First Woman Dr. Jill Biden hosted the 2020 and 2021 teachers of the yr awards at the White Home on Monday. President Joe Biden made a surprise appearance at the occasion which was held in particular person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mrs. Biden, who’s a instructor at Northern Virginia Neighborhood Faculty, is the first particular person to have a job whereas serving as first girl, so she is aware of first-hand a few of the challenges that teachers face.
In keeping with a 2021 survey by RAND’s American Teacher Panel, one in 4 teachers are both eager about leaving by the finish of the college yr or are leaving in report numbers as a result of they are pissed off, really feel they are underpaid and overworked.
“We’re here speaking for our students. We’re here celebrating teachers. We have to speak for our colleagues as well,” 2020 Nationwide Trainer of the Yr, Tabatha Rosproy, instructed “CBS Mornings” Gayle King. “And part of our role as state teachers of the year is to do that.”
Rosproy mentioned that one purpose teachers are opting to depart is pay and compensation. “This is news from the ground level, is that compensation is not fair for our educators. Some of our districts have said, ‘We’ve frozen salaries this year, but here’s a $200 COVID-bonus,’ right, for working through hazardous work conditions.”
“The emotional labor, the physical labor, the amount of extra work and things we have to learn have not been fairly compensated. And our states have not always come through with funding. I think they’re trying really hard,” she added.
Mrs. Biden instructed King that with the intention to get teachers the pay that they deserve, it must “start from the top.”
“I think Joe is saying, ‘We have to pay our teachers more.’ And we’re getting more money to the schools. I don’t know whether you’ve gotten the money from the American Rescue Plan or whether you felt its impacts yet,” Biden mentioned. “But Joe has always, that’s one of the things he ran on. And he knows, I mean, because I’m an educator and he saw, you know, the hours that I put in, just like all these teachers. And then the states, the governors and the state legislators.”
Mrs. Biden added: “I mean, they have to give more money to teachers. I mean, it’s just the bottom line.”
