i would like to publicly read my article that i published in the bhs crimson regarding the national teacher crisis from the perspective of a student.

Our teachers are our role models. We have looked up to them and learned from them since we were in kindergarten, where they nurtured and encouraged us, even when it seemed as if our emotions felt too big for us to handle at times. In middle school, our teachers invited us to eat lunch with them when we felt overwhelmed by what was going on in our personal lives. In high school, they have helped us find our true passions, and they continue to guide us on how to be the best version of ourselves.

Teaching, arguably, is one of the most important professions that exists in the world today. Teachers, in partnership with our parents, are responsible for the future of the nation’s youth, but unfortunately, there is a devastating shortage of teachers practicing this profession due to incredibly high stress levels and low wages. The National Education Association reported this shortage to be over 300,000 teachers across the United States from the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. The crisis extends beyond the individual teachers themselves and their own lives, and has an impact on the entire future of the country.

Despite the substantial increase in the general cost of living in the United States, medical fees, pension costs, and the overall price of goods, many teachers’ take-home pay has not budged.

Specifically, medical costs are increasing dramatically, which makes it so that teachers who have worked longer end up losing more money each year due to increased salary dependent contributions. One can only imagine how discouraging it must be to put all your effort into any profession, just to see salary diminish because of these medical costs as an individual’s skill set grows.

Teaching is the only profession where employees are not rewarded for their individual skill set and dedication, when in fact this is the one profession where it is these individual efforts that are most important.

This is devastating not only because of how highly we as students value the teachers and staff in our schools, but also it is showing us how these adults, whom we see as role models are not being appreciated for all their hard work. It reflects the misconstrued conception that teachers aren’t as valuable as they truly are.

This narrative has become increasingly relevant as the teacher contract negotiations have begun affecting students first-hand. The fact that teachers have to involve themselves with these negotiations for an increase in their salary every three years proves how their profession is underappreciated as it is essentially the only field where employees have to fight for increases in compensation.

In fact, two paraprofessionals, essential members of a public school’s faculty, left SHSD to work at neighboring Basking Ridge for just $10 more an hour. There is far too much hesitation in prioritizing the well-being and retention of our teachers. Action should be taken to ensure that we do not continue to lose essential members of our community. Teacher unions are designed to protect teachers from this very situation by ensuring fair labor practices and compensation for services.

Newly elected SHSD Board of Education President, Sam Frenda, stated, “The details of negotiations with any union are confidential, as is agreed upon in the ground rules signed by the Board negotiations committee and the union’s negotiations’ committee at the beginning of the collective bargaining process.”

While we do not know the extent of items that the union or the Board of Education are asking for, the current delay in agreeing to a new contract is perceived by students as a contributing factor to the prevailing narrative that a teacher’s profession is increasingly unappealing and underappreciated.

When students are applying to colleges and planning their futures, many say that based upon the unfair reality and disrespectful way that the teachers are being treated by society as a whole, it is very discouraging to become a teacher. This is a huge problem because without teachers, future generations will be lost.

In the Somerset Hills School District, teachers are known for going “above and beyond” which is why our school system is as great as it is, and why we have been considered a top rated school in New Jersey. Teachers spend extra hours volunteering to run unpaid clubs, providing students extra help, and writing recommendation letters, all of which they are not compensated for.

As a society, why are we so accustomed to expecting extra from our teachers? To use an example from another profession, if I had a meeting with a lawyer for an hour and it bled into two hours, I would pay my lawyer for two hours as it is not acceptable to ask for free labor. The fact that this differs in the education system further proves that teachers are taken advantage of in comparison to other professions.

All teachers should be rewarded for their efforts and paid appropriately. Even through the chaos of COVID-19, our teachers continued the theme of going “above and beyond,” reconstructing their lesson plans, adapting to virtual learning, and continuing to provide the emotional and educational support we as students so desperately needed. As a student, I can confidently say that I have never been disappointed by my teachers as they gave so much to all of us during that time and moving forward.

During this time, we are looking at our teachers in admiration as they show us the importance of standing up for ourselves, particularly in the workplace where it is most important to do so. It is heartbreaking to witness teachers across the country treated with such disrespect as if everything they do and have done for us is not valued by the community and society as a whole as many of our accomplishments thus far can be attributed to how they helped us. If we expect younger generations to want to become educators, we need to set an example that the profession is valued and respected in our community.