Our Policy Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration
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President Biden, Vice-President Harris, and Members of the 117th Congress,
Congratulations and THANK YOU for leading our struggling nation through this dark time toward a safer, saner, and brighter future. At this time of Thanksgiving, we could not be more grateful for all of you. We at the Teacher Salary Project in particular thank you for your courageous commitment to doing what everyone knows is the right thing: increasing teacher salaries. Since 2005, the Teacher Salary Project has been fighting to raise awareness around the impact of our national underpayment and undervaluing of teachers and wishes to support the Administration however we can in making our shared commitment to this vision a reality. The Teacher Salary Project is a nonpartisan organization committed to working with everyone in the country — Democrats and Republicans, from the schoolhouse to the White House to the business and civic communities — to ensure that teaching becomes the prestigious, desirable, financially viable, and professionally exciting job we all know it needs to be. |
To build the public and political will for change, The Teacher Salary Project shares teachers’ stories, highlights research and data, lends thought leadership, and advocates for higher teacher pay. Our Founder & CEO, Nínive Calegari, was featured on MSNBC supporting Vice-President-Elect Harris’ plans to elevate teaching through higher salaries. Previously, we published a book (with bestselling author Dave Eggers) Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers, policy brief and numerous articles; released a feature-length documentary film, American Teacher (narrated by Matt Damon, featuring Linda Darling-Hammond and directed by Academy-award winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth) shown in theaters across the country; produced a short-film series; delivered a TEDx talk; and launched a Governors’ Challenge to encourage our nation’s top leaders to use the bully pulpit to advance this critical and bipartisan issue of improving teacher pay.
In the COVID-19 context, the critical issues of schools re-opening, connectivity and access to devices, and funding to maintain teachers’ jobs must be prioritized in the immediate term. But there is no time like the present to simultaneously begin charting the path toward the longer-term reality of a professionally-compensated education workforce that can eradicate chronic teacher shortages while creating joyful and stable classrooms where each student can achieve their highest potential.
We recommend the Administration prioritize the following:
Children desperately need hope for a brighter post-pandemic future where it is clear that their well-being and education are prioritized. Meanwhile, our nation’s teachers are burning out and need to know our leaders stand behind them. Education, and in particular supporting teachers, represent the most promising avenue to foster the unity the Administration has called for.
The Teacher Salary Project would be thrilled to lend our support. Our CEO (Nínive Calegari) and Board Chair (Ellen Sherratt) together bring teaching experience, research expertise, policy and advocacy experience, and a breadth of critical relationships. Dr. Calegari has spent the last several years liaising with business leaders and building youth workforce opportunities as CEO of Enterprise for Youth, while Dr. Sherratt, as Vice-President for Policy and Research for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, has been publishing, partnering with national teacher-focused organizations, and, most important, building an army of leading National Board Certified Teachers ready to be this change we all wish to see.
Thank you for considering our recommendations and please reach out if we can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
In the COVID-19 context, the critical issues of schools re-opening, connectivity and access to devices, and funding to maintain teachers’ jobs must be prioritized in the immediate term. But there is no time like the present to simultaneously begin charting the path toward the longer-term reality of a professionally-compensated education workforce that can eradicate chronic teacher shortages while creating joyful and stable classrooms where each student can achieve their highest potential.
We recommend the Administration prioritize the following:
- Launch (or support the launch of) a Taskforce on Modernizing the Teaching Profession within your First 100 Days. The bi-partisan and diverse group of leaders will review data (e.g., from Learning Policy Institute, the Economic Policy Institute, and others); engage stakeholders (e.g., teachers, researchers, and policy leaders, business and civic leaders); and develop recommendations for how best to direct Title I dollars, competitive grants, teacher preparation scholarships, federal refundable tax credits, and other levers for increasing teacher pay with a goal of introducing new and bold approaches in time for the 2022-23 school year.
- Continue to use the bully pulpit in support of higher teacher pay and an elevated teaching profession. Use the platform of President, Vice-President, and First Lady to elevate the topic and coordinate messages with other high-profile advocates. Doing so will signal hope to our nation, making it clear that the pandemic will not derail this bi-partisan commitment to a better, more equitable future where teachers are afforded the respect the profession deserves and where all students can expect enough excellent teachers will be available to teach them. This may include signing the Teachers 2020 Bill of Rights on Day 1.
- Elevate teacher voice on pay. In addition to the Teacher Salary Project’s publications and videos, commit to inviting a diversity of teacher voices to every table possible to share their stories of how our national failure to appropriately compensate teachers has impacted them, their families, and their students. Elevate the voice of teachers who have indicated their instructional and policy expertise, for example by earning National Board Certification, becoming Teach Plus Fellows, or advocating through their state or local teachers’ associations.
- Ask the U.S. Department of Education to issue guidance to state and local recipients of federal aid emphasizing the importance of prioritizing spending, to the extent feasible, on our most critical school resource: our teachers. The Taskforce can provide concrete recommendations for local and state agencies to better direct existing resources and to raise additional resources toward this end.
Children desperately need hope for a brighter post-pandemic future where it is clear that their well-being and education are prioritized. Meanwhile, our nation’s teachers are burning out and need to know our leaders stand behind them. Education, and in particular supporting teachers, represent the most promising avenue to foster the unity the Administration has called for.
The Teacher Salary Project would be thrilled to lend our support. Our CEO (Nínive Calegari) and Board Chair (Ellen Sherratt) together bring teaching experience, research expertise, policy and advocacy experience, and a breadth of critical relationships. Dr. Calegari has spent the last several years liaising with business leaders and building youth workforce opportunities as CEO of Enterprise for Youth, while Dr. Sherratt, as Vice-President for Policy and Research for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, has been publishing, partnering with national teacher-focused organizations, and, most important, building an army of leading National Board Certified Teachers ready to be this change we all wish to see.
Thank you for considering our recommendations and please reach out if we can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
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Nínive Clements Calegari, PhD
Founder and CEO |
Ellen Behrstock Sherratt, PhD
Board Chair |