School support staff are essential but underpaid

A living wage of at least $20 per hour would ensure these hardworking professionals don't leave Pennsylvania schools for work elsewhere.

When we talk about school funding, we should be talking about these people, too, and how much we pay them for their essential work. Because the truth is that too many school support staff last year reported that they were paid less than $20 an hour. Of those, 13% earned less than $15 an hour. School support staff work hard and deserve to be paid a living wage. That is paramount. But we also must remember that support staff who earn enough to pay their bills and make ends meet will be more likely to stick with their jobs, providing our public school students with friendly and familiar faces year after year.

I’m proud to be part of that team, working as a secretary for the past seven years in the front office at Penn Wood High School — Green Avenue Campus in Lansdowne. I work with some amazing colleagues throughout our school, but like most public schools in Pennsylvania, we have struggled with support staff shortages and high rates of turnover.

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