I currently serve in the Maine Legislature representing part of Scarborough. I am also an educational technician, or ed tech. You may be familiar with the role of a legislator, but you may not be as familiar with the work of an ed tech.

There are more than 8,000 ed techs working in our public schools, helping more than 170,000 students. Ed techs offer many of our students the consistent support they need to be successful in school.

Ed techs – many of whom have bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees – work with individuals or groups of students with learning challenges. We tutor students and offer remedial work to help them keep up with peers. Ed techs are often assigned to work with students who may be medically fragile or otherwise need constant supervision and support, and we are often the staff members implementing Individualized Education Plans.

Ed techs play a crucial role in students’ growth and development. Maine’s current compensation scale for ed techs falls far short of recognizing this. It is a relic of an era when school support personnel would often have a spouse that earned more money.

Unlike teachers, who are salaried, ed techs are paid by the hour and are only paid when school is in session, meaning they aren’t paid during the summer months or when there are breaks during the school year. According to the Maine Education Association, there are more than 20 school districts in the state that pay their ed techs the state minimum wage of $14.15 per hour.

Very few school districts offer more than $20 per hour, and this is often only for professionals who have been working in this field for years, if not decades. In most school districts, there is just a $5 hourly difference from an ed tech’s first day of work to the hourly wage earned after 20 or more years of employment. Some of the lowest paid Mainers are doing some of the most important work in our schools.

It’s easy to find entry-level jobs in fields that pay significantly more and are less stressful. In the Legislature’s Education Committee, we have heard testimony from ed techs that their own students earn higher hourly wages in their after-school jobs.

The Maine Legislature is debating a bill to lift the wages for ed techs and other school support staff. L.D. 974, An Act to Establish Minimum Pay for educational technicians and Other School Support Staff, would lift the minimum wage for all school support staff to 125% of the state’s minimum wage and the minimum wage for all ed techs to 150%. As proposed, the state would fund the increases in the first year to ease any pressure on local property taxes and to give districts time to adjust their wage scales. The bill has bipartisan support and passed unanimously in the Education Committee. We are all in agreement: We need to pay our ed techs more.

This bill is not a panacea. It will not make the job easier, it will not immediately solve the shortage of ed techs in Maine. But it is a good step toward recognizing the valuable role of ed techs and other support staff. Let’s hope the Legislature can get this done and finally treat ed techs with the respect they deserve.

Copy the Story Link