In the other city, where contract talks have been stalled for months, teacher salaries lag far behind those of the surrounding suburbs--as much as 20 percent to 30 percent. The number of uncertified teachers is soaring, especially as veteran teachers retire or take better-paying jobs in neighboring districts.

Who says money doesn't make a huge difference when it comes to easing teacher shortages? Or, as Day Higuchi, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)--the first city--likes to say, "We told you so."

The results in Los Angeles are impossible to ignore. "The hiring hall down at the district has been jam-packed," Higuchi says. Toward the end of the summer, the district was hiring new teachers at three times the rate of the previous year. And the salary differential for certified teachers has helped cut the number of people working under emergency permits by one-third. "A lot of folks have suddenly decided to get their credentials," Higuchi adds.

In Los Angeles, school superintendent Roy Romer and the union speak the same language on this issue. "Competitive salaries are key to our efforts to recruit, attract and keep the most-qualified teachers in the county," Romer says.

Back to the second city, New York. The United Federation of Teachers' (UFT) contract expired last November, and the union has been engaged in contentious negotiations with the city since even before then. Another big difference from Los Angeles: New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani denies that a teacher shortage even exists.

Meanwhile, thousands of teachers in the city have retired this year--in fact, more have left in the first six months of 2001 than in 1999 and 2000 combined. In addition, a survey conducted this past spring by Harold Levy, the school system's chancellor, showed close to 1,700 teachers left the system last year to work in other districts. As UFT president Randi Weingarten told the New York Times, "How many teachers does the mayor need to see leave before he thinks there is a problem?

"We've got to get a new contract in place to stop the teacher exodus and begin attracting the best new candidates," Weingarten says. "The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to solve this problem."
 

The National Picture

The Los Angeles/New York contrast shows something else about teacher recruitment. The teacher marketplace, for lack of a better term, is highly local and regional. By paying more, Los Angeles can attract new college graduates who might otherwise take positions in nearby districts, and New York might lose out to suburban districts for candidates in that part of the country. But not many teachers are going to move 3,000 miles--or even 300 miles--to get a job.

And when it comes to the bigger picture of salaries nationally, figures show that teachers are still at a big economic disadvantage compared to other professionals. The AFT's most recent annual salary survey, covering the 1999-2000 school year, shows that pay for beginning and veteran teachers alike continues to lag behind other white-collar occupations. (See the accompanying box for beginning salaries in various fields.)

"The teacher shortage plaguing school districts nationwide will not abate unless salaries improve," AFT president Sandra Feldman says. "Better wages aren't the only way to retain and recruit teachers, but they sure make a difference."

In August, Andy Hilbert began his first year as a full-time teacher for the Los Angeles public schools. Hilbert, who holds a bachelor's degree in English, is teaching English at a Los Angeles middle school. Though he considered teaching when he graduated from college in 1996, Hilbert chose engineering sales instead. "It didn't make any sense financially for me to move into teaching right from college," says Hilbert, noting that starting pay at the time was less than $28,000.

He expects to make around $35,000 as a new teacher. "That's a huge improvement over 1996 when I first considered teaching," says Hilbert, who credits UTLA with "doing the hard work" that resulted in raising the salary of beginning teachers.

UTLA's Higuchi says education is not unlike other fields in this regard. "If you want more people to work for you who are better qualified, you need to pay them more. It makes a difference."

There are other promising developments on the salary front, especially in some of the states. Realizing the regional nature of the teaching market, a number of governors and state legislatures--especially in the South, where salaries tend to fall well below the national average--have made efforts to lift pay closer to national norms.

One state to watch will be Mississippi, where the AFT's state affiliate was a leader in an effort that led to a six-year, $330 million plan that will raise salaries to the Southeastern average. The state, which ranked 48th in average teacher pay in the AFT survey, is looking to higher salaries to cut the large number of teaching vacancies there. (See page 10 for related story.)

Higher salaries statewide--or, better yet, nationwide--might also help lure back into classrooms some of the thousands of people who have certificates but aren't teaching.

In Texas, for example, AFT state federation president John Cole says there's no shortage of qualified teachers, "but we do have a shortage of qualified teachers who are willing to work in schools where they are paid poor wages, given poor benefits and treated with indifference by school officials."

Besides higher pay, states and school districts have offered incentives ranging from signing bonuses to subsidized housing to discount meals at local restaurants to attract and retain teachers. These extras, however, are no substitute for competitive salaries. USA Today hit the nail on the head in a recent editorial: "[T]he day when teachers achieve pay equity with similarly educated professionals is the day when shortages of high-quality teachers will disappear. Until then, don't expect to attract high-quality teachers with the equivalent of a free coffee mug with every fill up."

--Daniel Gursky