School Districts Offer Affordable Housing to Keep, Recruit Teachers

Some school districts are renting homes to teachers for as little as $400, providing them with economic security amid a national teacher shortage and higher housing prices, reports The Wall Street Journal.

In Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City Public Schools has partnered with Teachers Like Me, a nonprofit building housing to help recruit Black teachers.

Teton County School District in Wyoming has for years provided teachers with single-family homes. The cost of living in Jackson, Wyoming, is significantly higher than the national average, and the average salary for a teacher in the area is $64,691 per year.  

“Our teachers never get a chance for mastery because they are so stressed out, and they are constantly trying to find a place to live. And oftentimes they leave,” district superintendent Gillian Chapman told the Journal. “We’re being as creative as we possibly can.”

Similar programs are being sought in other parts of the country. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, school officials and community leaders in the St. Helena Parish northeast of the city are exploring housing opportunities to attract and retain teachers for its school district.

The starting salary for teachers is just $41,000 in the district, which has a high turnaround.

“Some of our classes will see multiple teachers in one year. And that’s very difficult to maintain high standards or have our kids pass the test when, you know, we have such a high teacher turnover,” Kelli Joseph, superintendent of St. Helena Parish Schools, said in May after the parish voted a down two tax proposals that would have given certified teachers a $6,000 pay increase and noncertified employees $4,000.

Alexandria Millet, a 10^th grade English and journalism teacher, pays $400 a month to live with two other teachers in a Kansas City home provided by KCPS.

“Not having to pay high rent and having a program that supports you specifically in terms of housing” made it easier to stay in Kansas City, Millet told the Journal.

About 40% of schools with more than 75% minority populations have multiple teaching vacancies, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ School Pulse Panel.