Affordable Teacher Housing
The median home price in the Bay Area is nearly $1 million, or four times the median home price across the country (Dizon-Ross, Loeb, Penner, & Rochmes, 2019). Teacher salaries, meanwhile, are only thirty percent higher than the national median (Lambert & Willis, 2019). This shortfall causes a loss of teachers at nearly three times the rate it should be, each time costing districts money in the process of rehiring and training new teachers. Those hurt most by this are our children who cannot count on stable, quality education or whose super-commuting teachers have little extra time to spare.
While we hope that teachers’ salaries become commensurate with the value they bring, our mission is to provide supplemental stipends until reform on a policy level is implemented.
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Why Affordable Teacher Housing Helps Kids Learn to Read
Between hours worked teaching and grading, lower pay, and large class sizes, our teachers are over-burdened. If we can remove the stress of exorbitant housing costs or record-setting commutes, our teachers will be able to put their time into things that count. Every time we retain a teacher, rather than lose one due to economics they can’t help, we also save our local districts valuable resources. That’s money that can go directly into education.
Basic Allowance for Housing
Through a federally funded Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), we can help supplement teachers’ salaries with meaningful assistance on housing so our communities can bring experienced and qualified educators to teach at our schools.
Proven Fundamentals
The military uses the proven model of the BAH to guarantee active military and veterans housing. UEHL advocates to open the funding guidelines of BAH to support teachers at public schools throughout the United States.
