I'm an AP teacher with 10 years experience and a Masters degree in History. I have multiple certifications and I actually love what I do.
Problem is I can no longer afford to be a teacher. The pay hasn't changed since 2019. Meanwhile inflation and living expenses has made my once acceptable salary a joke. I went from being comfortable to living paycheck to paycheck and barely making end meet. What's worse is the State Legislature isn't going to do anything to help despite their being a teacher shortage, teachers leaving in droves, and even a governor mandated task force that recommends a teacher pay raise. All of this means nothing is changing anytime soon.
Originally 10k to 15k a year raise was proposed. Then at least 3.8k to match inflation. Now the proposed “solution” is an insulting one time 2k “bonus”.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/10/texas-legislature-teachers-pay/
Prior to this I was a licensed stock broker, which is a sales job, that was awful and stressful. I was also briefly a retail manager for a year before the company went bankrupt. I never want to return to that hell.
So, what if anything would be a good career shift for a middle aged teacher?