By Adam Pagnucco.
Maryland Matters recently published an article on a survey conducted by the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) of its members, most of whom are teachers. The results can also be found on MSEA’s website.
Statewide, here are the key findings from MSEA.
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Over half of Maryland educators have incurred personal debt. In the last year, 52 percent of educators surveyed have incurred personal debt, up from 46 percent in 2019. Educators who are more likely to incur personal debt include those working in high poverty schools (57 percent), Black educators (65 percent), and Hispanic educators (61 percent).
Most Maryland educators have purchased school supplies out of their own pocket. In the last year, 90 percent of educators surveyed spent their own money on school supplies, up from 88 percent in 2019.
Nearly half of Maryland educators worked a second job. Forty-four percent of educators surveyed have worked a second job in the last year, similar to 2019 data. Educators who are more likely to work second jobs include educators under 30 years old (61 percent), Black educators (50 percent), and Hispanic educators (52 percent).
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The chart below from MSEA summarizes the survey’s statewide results in 2018, 2019 and this year.
I asked MSEA to break out the survey’s results for Montgomery County respondents and they did so. Of the survey’s 2,896 respondents, 458 were from MoCo. Of the MoCo respondents, 89% purchased school supplies with their own money, 43% worked a second job and 41% incurred personal debt in the last year. These percentages are not terribly different from the statewide sample. At this sample size, the survey’s margin of error would be around 4-5 points in either direction.
Look folks, this is not OK. It’s a fail for any organization, not just MCPS, to have 89% of employees in their most common classification using personal funds to pay for supplies needed for work. That’s the employer’s responsibility. And as someone whose parents were teachers, I can tell you that that is a full-time job requiring work after hours. If these people are indeed working second jobs, they probably have little or no leisure time. I can’t imagine how they do it.
I hope MCPS bears this data in mind in their next round of contract negotiations.