In her first year as a student teacher, Gina Gray also delivered groceries for Instacart. She was driven to give back to the city that raised her, but also needed help with the bills and rent.
Now Gray, a Black English teacher at Middle College high school in Los Angeles, takes on additional work in the district such as teaching summer and Saturday schooling and commutes one hour each day from her rental in Norwalk-La Mirada, a district near Los Angeles.
“A new teacher with a starting salary in [Los Angeles unified school district] can’t afford rent,” Gray says. “That’s just the facts of it. When you come in, to know that you can’t afford to live on your own, that’s a huge reason why you would choose another career. We’re not even talking about home ownership. We’re just talking about comfortable rental accommodation.”
