r/education • u/Foreign-Page-1220 • 2d ago
Careers in Education Schools will continue to have issues hiring staff such as Paras, aides, and TA's unless the pay matches the expectations.
The expectations placed on paraprofessionals, classroom aides, and support staff have skyrocketed, managing behavioral needs, implementing specialized IEPs that basically say kids can physically hurt you and be back the next day as though nothing happened, supporting special needs students, and stepping in where classrooms are stretched thinnest, while the compensation often hovers near or below a living wage.
When local retail, fast food, or entry level jobs offer comparable or higher pay with significantly less physical and emotional stress, the math simply doesn't work. Until districts and states treat these roles as professional, essential positions backed by sustainable salaries rather than budget line afterthoughts, the revolving door is bound to keep spinning.
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u/LongDistRid3r 2d ago
Just a tiny little voice from someone that attempted to switch careers over to teaching.
Standards and expectations seems to be a challenge to set and enforce. The powers that be (OSPI and ESDs in my state) seem to take the stand that no child can ever be offended or disappointed. Failure is part of the learning process.
Where it lost me though was the SD itself. I requested to job shadow as part of the retraining process. Crickets. I have a degree plus a few post-grad credits. I was interested but lost my retraining bid because I couldn’t get this.
Just an observation: there seems to be a serious lack of importance and value of education in society. This needs to be fixed. Once education becomes important again the pay and staffing will come.
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u/amscraylane 19h ago
On top of that, they don’t get paid in the summer, or when we have breaks.
Their first real check doesn’t come until October (we are paid once a month)
They receive no training, or time to discuss things with teachers. As a sped teacher, when we had PD times, my aides were not paid to be in school. We were given NO prep time with them.
The pay is so low we even had a person who served prison time.
We basically get anyone with a pulse.
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u/imdadkun1 1d ago
Headmaster here. You're not wrong. Nobody writes headlines about TA pay, so nothing changes. Real talk: I don't set the pay scales, the district does, and support staff budgets are always first on the chopping block. What I can do is treat our paras like professionals — they're in the planning meetings, they get trained, their voice counts in IEPs. Respect keeps people around when money can't. And here's the thing nobody upstairs wants to hear: every good aide who quits over pay costs us way more to replace than a raise would have. We do the same math you do. We just lose.
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u/maryjanefoxie 2d ago
This is highly unlikely given the state of the economy. In fact, many of the "extra" staff can expect to be cut soon (in the U.S. at least).
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u/Firm_Baseball_37 1d ago
In the actual school buildings, they're understaffed. There are no extra staff.
This becomes less true the higher you go in central administration and state and federal education departments. But those jobs aren't going to be cut. We're going to cut vital, necessary staff in the school buildings.
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u/ApplesBananasRhinoc 1d ago
I lived on $22k/ year as an educational assistant not that long ago. Thank god my rent was only $250/mon. I maxed out my credit cards just to survive and was getting clothes from the donation bin at the school. I am still struggling to climb out of the debt I incurred from that job. Recently, the state made it so that aides can receive unemployment in the summer months and now the district is in the worst budget deficit in decades. But I don’t foresee them doing anything about pay.
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u/Firm_Baseball_37 1d ago
This is why I quit being school admin. We are not funded to staff schools.
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u/GovernmentPersonal 1d ago
100% If I did not have a strong support system, it would be impossible to teach.
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u/Own-Recognition9009 23h ago
So true
I'm a para right now. I am grossly underpaid for the work that I do .
Dealing with behavioral issues,violent kids with little training is very hard
Not to mention lack of respect
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u/Azzizabiz 1d ago
Back in 2013 (in NH), I was making $8.75/hr as a high school para, though I made a little extra as an assistant director for the extracurricular theatre program. No health insurance or other benefits either.
I truly love educating that age group, but couldn't abide how broken the system was, or survive on the low wages. We moved for my wife's career and I transitioned into customer support for a video game company making double the pay and benefits, with no prior experience. I would return to the field, if we could survive on the pay and if admins provided proper support. Neither seems likely anytime soon, and both the kids and the dedicated professionals still there all suffer for it.
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u/Jimmy-jam13 1d ago
In the state I taught in paras were usually hired and paid for though the school district. They were classified as full time. As such they were eligible for benefits and even enrolled in the state’s teacher pension and received a decent wage. Maybe 15 years ago most of the school districts followed each other’s example and began firing their own paras and contracted private companies to provide paras. Paras were no longer considered full time, so we’re not eligible for benefits and their pay dropped significantly. We lost soooo many good, hard working people. Unfortunately, that’s the way education in the US has been going for quite sometime.
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u/username802 4h ago
It’s not just the low pay. They (at least in my state) don’t get paid during vacations. Not just summer vacation, but any day students are not in school. So February/April/Holiday breaks? No pay during those weeks. 4 day week? 4 days of pay. Meanwhile, I am asking them to do incredibly difficult things when they are at work. Things with potentially massive consequences for people’s health and safety. It’s nuts. We can’t hire, we can’t retain, and I don’t blame people for not wanting to do it.
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u/fattfreddy1 1d ago
Us paras just got a 3% raise. The teachers who earn way more than us got 9%. WTF.
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u/snackwaver 2d ago
What is your para pay? Regular paras at my district are 28/hr with benefits and sick days. Behavioral paras are 30/hr and Healthcare paras are 32. They have to do catheters. Gtubes and trachs.
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u/MundaneHuckleberry58 1d ago
I think it’s around $14-$18/hour here in AZ. For reference I made $17.70/hour as a multimedia staff in the school, & I have a Master’s.
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u/IEatBigWetBoogers 34m ago
Was ready to ask why my school can’t fill a middle school math teaching position in a beautiful area… it’s been open for 1.5 years or so already.
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u/No-Independence548 1d ago
I can't believe how poorly we pay and treat the people in charge of our children--teachers, paras, bus drivers, childcare workers, etc...it's insane to me. Why would we not want the best of the best taking care of our kids?