ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A TikTok video featuring an Albuquerque teacher has gone viral because in it, she tells her class that she is leaving her job because she isn’t earning a livable wage.
Alyssa Aponte, on TikTok @mividamahalia, posted multiple videos — her first video features her explaining to her class that she would not be returning after winter break, and another video features her going into a deeper explanation of the issues surrounding her finances.
Aponte was teaching eighth-grade social studies. She began teaching only after the year had started, and so was receiving a prorated salary. But Albuquerque Public Schools only pay teachers on a 12-month salary plan, unlike other districts that allow teachers to choose whether to be paid over 9 months or 12 months, KRQE reported.
She explained in her video: “Because my salary is very very much smaller than what it would normally be because I didn’t start at this school in the beginning of the school year, because I just moved, they are taking that smaller salary and still stretching it all the way to next August. So I’m not asking my district to pay me anything extra, I’m asking them to change the pay schedule so that way every month, every pay period, my checks are more than $1,100.” That makes her monthly income just $400 more than her $1,800 rent.
Aponte told KRQE she plans to work full-time as a bartender and server as well as tutor in order to make money, and will reevaluate whether to return to the school district before the next school year.
A 2019 study found 16% of teachers have non-school jobs over the summer, and approximately 20% of teachers also held second jobs during the school year to supplement their income, Newsweek reported.
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