BOSTON – It’s a new bill, one that would set a statewide starting base salary for educators at $65,000 for classroom teachers and $45,000 for support staff, including paraprofessional educators.

“This would be a significant increase,” said Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, D-Somerville, the sponsor of the proposal. Massachusetts last set a base pay for teachers in 1987, she said, noting that while many districts have increased compensation for classroom teachers, a sector of the education workforce remains woefully underpaid. Teaching support staff and paraprofessional educators’ salaries can start as low as $13,000 for the school year.

According to Zip Recruiter, a handful of communities pay over $35,000 in salary. Watertown pays $46,939 for the 10-month school year, Leominster pays $41,389. Because of the length of the year, the salaries calculate to $22.58 and $19.90 an hour, respectively. Most districts do not prorate the pay over the summer.

“For decades we have asked educators to do more with less,” Uyterhoeven said. In the time since Massachusetts set a base salary, the state has passed Prop 2 ½, a measure that switched education funding to municipal budgets, causing property tax rates to spiral upward. In 1993, the state passed the Education Reform Act and in 2019 the Student Opportunity Act.

“Educators often work on expired contracts that don’t keep pace with inflation, work without contracts for years,” Uyterhoeven said. Negotiations can be secretive, drawn-out processes, forcing some districts to strike to move them forward despite a law that bars public employees from taking a job action.

Supporting the measure are the Massachusetts Teachers Association, representing 115,000 teachers across the Bay State, and the American Federation of Teachers. Boston teachers are represented by the Boston Teachers Union.

The bill calls for state support as districts transition to higher base salaries, with funding diminishing over the course of four years.

“We need safeguards to ensure the pay scale does not slide back down,” Uyterhoeven said.

Paraprofessional educators live paycheck to paycheck, said Deb McCarthy, vice president of the MTA, who worked as a fifth grade teacher in Hull before her election to the labor union position.

“In Hingham, homes sell for a median of $1.5 million. The median household income is more than $200,000, yet the highest salary step for paraprofessionals is $25,000 pretax and the starting salary is below $19,000 and takes seven years to attain,” McCarthy said. Roughly 20% of paraprofessionals who subscribe to the city’s health care package end up owing money at the end of their pay periods. About 73% work second jobs, and many qualify for SNAP benefits.

Supporting teachers and students in the education system should be their only job, she said.

Somerville managed to increase its starting pay from less than $19,000 to $35,000 in a two-step process through contract negotiations that started in 2018. A proposed contract was rejected by membership in 2019 before paraeducators accepted a $5,000 stipend to close a deal. A second negotiation process for a new a contract ended with the significant jump, 70%, in the starting salary.

In most of Massachusetts, even $45,000 can be considered poverty wages, McCarthy said.

“Poverty pay is not OK,” said Susan Greco, a paraprofessional working in Andover for the last six years. “I am the second educator in the room. I support all the students, reteach essential concepts, support their learning and emotional needs. I expected to be making a living wage. I make $32,000, pretax.”

Greco qualifies for state aid to purchase health insurance, is entitled to SNAP benefits, and lives in a constant state of financial anxiety. She works a second job to make ends meet when all she wants to do is the most important job in society: educate its children.

Joni Cederholm, a Weymouth paraprofessional for 29 years, also qualifies for SNAP benefits and heat assistance.

“I got a call from my district one Christmas, asking if I needed toys for my family to put under the tree because of my low wages,” Cederholm said.

In addition to the poverty wages, Cederholm said there is a lack of respect for the work of the paraprofessional, with many dismissed as babysitters. However, in Massachusetts some 80% of paraprofessionals have earned a bachelor’s degree and even master’s degrees.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. State bill would hike base salaries for teachers, support staff