Calls grow to increase pay for support staff in Pennsylvania’s schools

Education support staff are the “lifeblood” of Pennsylvania’s schools  — but are often forced to work a second job due to the low wages. Some state leaders are trying to change that.

Rudy Burruss believes education support staff are the “lifeblood of the school.”

Burruss should know. He worked for 20 years as an instructional paraprofessional in special education classrooms in the State College Area School District, in the heart of central Pennsylvania. When he speaks of his former students, his voice takes on a fatherly tone.

“I love working with kids,” Burruss said. “I loved my job. I made sure those kids were taken care of, protected. Nobody messed with my kids.”

It’s exactly that care and dedication that Burruss said makes support staff vital to not only the school district, but to the community at large. Support staff includes any employee who is not an educator or administrator—like paraprofessionals, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, and secretaries.

“These are people who live in the community where they work,” Burruss said. “They help raise their community’s children. Most support staff have been dedicated employees for 10, 20 years. They do it because they love their job. They love the children.”

Unfortunately, most districts in the commonwealth struggle with support staff shortages. This, Burruss said, has a lot to do with the pay.

“Most of our support staff in Pennsylvania work a second job,” Burruss said, noting that he supplemented his income by coaching basketball. “You have people dedicated to working with your child and who have done it for years and they still don’t make what might be a starting teacher’s average salary. And these are people who have worked there for 20 years. They deserve to make a liveable wage.”

Support staff by the numbers

The total number of support staff in Pennsylvania during the 2022-23 school year was 90,588, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The average wage was $19.75 per hour.

Last year, the PSEA surveyed nearly 5,800 school support staff to ask them about their earnings. More than half said they make less than $20 an hour, and about 13% said they make less than $15 an hour.

Food service employees made $17.09 an hour, on average, while instructional aides made about $18.70.

More and more school districts are finding it harder than ever to recruit qualified people to fill support staff jobs.

Seventy percent of superintendents reported a shortage of instructional aides in a recent Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) survey, and 62% reported a shortage of transportation staff.

Staff shortages put more pressure on other employees, but the students are the ones who end up losing out most, Burruss said. Today, he serves as PSEA’s president of Educational Support Professionals, and has a first-hand look at the situation across Pennsylvania. Sometimes, he said, a staffing shortage makes a school less able to meet required standards.

“Not having enough aides in a classroom could be a violation of the IEP,” Burruss said. [Editor’s note: An IEP, or an Individualized Education Plan, is a legal document outlining the needs and educational goals of a student with special needs.] “A substitute might have to come in and doesn’t know the students and is just there to fill the void—the students suffer. 

“Not having enough bus drivers means you might have students on the bus for two hours because of shortages. Or not having enough secretaries in your main office to handle parents and answering phones is an issue. Not having nurses’ aides to help the nurses out, students can’t get their medications. Not having enough of us can be harmful to a district. Not having a custodian, just think about that.

“A lot (of support staff) are dedicated to the students, to the building, to the community. If you don’t pay them enough, you lose that part of your community.”

What is being done

In June, Pennsylvania’s state House of Representatives passed House Bill 2370, which proposes making significant investments in Pennsylvania’s public education system over the next seven years to ensure the funding system is constitutional. The bill states that some of the funding may be used to increase minimum wage for support staff to at least $20 an hour. The bill is currently in the Senate Education Committee.

“All we want is to be respected enough to make a liveable wage,” Burruss said.

Like Burruss, many of those who work as support staff in a school don’t do it for the money, he said. They do it for the students. 

“We want to make it so that they can make enough money to live, so they can do the job that they love to do, whether it’s driving a bus or working in a lunchroom or working with special needs kids.”