As part of American Education Week, New York is honoring Education Support Professionals Nov. 19.
The workers encompass roles not done by teachers, such as bus drivers, paraeducators, nurses and clerical workers. In New York, they are called school-related professionals.
Ron Gross, second vice president of New York State United Teachers, feels they are vital to schools’ daily operations and face challenges in their work.
“Their salaries, in particular, are not where they should be,” Gross contended. “Those, I believe, are some of the more significant challenges, and, as a result, if the salaries aren’t there, then you also have a lot of turnover. We want to be able to recruit more and more SRPs into this profession. We want them to understand this is a career path for them.”
Though there have been contract negotiations statewide to ensure they are getting fair wages, Gross argued more must be done. The United Teachers’ One Job Should Be Enough report found most of the positions earn far less than what it costs to live in certain areas of the state. The highest “dignity deficit” was almost $25,000 for being a food service worker in the Somers Central School District of Westchester County.
National Education Week comes as educators and education support professionals face federal cuts from the further dismantling of the Department of Education.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, noted while there have been significant policy gains for public education over the last few decades, teachers are burned out after the pandemic and ongoing defunding, which she added is nothing new.
“The reality is with the attacks on teachers, their very professional rights, to use the skills, what they’ve been trained for, what their experiences are, to make teaching and learning decisions for their students,” Pringle outlined.
Federal funding challenges are forcing the state to backfill dollars from its own coffers. It might not be easy since there is not much awareness about what funding could be held. Earlier this year, the Trump administration withheld more than $1 billion to support pandemic learning recovery in New York and other states. Only this week did it agree to unfreeze the money for states to use.
Edwin is a reporter and producer in North Tonawanda, New York. He’s previously reported for the Niagara Gazette and the Ithaca Times. Edwin got an early start in radio interning for WBFO-88.7FM, NPR’s Buffalo affiliate. In 2018, he graduated from SUNY Buffalo State College with a B.A. in Journalism, and in 2022, graduated from Syracuse University with an M.S. in Communications.