After four years of working my ass off as an education major, I’m finally a senior completing my full-time student teaching placement. 

This entails taking on planning and teaching lessons daily, attending meetings and even two weeks where I am the only teacher in the classroom.

Despite working 40 plus hours per week, I am not being paid a dime.

Don’t get me wrong: I love student teaching. Every day I am so excited to be teaching lessons, spending time with my students and improving my practice. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.

However, plenty of student teachers, myself included, are currently struggling to make ends meet.

This semester, I had to turn down my $1000 work study award because there were essentially no work study jobs outside the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

This work study has been what allows me to afford groceries and gas in previous semesters. Without this support, the money I had saved up from working this summer money is running out extremely fast. I don’t know what I will do if and when it runs out.

Being a teacher means battling a constant struggle with work-life balance. Only 33% of teachers are satisfied with their jobs, versus 51% of US workers generally, according to an April 4 Pew Research Center article.

Additionally, teachers work 25% of their time unpaid, according to a Sept. 12, 2023 RAND survey of public school teachers.

Our current student teaching system does not promote a healthy relationship with work, unfortunately aligning perfectly with what we ask of full-time teachers. 

UVM senior and student teacher Alex Brodeur described their struggle with work-life balance.

“Between the exhaustion of student teaching and then having to sometimes go to work right after and then figuring out when to do homework, it’s been a lot. Being this busy has changed my mindset on a lot of things. It’s been not great for the mental health,” said Brodeur.

By not fairly compensating student teachers, we are disadvantaging a new generation of teachers right out of the gate.

This also becomes an equity issue for students who don’t come from intergenerational wealth. While some student teachers may be balancing finances perfectly fine because they have parents who can help support them, many simply do not have this privilege. 

This allows students from a higher-income background to have an advantage over other student teachers when it comes to succeeding in student teaching, licensure and even just stress and well-being.

Student teachers who are struggling financially are less likely to obtain licensure solely because of their socioeconomic status. This disproportionately affects BIPOC students as well, according to a March 17, 2023 National Education Association article.

But just because it has been this way forever doesn’t mean we can’t change this. Present and future generations of teachers deserve to be paid for their extensive efforts.

In 2023, Pennsylvania passed a law giving student teachers at least $10,000 stipends towards living expenses during their student teaching semester, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

Even a fraction of that would be life-changing for me as a student teacher; I would no longer have the burden of financial stress. 

This semester, UVM’s education department introduced a scholarship of $1000 for undergraduate student teachers. 

However, this scholarship will only go to one person, will not be given out until at least late October and will not necessarily be fulfilled on a financial need basis, according to a Sept. 12 email to current student teachers in the College of Education and Social Services.

The fact that the scholarship only goes to one person creates competition between student teachers, Brodeur said. 

“It’s dividing a community, which I think is really stupid. It’s also just like, why can’t we do this for everyone?” Brodeur said.

UVM needs to do better for their student teachers.

In a time where teachers are needed more than ever, we need to support student teachers financially in order to promote a future of an equitable and burnout-free teaching profession.