In a bold move, Arizona school teacher Elisabeth Coate Milich decided to share her salary online, sparking a heated debate about the pay teachers receive. Milich’s Facebook post, which has since been removed due to negative feedback, revealed that she earned a mere $35,621 per year, with a raise of only $131 from the previous year.
Milich’s decision to share her salary was motivated by her desire to highlight the struggles teachers face in making a living wage. Despite requiring a college degree and dedication to their profession, many teachers, including Milich, are forced to live modestly. “I actually laughed when I saw the old salary versus the new one,” Milich wrote in her post. “I need a college degree to make this?”
As a second-grade teacher at Whispering Wind Academy in Phoenix, Milich has seen firsthand the challenges teachers face in Arizona, which has some of the lowest-paid public school teachers in the nation. While the average salary for teachers in Arizona is $47,218, this is still significantly lower than the national average of $58,353 per year.
Milich’s story highlights the harsh realities of teaching as a profession. Many teachers, including Milich, are forced to pay for supplies out of pocket and struggle to make ends meet. “My teacher friends that I work with, they work three and four jobs to make ends meet,” Milich explained. “I know teachers that teach kindergarten all day long and then they leave and they go waitress at Applebee’s.”
The crisis in teacher recruitment and retention is a pressing concern in Arizona, with a 2017 study by the Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy revealing that 42% of teachers hired in 2013 left the profession after just three years. Milich’s story serves as a stark reminder of the need for fair compensation and support for teachers, who are essential to the education and development of future generations.
