We recently learned that the Butler Area school board voted to raise the pay for substitute teachers through Educational Staffing Solutions to a total of $105 a day.

It comes as no surprise. According to a June article from The Associated Press, teachers are leaving the profession at an accelerating rate in Pennsylvania, amid fears of a nationwide exodus of burned-out teachers and a collapse in enrollment in recruitment programs that is making teachers increasingly difficult to replace.

An analysis by Penn State’s Center for Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis shows that the rate of teacher attrition in Pennsylvania grew faster in the 2022-23 school year and hit its highest point in a decade of tracking.

While the pay increase for substitute teachers only amounts to about $5 per day in Butler, every cent matters. Teachers are important to the foundations of children’s lives.

Most fresh college graduates who pursue teaching begin as substitutes, and if even a small pay raise can help ease some financial worry on top of the stressful work itself, then it’s worth it.

Butler isn’t alone, either. In 2021, the Slippery Rock Area School District raised its daily substitute teaching rate from $100 to $130, with a stipulation that the pay would be raised to $150 per day if the substitute teacher works more than 30 days in the district.

In 2022, Seneca Valley School District raised the daily pay for substitute teachers by $25 a day to a daily rate of $150.

The trend has the potential to encourage young teachers to stick with it, easing the shortage and, in time, perhaps reversing it.

More value must be placed in teachers on a national level, and we applaud our local schools that see it. The amount work they do for our students that we never hear about or see is astounding.

— CM