A new report entitled “Women’s Work? Voices of Vermont Educators,” finds that teachers and paraprofessionals in Vermont are struggling to make ends meet, putting in long hours, working second and third jobs, and feeling under appreciated and ignored. Vermont’s schools are excellent, and this excellence rests on a highly educated female workforce. These women tend to be the primary breadwinner, have high levels of student debt, and work extra jobs. Educators also see the struggles of economic precarity every day at school, where they teach students dealing with trauma, the effects of the growing opioid epidemic, and increasing child poverty. This study, conducted by Rebecca Kolins Givan and Pamela Whitfield with the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, looks at what is really going in schools, and will hopefully inform current policy debates.

The report has already received coverage from the Vermont Digger.