By Fitz McAden
Imagine for a moment that you’re right out of college, bachelor’s degree in hand and certified to be a school teacher. Growing up, you loved family vacations in the Lowcountry. Now you hear Beaufort County is looking for teachers, so you apply.
You don’t expect to get rich teaching. Still, you want a career that will lift the lives of your students, stimulate you professionally and support a comfortable, if modest, lifestyle in a beautiful place. No more dorm life or sharing an off-campus apartment. Now, finally, you can get your own place.
Truth is, you probably can’t — not unless you also take a part-time job or get a roommate. More and more, rookie teachers, as well as experienced ones, realize they can’t afford Beaufort County.
The situation will improve if the Beaufort County Council approves the school district’s 2022-23 budget. It calls for raises that would give teachers a better chance of meeting their expenses.
Beaufort County’s high cost of living is a significant obstacle to recruiting and retaining teachers, and that’s unsettling news for parents because fewer teachers mean more kids in classrooms.
With fewer graduates choosing teaching careers, schools everywhere are grappling with teacher shortages. Beaufort County’s high cost of living, exacerbated by spiraling inflation, makes hiring and retaining teachers more daunting. Currently, the school district has about 150 vacancies only 11 weeks before school starts.
I examined data from nine well-regarded sources, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S, Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Tax Policy Center, the S.C. Department of Education and The CoStar Group, a Washington-based firm that analyzes real estate trends.
Here’s some of what the data shows:
Since 2020, rents in Beaufort County have risen 31.1 percent, faster than in any other county in S.C., according to CoStar.
The average annual rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Beaufort County is $13,782 — the third highest in the state after Charleston and Berkeley counties. It consumes about 42 percent of a rookie teacher’s take-home pay.
First-year pay for rookie teachers in Beaufort County is $42,928. At the end of the year, the teacher will be about $47 in the hole, after paying income taxes, typical living expenses, and a required $3,400 contribution to the State Retirement System.
Things may get worse. By the end of 2022, CoStar predicts residential rents in the U.S. will rise 6 percent. In Beaufort County, that would mean rent for a one-bedroom apartment would jump $826, to $14,608 a year, consuming about 45 percent of take-home pay.
Inflation has driven up living costs so quickly that one survey, by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, had to be updated mid-year to account for rising prices. The financial picture brightens for teachers with advanced degrees and more experience. But typically, teachers leave for other professions after a few years, so school districts rely heavily on recent graduates to fill positions.
It’s noteworthy that cost-of-living estimates I used from MIT’s Living Wage Calculator don’t allow for frills: no pre-prepared meals, dining out, movies or concerts or savings. Indeed, first-year pay for a rookie teacher in Beaufort County is only 4.8 percent above what MIT calls “a minimum subsistence wage.”
Skepticism about some of these numbers is understandable. After all, shouldn’t anybody earning $42,298 a year be able to get by pretty easily? Lots of people do with even less. But the data I reviewed, particularly on rental rates, was fairly consistent and I discarded outlier numbers.
Over the next few weeks, the County Council will consider the school district’s 2022-23 budget, which — if approved — would bring some relief to teachers. Base pay for rookies would go from $42,928 to $48,066, with corresponding increases for teachers with more experience and advanced academic degrees.
It seems like a hefty bump, but after withholding taxes and other required take-outs — the contribution to the State Retirement System alone would take about $4,100 right off the top — leaving the teacher with about $35,650. At the end of the year, after paying for rent and other living expenses, a frugal teacher would have about $3,733 for savings or for unexpected expenses. The cushion would shrink to $2,947 if rents rise 6 percent, as the CoStar Group predicts.
Raising teachers’ salaries would require modest increases in property taxes for owners of second homes and for businesses, but not for residents who live in and own their homes. The owner of a second home would pay $60 more a year for a home assessed at $250,000; $96 more for one assessed at $400,000. County Council members — sensitive to hardships already caused by inflation — may be reluctant to pile higher taxes on businesses, which will pass them on to customers.
But most residents pay no property taxes for operating our schools — zilch – thanks to a shortsighted change in the state’s tax laws in 2006. If our taxes are so onerous, why are so many new residents moving here?
The council began its review of the school district’s budget on May 23 and will reconsider it on June 13 and 27. Both meetings will be at 6 p.m. at Council Chambers at 100 Ribaut Road in Beaufort.
Please attend and let your voice be heard.
Fitz McAden, former editor of The Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette, is married to a teacher recruiter for the Beaufort County School District.
