Teachers forced out of profession by high inflation, nearly stagnant salaries

In some of America’s most expensive cities, residents are having to pack up and leave as rent prices rise. Inflation is keeping teachers from moving into these major cities like San Francisco in California, fueling the need for more staff when school districts are already struggling to hire. 

Rent prices in San Francisco have gone up more 16% in the past year, the real estate company Redfin reported in June. The most recent teacher salary data shows that the average salary for teachers has gone down in the past decade by 3.2%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In California, the average salary is up 3.7%. Still, teachers say it doesn’t help with the rising costs of nearly everything. 

“The prices here are astronomical,” Jefferson Union High School District Superintendent Toni Presta said. “We have teachers we want to hire, and they might be from across the country, and they can’t afford to live here,” she explained.