News Briefs
In Florida, teachers work two jobs
Feb 28, 2008 1:36 PM
“I’m happy, I really am,” said science teacher Randolph Chancey about working for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “But being happy doesn’t pay the bills.”
Chancey expected teaching would be a labor of love, but the $38,000-a-year salary he collects doesn’t make ends meet, he says. So every day after school, he races to a pathology lab to work a second job as a lab technician.
Others tell the same story — that the cost of living in south Florida is rising and even summer work isn’t cutting it.
Nationally, about 16 percent of teachers hold second jobs unrelated to their schools during the school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Experts believe the percentage is higher in urban school districts like Miami-Dade, where the cost of living exceeds the national average.
In Florida, teachers earn an average salary of $43,095, according to the AFT. “When you force teachers to work second jobs, you are actually stealing from their students, because then teachers cannot pay enough attention to their profession as they themselves would like,” said United Teachers of Dade President Karen Aronowitz.
The Florida Legislature eliminated the state funding differential that helped offset the higher cost of living in urban counties.
Miami Herald, Feb. 12
