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# Doing the math on the cost of living
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/doing-the-math-on-the-cost-of-living/
- Published: 2007-11-09T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T03:52:15.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*Local teachers union makes push for accelerating salaries*

MID-CITY Concerned about the rising cost of housing and its effect on teacher retention, the union representing public school teachers in Santa Monica and Malibu is calling on elected officials to change the pay scale so that educators can earn the maximum salary earlier in their careers, enabling them to buy a home and raise a family in the community where they work.

Harry Keiley, president of the Santa Monica Malibu Teachers Association, said the cost of home ownership and the limited number of rent-controlled apartments have made it difficult for the district to keep highly-qualified teachers, who are forced to seek employment elsewhere in order to live the proverbial American Dream.

“In the last three years alone, we’ve lost more than 240 teachers,”said Keiley.“Some of them to retirement, but a lot of them simply grew frustrated with the high cost of renting apartments and not being able purchase a home anywhere near where they work.”

Keiley said the issue of affordable housing is complex, but one solution could be to lower the number of years it takes to reach the district’s maximum salary — $86,500 — from 21 years to 12 or 15 years.

“Fifty percent of the teachers in SMMUSD have between one and 10 years of experience,” Keiley said, “and if they can’t afford to live anywhere near where they work, they’re not going to stay here for the next 10 years. We will never be able to afford to pay teachers what they deserve, however, it should not take two decades for classroom teachers to reach the maximum salary.”

District Superintendent Dianne Talarico did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Creating more workforce housing has become a hot topic in Santa Monica. This past year alone, representatives from City Hall, Santa Monica College, St. John’s, Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and the school district have been meeting with other stakeholders periodically to discuss ways in which to create more housing that nurses, firemen, police officers and teachers can afford.

City Manager Lamont Ewell called for the meetings after seeing a need to keep more first-responders in Santa Monica. The housing imbalance also create more traffic congestion as workers living outside the city clog the streets during rush hour.

So far the committee has had difficulties coming to terms with what the definition of workforce housing should be and who it should serve. There is also the issue of cost and the lack of available land.

Santa Monica High School teacher Don Hedrick, a member of the union’s board of directors, said restructuring the teacher salary schedule is “the right thing to do for our students and district.”

“The high turnover rate causes instability at schools and within departments, which is not good for students,” Hedrick said. “Moreover, it becomes very costly to have to recruit and hire 10 percent to 15 percent of the teaching force every year.”

Former Roosevelt Elementary teacher Mr. Eric Paul agrees.

“I loved teaching at Roosevelt, however, when my wife and I decided to have our own child and start a family, we realized we could no longer afford to live and work on the Westside,” Paul said. “It was difficult to leave the Roosevelt staff, students and SMMCTA, but it was clear we could no longer afford to stay.”

The average starting salary for a teacher in the district is just over $43,000, Keiley said. The average price of a home just south of Wilshire Boulevard is over $1 million while condos are going for $678,000.

Barry Snell, a school board member, said he is open to the idea of restructuring the salary scale, but would first need to see how a change would affect the district’s budget. There was some concern in the beginning of the year regarding a raise for teachers and whether or not a district with declining enrollment could afford to pay the increase.

“Anything we can do to support the teachers and get them to stay in our district is obviously going to be a win for all of us,” Snell said. “I’m not sure how condensing the salary hikes will affect that or what it will to do our finances. We know that it is difficult to afford to live in this community so I totally support ways to do that, but we need to study this in depth to see what the benefits would be.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 9, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110907.pdf?ref=smdp.com)