Home Is Where the Money Is

You can’t teach where you can’t afford to live. That’s the fundamental conundrum facing administrators in high-priced real estate markets. It’s also the reason a growing number of them are considering some highly unorthodox ways to make housing affordable for educators.

Cash subsidies for rent and mortgages have been tried before, but the recent real estate boom has pushed several districts to go beyond mere dollars in their efforts to recruit and retain teachers.

“By the time they have paid for college loans, transportation, and insurance, there is not much left in the paycheck for housing,” says Jewell Gould, the AFT’s director of research. In some expensive regions, she adds, that means teachers must commute two to three hours each way from their homes...