Teachers’ “Black Tax”: Longer Hours, Lower Pay, Better Attitude

Working longer hours, typically in under-resourced schools, Black teachers often climb up the rougher side of the educational mountain compared with their white peers. And, like all teachers, they dealt with the COVID-19 disruptions in their profession: trying to engage and teach to camera-off students over Zoom. But while a new survey indicates that teachers, in general, are not OK — student behavior issues, chronic absenteeism, and learning loss are pushing morale underwater — Black teachers have a better attitude than white teachers about their work.READ MORE:& Help Wanted: Schools Struggling to Keep Black Teachers“Black teachers report the strongest morale, while teachers who are white or of two or more races have more negative morale,” according to the first-ever Education Week 2024 Teacher Morale Index. On a scale of -100, which is a completely negative attitude, to +100, which is a completely positive outlook, overall teacher morale is -13, but Black teacher morale hovers at around +10, according to the survey.Black stories matter“The teaching profession — a workforce of 3 million — is at an inflection point that could shape the course of the profession for the next generation of educators and students,” according to the survey report. “For the...