Teachers living with parents to keep jobs
FREMONT, Calif. (KGO) -- Teachers are facing more and more pressure living in the Bay Area.
In Fremont Unified School District salaries start at just more than $66,000 dollars a year, but the Federal Housing and Development Department says the threshold for low income is $89,600 dollars.
Anna Misra lives at home with her parents in Fremont. It's not an ideal situation for a 27-year-old woman but you can't beat free rent.
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"I'm still thinking about what I want to do when I grow up because right now in my current job I do feel like much of a grown up all of the time," said Misra.
Anna is in her fourth year teaching geography and AP European history at American High School in the Fremont Unified School District. She's a third generation teacher. Her mom, Nancy Lueder Misra, taught for 40 years.
"I don't know that I would go into teaching now because I don't know that I could make it," said her mom.
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Anna tried to make it on her own. She rented a room in a house for $950 a month.
"I wanted to start saving and I found that I wasn't able to do that," Anna Misra.
Salaries for starting teachers in Fremont Unified are in the mid-$60's. But the twist, the district does not cover health care and rent for a two bedroom apartment can reach $2500 a month. Add those two together, plus student loans, and teachers are forced to make tough choices.
"I'm thinking changing careers or moving somewhere else," Anna told us, "I feel like I'm getting pushed out."
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Replacing someone like Anna is getting more and more difficult for school districts as fewer college students choose education, and those who do, often leave for better paying jobs.
Anna's mom isn't worried about her. Nancy feels she'll find her way, even if it's not in education. But she is concerned about the future of California schools.
"I feel badly because we're throwing away our next generation," said Anna's mom. "Who's going to teach the children, who will care for everybody who is in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s now?"
Read more on the Bay Area teacher shortage.
