Escalating costs of living—including housing costs—in cities like San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC, may prevent teachers, who have midlevel incomes, from moving to or staying in the area. This can be especially true for teachers working in high-poverty neighborhoods of increasingly unaffordable cities.
This study explores patterns of economic anxiety among teachers. The authors focus on teachers working in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the cost of a one-bedroom apartment exceeds 50 percent of a new teacher’s salary. Their analysis examines how economic anxiety affects factors that can influence students’ outcomes, including teachers’ attendance, retention, career aspirations, and regard for their job.