Our teachers are driving Uber Eats and doing medical experiments just to afford to live in the city where they teach our children. We have accepted this for so long that it has started to feel normal. When inequity becomes ordinary, the silence becomes our legacy.

We parents, students, community members, and supporters of schools across America call on the AAPS Board of Education and district leadership to reach a fair and just contract with the Ann Arbor Education Association without further delay.

Ann Arbor's teachers have gone 120 days without a contract. Today, an Ann Arbor teacher entering the classroom with a bachelor's degree starts at just $45,910 per year - lower than every comparable district in the region - and pay 35% of their healthcare premiums. Over the past seven years, AAPS teachers received an average annual salary schedule increase of just 0.7% per year while US inflation rose 27%. Ann Arbor rents rose 35% since 2016.

Let's zoom out. A 2024 study by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University found that:

• Michigan’s teacher wages have declined 20.6% (U.S. 2nd to last) from 1999 to 2021, adjusted for inflation
• 75.2% of Michigan adults support increasing teachers' starting salary
• Michigan teacher salaries rank 44th in the nation (2024)

Despite our teachers earning less every single year, they are still showing up for our kids every single day. It is time for the district to show up for them. These teachers carried AAPS through a recession, a pandemic, and multiple financial crises - repeatedly accepting concessionary contracts and shouldering pay cuts to avoid sinking the district. They chose students over self-interest, year after year, as AAEA President Fred Klein explained. The April 28th Tentative Agreement asked for more of the same from the people who have already sacrificed the most. 99.6% said no.

Michigan and the country are watching.  The moment Ann Arbor normalizes poverty-level wages for teachers in one of Michigan's wealthiest, best-funded districts, every school board has a trophy data point at the bargaining table. Districts that refuse to invest in teachers lose them. Then they lose families, property values, businesses, and their tax base. Ann Arbor is at a crossroads. We choose to hold the line.

The chart below tells the story at a glance. In 2025, Ann Arbor was at the bottom across every salary category despite having more resources per student than almost every district shown (Source: Black, Brooke. "Learning in Limbo." Ann Arbor Observer, 27 Jan. 2026, annarborobserver.com/learning-in-limbo).

The Case for Acting Now
The Numbers

• $45,910 annual starting salary for a teacher with a BA
• 0.7% average annual salary schedule increase 2018-2025
• AAPS receives $11,051 per pupil, 2nd highest regionally, yet pays the lowest starting salary in region
• Plymouth-Canton gets $1,000 less per child and still pays teachers $3,370 more per year
• Novi pays teachers $10,000 or more per year with lower per-pupil funding
• Lowest longevity pay in region - just $2,500/yr for teachers with 17+ yrs of service
• Statewide norm: 80/20 healthcare split. AAPS teachers pay 35%
• Health insurance costs rose 25% in 2024 and 18% in 2025

• 120+ days without a contract - first time since 1994

The People Our Children Count On

• Teachers driving Uber Eats, doing medical experiments, tutoring, babysitting, and dog-sitting just to make ends meet
• One teacher's health insurance increase alone equals three mortgage payments per year
• Experienced teachers are leaving for neighboring districts and they are not coming back
• Students can't get after-school help, emails unanswered, grading delayed - all fallout from working to rule

• 1,200+ community members signed open letter demanding action

Why 99.6% of Teachers Voted No

The April 28th Tentative Agreement was not a step forward. It was a continuation of the same pattern that has left Ann Arbor teachers falling further behind for two decades:

• Would mark years 19 and 20 of consecutive compensation increases below 2%
• A 1.5% increase on a $60,000 salary equals $75/mo before taxes
• According to the AAEA,HB 6058, a pending Michigan law requiring 80/20 healthcare split. TA asks AAPS Teachers to waive rights to this bill
• Larger class sizes, less planning time, and cuts to specials, harming students and eliminating jobs
• Pay steps honored in full only five times since 2008 with only half steps in 2020-2022
• 5% or more in permanent salary cuts from 2010 to 2014 - never recovered
• Step freezes in 2018-2020 - permanent losses never restored

Why a 1.5% Salary Schedule Increase Is Not Enough: Twenty Years of Context

• US cumulative inflation since 2006 is approximately 60%
• Ann Arbor home prices averaging $489,000, appreciating 6.57% per year for the past decade
• Ann Arbor rents up 35%+ since 2016, outpacing the national average by 10+ points
• Ann Arbor healthcare costs run 30% above the US average
• Ann Arbor property taxes average $6,750/yr on a median priced home
• Groceries 10% above the national average

The Bottom Line

• AAPS has the 2nd highest per-pupil funding in the region yet the lowest starting teacher salary
• Teachers helped the district's reserve recover from 2.2% to 7.17% through years of concessionary contracts to get above the state-required 5% floor
• This is not a funding problem. It is a priorities problem
• A 1.5% raise and a 35% healthcare burden do not fix twenty years of falling behind. They extend it
• Every day without a fair contract is another day a good teacher considers leaving for Novi, Plymouth, or Northville

What Must Happen Now

Ann Arbor prides itself on being a city that values education. That value must show up in the paychecks and healthcare plans of the people who show up for our children every single day.

As members of this community, we call on AAPS Board and district leadership to:

• Recognize that closing a decades long compensation gap requires more than a modest raise
• Offer a salary schedule competitive with comparable Michigan school districts
• Move toward the state maximum 80/20 healthcare cost share
• Prioritize teacher retention as a core part of the district's long term financial health

Please sign this petition and share it with every family, neighbor, and friend you know.

Where Michigan teachers rank nationally in pay

What do Michiganders think?

Sources: epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/EPIC_TeacherSalary_Report_April2024.pdf, epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/TeacherCompensation_Report_August2025.pdf