Detroit teachers stage a sick-out for the second day in a row and protest in front of Detroit Public Schools headquarters, causing 94 of the 97 Detroit school districts to close, May 3, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)After the rise of teacher activism towards higher pay across the nation, data showed that 78 percent of public school parents would support teachers if they were to go on strike. In addition, two-thirds of Americans believe teacher salaries are too low.
The data comes from A new report by the Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK) Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, a global network of professional educators that “provides learning opportunities, targeted networking and relevant research to its members, deepening their expertise and ultimately helping them achieve better results in their work.”
Teachers and staff across the nation, particularly in West Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arizona have staged strikes since February of 2018 to demand higher salaries.
According to a 2017 report by the National Education Association, the average teacher salary in the United States for the 2016-2017 school year was $38,617.
PDK has surveyed Americans annually since 1969 in efforts of analyzing public opinion about the public school systems across the country. This year’s edition was based on a random representative sample of 1,042 adults and an oversample to 515 parents with school-aged children in May 2018.
To find out more information about PDK’s data results, visit www.pdkpoll.org.
