New teachers in Detroit Public Schools Community District will earn up to $51,071 starting in the 2020-21 academic year, making starting teacher pay the highest in Metro Detroit, officials announced Thursday.
It’s a jump from the current salary, which allows first-year teachers to earn around $38,000 with a $1,000 increase each following year, maxing out at 15 years.
The move is expected to help fill positions and retain instructors, the district said in a statement.
“This investment will prevent a greater teacher recruitment crisis for our students when you consider the national and regional shortage of undergraduate students choosing to be a teacher and the fact that nearly a third of our teachers could retire at any moment and another third of teachers could be in a position to retire in one to four years,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.
“If we do not act with a sense of urgency regarding the recruitment of teachers to DPSCD, then we slow the progress our children are making and own the failure to develop a long-term strategy to prevent the vacuum that a mass retirement could create over the next five years.”
Leaders with the Detroit Federation of Teachers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The district said it has raised teacher salaries across the board for the last three years; the average was nearly $10,000 since 2016-17, when vacancies reached 275.
For article, click below:
Source: Detroit Public Schools Community District hikes starting teacher pay to $51K
