As students, parents, and educators enter the start of a new school year, the think tank Economic Policy Institute published an analysis Thursday that American K-12 public school teachers spend an average of $459 on classroom supplies for which they are not reimbursed.
“This figure does not include the dollars teachers spend but are reimbursed for by their school districts,” EPI economist Emma García wrote in a blog post. “The $459-per-teacher average is for all teachers, including the small (4.9 percent) share who do not spend any of their own money on school supplies.”
Common Dreams
August 23, 2019
— The Economic Policy Institute says in a new analysis that teachers in at least one state spend more than $600 on average of their own money on classroom supplies.
PAYING FOR CLASSROOM SUPPLIES: Are teachers pulling out their checkbooks as the school year gets underway? New data out today by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute suggests that’s likely the case. The state-by-state analysis finds that teachers in North Dakota spend on average $327 of their own money on classroom supplies — the lowest, on average. In comparison, California teachers, who are on the high end, spend $664.
Politico
August 23, 2019
The growing shortfall is well documented. The Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., reports that the shortage of teachers nationwide from preschool through high school worsened from 64,000 in the 2015-2016 academic year to 110,000 just two years later. The agency projects the shortfall will reach at least 200,000 by 2025.
EdPrepMatters
August 23, 2019
Meanwhile, the pay gap between teachers and other comparably educated professionals is now the largest on record. In 1994, public-school teachers in the U.S. earned 1.8% less per week than comparable workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning think tank. By last year, they made 18.7% less. The situation is particularly grim in states such as Oklahoma, where teachers’ inflation-adjusted salaries actually decreased by about $8,000 in the last decade, to an average of $45,245 in 2016, according to DOE data. In Arizona, teachers’ average inflation-adjusted annual wages are down $5,000.
Time
August 23, 2019
Lawrence Mishel, an economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute is cited in The Atlantic article by Hanauer. In it, Mishel chastises conservatives for failing to address inequality. He states they focus instead on what they call “the opportunity gap.”
TheChattanoogan.com
August 23, 2019
WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the Economic Policy Institute published a report showing teachers spend an average of $459 on school supplies out of their own pockets:
“There is no other profession I can think of where workers, as a matter of culture and practice, are relied upon to subsidize an employer’s costs just so they can do their jobs. But teachers want what kids need, so each year they buy hundreds of dollars’ worth of supplies for their students without a second thought—even though they are paid over 20 percent less than similarly skilled professionals.
AFT
August 23, 2019
Others will be watching for how companies deal with their employees, given the statement’s commitment to compensating and supporting workers. Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said he would be looking for a shift in how big corporate CEOs are willing to engage with unions and work with employees toward a new system of collective bargaining.
“What would be really my most hopeful moment would be if these CEOs expressed a recognition of the importance of worker voice and their own workers to be able to bargain collectively,” Mishel said.
The Washington Post
August 22, 2019
Pointing to research from the think tank Economic Policy Institute which shows that “since the 1970s, declining unionization has fueled rising inequality and stalled economic progress for the broad American middle class,” Sanders aims to reverse that national trend with a new plan that builds on legislation the Independent senator from Vermont initially introduced in 1992.
Common Dreams
August 22, 2019
Unionized workers are afforded around a 22% wage premium compared to non-union workers. A 2003 paper published by the Economic Policy Institute found even non-unionized workers benefited from wage increases based on the percentage of unionization within their industry.
The Guardian
August 22, 2019
The national Economic Policy Institute estimated in July that 652,000 Kentuckians — 35% of the workforce — would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, as proposed in the federal Raise the Wage Act.
Pugel said such an increase would most benefit women and minorities statewide, as well as workers in Eastern Kentucky. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that about 40% of workers in that region would receive a salary increase.
Courier Journal
August 22, 2019