Mar 8, 2017 12:00:00 AM
by Vivett Dukes
A traditional pension can be a very attractive benefit, at least for those who work long enough to get back more money than they contribute. But because of high teacher turnover, mobility from state to state and other factors, only a minority of all newly hired teachers succeed in doing that.As a matter of fact, 67 percent of teachers in New York will not break even on their pensions. I wish you could’ve seen the look on my face when I read that report. It’s bad enough that we as teachers are grossly underpaid throughout the entirety of our careers. Now I read news that is simply too much to bear: We will always receive the short end of the salary stick. I know too many teachers with multiple degrees in higher education who have to—not choose to—work summer school, score State exams, and take part-time jobs on the side in order to make ends meet. For the longest time my youngest daughter, Cereta, wanted to be an English teacher—just like her mom. Most parents would be honored to have their child aspire to follow in their professional footsteps. I told her in no uncertain terms to get rid of that idea of becoming a teacher. I asked her, [pullquote]“Do you want to live hand-to-mouth for the rest of your life?”[/pullquote] I felt horrible telling her that, but it’s the truth! She’s lived through us being homeless, for God’s sake, while I worked full-time as a teacher. What a sad commentary for a profession that does so much for so many. Everyone who is anyone has a teacher to thank for their success in life. Did you notice how many Award-winning actors thanked their teachers at this year’s Oscar Awards? How much do their beloved teachers make? A tiny fraction of what they make, I’m sure. Teachers’ meager salaries are the brunt of jokes in arenas from movies to music. I remember listening to the rap song “Rico” in the car with my kids a few summers ago and hearing the rapper Meek Mill slyly say, “For my teachers who said I wouldn’t make it here, I spend more in a day than you make in a year.” It hurt to hear the raw truth in those bars. I couldn’t even refute it. My son Christian just laughed…and laughed…and laughed some more. All I could do was shake my head. I hear so much postulation and pontification about how we need to attract better candidates to the teaching pool and how we need more male teachers, especially Black male teachers, in the classroom. How are we going to convince potential education majors that teaching is a profession worth pursuing when the starting salary for a new teacher in New York with a bachelor’s degree, fresh out of college, is $45,000—and New York teacher salaries are on the higher end of the spectrum in comparison to other states. (As an aside, I’d note that the cost of living in New York is considerable higher than many other states.) At the end of the day, teachers don’t earn nearly as much money as we deserve, given the great societal impact of the work that we do. Until compensation—both salaries and deferred compensation—is fair, the teaching profession will continue to be the laughing stock of the professional world. I, for one, am no longer willing to have that joke be on me.
Vivett Dukes (nèe Hemans) is in her eighth year as a middle and high school English Language Arts teacher. For her first four years in the DOE, she taught in an all-male, all minority, urban public school in Southside Jamaica, Queens erected for the express purpose of counteracting the pervasive school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately impacts Black and Brown boys. Currently, she is teaching in a College Board middle and high school also in Jamaica, Queens, where the population of students she serves is diversified on cultural, religious and socio-economic planes. During her time as a teacher within the New York City Department of Education she has served as a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Teacher Advisory Council 2014-2016 cohort, a classroom lab facilitator with Chancellor Carmen Fariña's Learning Partners Program, grade team leader, inquiry team leader, English Department Chairperson and Bethune Teaching Fellow for the New York Urban League. Currently, in additional to teaching seventh-grade English Language Arts, she serves as a Lead Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI) Reading Across All Disciplines (RAAD) Literacy Teacher, Advisor for the New York Times' Upfront magazine and Scholastic Inc., educational blogger for New York School Talk, and Co-CEO/Co-Founder of SpeakYaTruth.org and One Voice Online Blog Magazine. She also hosts a bi-weekly #SafeSpaceConvos Twitter chat about issues as the forefront of education. At her core, Vivett is a passionate wife, mom, teacher-leader, keynote speaker, public intellectual, social activist, social advocate, and humanitarian who is dedicated to taking her voice outside of the classroom and into the public arena in an effort to elevate authentic conversations and grassroots changes in educational equity and human rights advocacy.
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