It’s no secret that teachers in America don’t get paid a desirable salary, but, in the past several years, the public has gotten a better taste of just how much the lack of income is negatively affecting their lives. Just this week, Time prominently displayed this issue as a cover story, along with this attention-getting title–“‘I Work Three Jobs and Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills’. This is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America.”

The searing expose takes readers through a series of real-life scenarios that show the often harrowing decisions that today’s teachers have to make just to provide secure lives to their families. Examples of this came in the form of real-life, bleak financial hardships that some teachers face.

The one briefly described up top, features an instructor who has to work two extra jobs and sell her blood plasma in order to get by. What makes this even more concerning is the fact that this teacher holds a Master’s degree in education.

In addition to this, we learn that her tale is far from unique; we also hear from a teacher with 20 years of experience who can’t afford to fix her car or see a doctor. Another working teacher details her living situation in which she must share a small bed with her child. This teacher also reveals that she has been laid off three times due to budget cuts and pays $1000 out of her own pocket to furnish supplies for her classroom.

If you’re a teacher or you are close to one, then perhaps these stories don’t surprise you–so many of America’s teachers have been practically forced to take an oath of poverty to continue educating today’s youth.

Having said that, not everyone is lucky enough to know a teacher, and we find that all too often, these are the folks who harbor false ideas that can hurt our nation’s educators. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of the most misunderstood questions about teachers’ salaries…

Do teachers get paid in the summer?

This is a talking point that is thrown around quite a bit, these days. Sure, teachers don’t make a lot of cash, but at least they get the entire summer off!

It may sound like a luxury, but the truth of the matter is that this is simply not the case in many parts of the country. According to salary statistics compiled by the organization, Teachers Pensions, many districts and/or counties don’t adhere to a 12-month payment system.

For instance, a good percentage of teachers working in Chicago public schools only receive 21 paychecks per year over a course of 10 months. The same goes for Miami-Dade County public schools, Montgomery County public school in Maryland, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina.

This study serves to display a national average by profiling a select number of schools. In it, we see that at least 30% of the teachers do not receive paychecks for 2 months out of any given calendar year. Shocking, right?

What do raises look like for teachers?

Unfortunately, this usually depends on the wealth of the location in which the teacher is working. Education Week reports that, because raises are most often determined by the funds allotted to the district and/or public school, oftentimes teachers working in poorer areas do not get the raises that teachers working in more affluent areas do.

What we do know is that, on a whole, the entire teaching profession is vastly under-compensated when compared to other similarly-paid fields. A report published by the Economic Policy Institute shows that teachers make roughly 17% less than other workers, with their overall pay having actually decreased since 1996 by $30/week. Other workers’ has increased by about $124/week.

To get a better idea of how the lack of raises has affected teachers, be sure to watch the video below. In it, you’ll meet one Oklahoma educator who gives us a breakdown of exactly how this has negatively impacted the lives of both her and her students.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this ongoing teacher wage crisis. Are you a public school teacher who struggles to make ends meet? If so, do you have to work other jobs to pay your bills? How has this hurt the lives of your students?