared to sacrifice their summer breaks, said Lenny Giammatteo, associate professor of education at Southeastern University in Lakeland.

"They may have to supplement their income, no doubt," he said. "Not once is it brought up in the textbooks, but it's a reality and it's brought into my classroom discussion."

According to the NEA, half of new teachers in the United States are likely to quit within their first five years because of poor working conditions and low pay.

"If there's a second wage earner in the family, it's different. But if they're single or a single mother, it hits them after a period of time" that a teacher's salary might not be sufficient, said Dorene Ross, a professor with the University of Florida's College of Education. "The reality for our society is we expect people to work a job in a really important career without sufficient remuneration to keep them in that role. Some people argue that teaching is only a 10-month job, but those people are naive."

Ross, however, said that most students pursue teaching anyway knowing that it may entail financial hardship.

"They come in knowing they're making an economic sacrifice to pursue something they feel is important," she said.

That was certainly true for Currens, of Valleyview Elementary.

"I guess teachers do complain about their salary, but I love my job. Kids are what I really enjoy," she said. "There's nothing I'd rather do."