Teacher Salaries
I’m a teacher at East High School with 7 years in the classroom, and I have watched Denver Public Schools consistently fail to address the teacher turnover crisis in Denver. DPS now has an opportunity to work with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association in salary negotiations to create a future for our students in which every DPS school provides a caring and qualified teaching staff. However, current negotiations demonstrate that DPS is not willing to invest in quality, experienced teachers.
The salary schedule proposed by the district does not compete with surrounding metro districts, and without adding a significant amount of money into the compensation system, the most experienced teachers in DPS will continue to move to other districts. In the last decade, DPS has consistently chosen to put its faith and its dollars into a business model of education, which emphasizes testing and evaluation, rather than the most valuable resource in public education– the educators.
Please tell DPS to prioritize classrooms and come to bargaining with open minds to hear directly from educators on how our community funds can make the biggest impact for our students. Negotiations are taking place now through Jan. 18. It’s not too late to reverse course on some of the lowest teacher base pay in the metro area and keep quality educators in Denver classrooms.
Tiffany Choi
Thank you for posting this Front Porch! I am also a teacher and am disappointed in the way the district is handling our requests. Our kids deserve teachers who stay in the district for many years because they can. We should not be losing our teachers to other districts because they can pay a competitive salary that keeps up with living wages.