With the state set to pass a budget that includes $1 billion for public education, a retired Cleveland teacher spoke with News 5's Danita Harris about the obstacles teachers face, aside from low incomes.
Victoria Davis, a retired Cleveland Municipal School District educator, started teaching in 1981 and made $11,500 a year. She says it never changed her mind about molding the minds of the future.
In 2022, the average salary for a teacher in Ohio was about $63,000 with most first-year teachers starting off at $30,000 a year.
The Ohio House just passed an $88 billion state budget plan. If lawmakers pass House Bill 33, it would provide $1 billion for public education and require the education department to conduct performance comparisons between public schools and private schools.
This could raise the minimum base salaries for Ohio teachers with a bachelor's degree to $40,000.
President of the Ohio Education Association Scott Dimauro says, "it's a huge deal."
"The work that our teachers do in our schools is heroic. There's a significant pay gap when you compare the salaries of people coming out of college, going into other fields compared to going into education, there's about a 14% gap."
But is this enough to entice new graduates to enter the field? Davis isn't so sure.
"When we started teaching, we didn't know all these things that were happening in the school system until we got into the classroom as far as violence or anything like that. But today they're exposed to everything," Davis said.
On a daily basis, teachers face violence in schools, a lack of resources and full classrooms.
"One teacher overseeing 30, 40 kids is ridiculous," said Monica Grays, gifted itinerant for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. "Teachers really do live paycheck to paycheck. And then we use what we have to provide resources to our kids."
Grays owns and operates the 2nd Semester Consignment Shop on East 185th Street. The store repurposes items parents and teachers no longer need and resells them at a discounted price.
RELATED: Cleveland educator helps teachers save big, battle inflation through new consignment shop location
Grays says her 25 years of teaching have shown her money is not going to fix all of the problems they see in and out of the classroom.
"They need support in and out of the classroom," she said. "And a lot of times teachers, it is their only support system."
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