Letter to Maree Edwards, my state MP

To Maree Edwards, MP, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly,

I studied for two years and attained my Master's of Teaching (Secondary), and recently started working as an English teacher—I was encouraged to do this for multiple reasons.

1. I am inspired by my previous teachers, who pushed me to better myself and my understanding of the education and content they were delivering.
2. The government initiative to encourage people into the teaching profession.

As you are my MP, I am writing to encourage you to put pressure on the Allan government regarding the pay and working conditions of Victorian teachers. You yourself have been involved in this sector, having worked with the Bendigo Tech School. You’ve attended our classrooms.

I love my job. I started in February. It’s a very daunting position to be in, the new teacher on the block, but I have learned the names of my students, seen them at their best and at their worst.

There’s a massive elephant in the room, however. It genuinely feels like this government does not care about my job whatsoever.

It’s a contradictory statement. We’re meant to be “the education state,” and yet we are constantly losing people in this profession to stress—both physical, emotional, and financial—caused by the Department of Education and Training, currently run by your political party. Victoria teachers are the lowest paid.

Teachers at step 1 in New South Wales earn a salary of $90,177.

School teachers at tier 1 in South Australia earn a salary of $82,496.

My salary as a classroom teacher, range 1, is $79,589.

Word has spread about the DET’s attempted “negotiations” with the teaching union recently. An 8% pay increase for this year—followed by a gradual 9% across the next three years. Ignoring the fact that the increase still sees my salary lower than my New South Wales colleagues, the DET also proposed to increase our workload by having us attend more meetings, removing the cap on overtime, and removing face-to-face teaching maximums.

There seems to be a contradiction in messaging, Ms Edwards. Remember, this government encouraged me to be a teacher, but now you (as part of the Labor party) want me to work myself into the ground by encouraging overtime, higher workloads, with pittance for pay. We talk about teaching being a noble profession, being there to encourage kids and teens to be their best selves and, importantly, prepare them for not just the workforce, but the world.

We can’t do that if we can’t support ourselves.

As I’m sure you are aware, housing costs are increasing. I still live with my parents. Despite my salary of $79,589 before tax, I have to save for a deposit to purchase a house closer to my job. This means I’m required to save exactly half of my salary, which will get somewhere over $40,000 in two years. It also means I’m living on $1,177 a fortnight, which is used for board, bills, health, and of course, my car.

My school is an 89KM drive away from home, with no reasonable public transportation or colleague carpooling to get me there on time. To ensure my car’s best possible chance on the 178KM daily drive, I use Unleaded 98 fuel. I generally set aside $200 per fortnight for this purpose—but as I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve just hit a fuel crisis, and that $200 is no longer enough to fill my tank for two weeks, even if I drop to E10/U91.

But there was another cost that hit my wallet quite hard. Bendigo La Trobe graduations don’t occur at the end of the year you graduate; they occur in April the following year. To celebrate my entrance into the teaching profession, I paid $261.63 to attend my own graduation. This is by no means a complaint—you, too, have attended a La Trobe graduation ceremony. But I’m at a tipping point financially, where my family and I are seriously considering setting me up at a caravan park close to work until the fuel crisis “blows over.” And yet I’m spending money to celebrate achieving my Master's degree that allows me to be a teacher… which isn’t paying me enough to justify me being a teacher.

There is an easier solution to all this.

Increase Victorian teachers’ pay. Encourage the Labor Party to step up to the plate and support teachers. Please, I love my job. Let me have a chance to do it.