More than 7 in 10 teachers in the U.S. work a second job. That’s according to new findings from the latest Walton Family Foundation–Gallup Teaching for Tomorrow study. About a third of those jobs are unrelated to teaching.
That's the case for Lyndsey Laster. She says during the pandemic, her husband bought her a vinyl cutting machine and a heat press
"So I could start making shirts for just me and my co-teacher for school functions.And it kind of turned into, 'Hey, can you make me one? Can you make me one?'"
Before long, she had a conversation with a friend who works in the gift shop at the Arkansas State Capitol.
"'Can you make some shirts for us to sell?' And it just kind of snowballed from there. I got licensed, so I have an LLC for my little shirt business. But that's kind of what I do in my free time — make shirts on the side."
Laster is a third-grade teacher in Poyen, about 45 minutes south of Little Rock near Sheridan. She's been a public school teacher for 13 years and started in the Sheridan School District. At that time she was making $36,000 a year, she says. As long as she's been a teacher, she's always had an additional job.
"I waitressed part time at the Whippit Inn in Prattsville, which is kind of a well-known catfish place. And I would just pick up odd-end jobs when I could. My mom's a State Farm agent, so in the summers I would go work for her, answering phones and doing things like that."
Andrea Malaik Ash is a senior research consultant at Gallup. She points to the data that just 22% of teachers feel like they can live comfortably on their salary.
"When it comes to those non-teaching-related jobs — driving for Uber, that's very related to income. So half of teachers who say that they find it difficult to get by on their present income have a second job, like rideshare or food delivery or T-shirt making."
At the start of the 2023-24 school year, salaries for all public school teachers in Arkansas were set at a minimum of $50,000, thanks to the LEARNS Act. Laster says that with $50,000 as a teacher and just under $20,000 from her T-shirt business, she still feels like she's not contributing enough.
"There have been times where I've been like, I really need to find something else to do. And it's not that I don't love teaching. It's just I want better for my kids than I had growing up. And sometimes I feel like I'm never going to reach that. I'm just kind of like, I'm blessed for the income I do have, but I would like to do more."
Malaik Ash with Gallup says it's worth noting that holding a second job while being a classroom teacher is not always motivated by compensation.
"Teachers who are taking these jobs because they want to — education-related jobs that are more related to what they do with students every day. I think the ideal would be that more teachers are able to fill the financial need that they have through those types of opportunities. I would imagine that it's more teachers that would like to be doing that if they had the opportunity and maybe for whatever reason, they're just not able to get the income growth that they need from that."
A common way that people working in education can raise their salary is to leave the classroom and move into administration. Laster says at one point in her career, she thought about going back to school to become a principal.
"Partly because I feel very strong in leadership — but also because of a salary increase. And now I just don't know if it's worth it to go back into debt, to go back to school and then not really receive that much of a pay increase and have more of a headache as a principal."
She says she sees teaching as a calling, and it's one she's had for a long time.
"Ever since I was like 5 years old, I was teaching my stuffed animals and trying to make my brother learn. I just dreamed of being a teacher. I couldn't wait."
Laster has a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl at home, but she thinks of herself as a parental figure to her students, too.
"I've always just wanted to be like that extra motherly figure to the kids who don't have that at home. One of the reasons I do stay is because of the students like that in Poyen — we're kind of a predominantly lower-poverty area. We have lots of students who live with grandparents and great-grandparents. Mom or dad are incarcerated. They don't have a mom or dad at all. And so those kids keep me coming every day because I'm their person. They know that when they get here, they're going to get a hug. They're going to get an 'I love you.' They're going to get a snack. And so I feel like if I ever left, I would be letting a kid down."
Malaik Ash says the data bears out that teachers would prefer to stay in the classroom if possible.
"These solutions seem within reach. If we could provide more ways to make that money that they need that are still within either the teaching area — within education — or that actually allow teachers to stay within the classroom instead of moving into an admin position or doing instructional coaching or curriculum development, if they could stay with those students and make the money that they need, that would be great."
"Yeah, I think that perfectly describes me right now," Laster said. "At this point in my life, I don't see going into administration. And so I would just rather work two jobs to help my personal family and then still be able to come and help the kids here."
Moore: Do you ever worry, or has there ever been a period where you felt like the second job was keeping you from being as good of a teacher as you wanted to be?
"Oh, absolutely. There are some days that I feel like I am absolutely drowning, and it's either at school or it's at home with the shirts. Luckily, most of the people that buy shirts from me realize I'm a teacher, I'm a mom with two small children. They're very patient with me, but there are some nights where I need to make shirts and I need to grade papers, and I need to go over assessments and see which kid needs what. Because unfortunately, during the school day, even though we have a prep time, we're pulled for meetings or a kid needs extra help. There's just not a lot of time in the day. And then when I get home, my little boy wants to go outside and play T-ball or my daughter needs me to feed her a snack or play with her. I feel like I'm drowning a lot of times, but then I'm like, I'm not going to give this up because now my family is used to this extra income, so I can't quit."
Moore: That's got to be tough.
"It's hard."
The school district runs on a four-day school week, so Tuesday through Friday she's in the classroom.
"We're off on Mondays. So I still send my children to the babysitter on Mondays, and I feel guilty about doing that because it's my day off and I should be spending time with my children, but that's when I make the majority of my shirts and I buy groceries and I do laundry, and sometimes I just sit and watch TV, and then I feel guilty because I should be doing other things."
Malaik Ash with Gallup says when she looks at this data, the word "sustainable" comes to mind.
"Seems like maybe you could make that work for a little bit. But long term, it certainly seems difficult. It also makes me think about who are the people that are able to make that work for a shorter amount of time. For example, we see that teachers who have another source of income in their household — maybe another earner — are more likely to be able to get by."
With 13 years of teaching under her belt, Laster is beginning to see some of her students move into their teenage years and even into starting families of their own.
"I actually was scrolling on Facebook this morning and saw one of my students from one of my first years teaching, and she's in college to be a nurse, and her mom was bragging about how wonderful she was doing. And I commented, and I was like, 'I always knew you would do great things. I'm so proud of you.'"
"Being in a small town — I live in Prattsville, which is between Sheridan and Malvern — I still see a lot of my students. ... One girl, I see her all the time. Before I got married, I was Miss Reagan, and she would run across the Walmart parking lot to find me. I went to one of the local fast food places the other day to grab some lunch, and when I pulled up to the window, the girl took my money and shut the window. So I'm just sitting there waiting. And then the window opens and it's, 'Miss Reagan, is that you?' And it's the same girl, and she's so excited to tell me about how she's in college and what she's doing and how I was her favorite teacher. And she's always so happy to see me. And so those moments really keep me going — seeing those kids that are successful, that have wonderful jobs, that have started their own families and are still excited to see me."
Moore: You don't see quite as much of that when you're handing somebody a T-shirt.
"No."
The report indicates that both burnout and income are strongly related to a teacher's future plans. In order to remain in the classroom long term, teachers who are struggling financially may need a pathway to income growth that allows them to stay in the classroom. But for a rural school district like Poyen that has just 557 total students, it's hard to imagine that pathway exists.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
