The Future is Ms. is an ongoing series of news reports by young feminists. This series is made possible by a grant from SayItForward.org in support of teen journalists and the series editor, Katina Paron.
After the last bell of the school day rang, Riya Kataria rushed to her English classroom to ask a question. When she got there, she saw her teacher packing up. The teacher had a two-hour commute home and Kataria didn’t want her getting stuck in rush hour.
The teacher—like many in Kataria’s Fremont, California school—can’t afford the high prices of the Bay Area on her low salary. Keeping good teachers in an expensive district is a challenge when the average educator pay is $72,298—four times less than the entry level job at nearby Google.
