Right now we have a rare opportunity to fundamentally reshape the future, and it begins with the teaching profession. We know that our education system isn’t prepared to meet our present or future needs. We also know that systemic changes will only occur when strong college students choose teaching and when excellent teachers can afford to stay in their classroom.

We invite you to join The Teacher Salary Project and improve teachers’ salaries as a cornerstone to the reform our communities need. Paying teachers what they’re worth can transform teaching into the prestigious, desirable, financially viable, and professionally exciting job we all know it needs to be.

Countries that have shown great results in education have one thing in common: a stable, prestigious team of educators that were the best students themselves. Those countries also pay their teachers like other professionals whereas we don’t. We want to see these numbers raised and we want to see highly skilled, veteran teachers earning professional salaries. This is what industrialized nations that are serious about public education offer their teachers. We should join them.

The Teacher Salary Project is a nonpartisan organization committed to raising awareness of the impact of our national policy of underpaying and undervaluing educators. With American Teacher, a feature-length documentary film narrated by Matt Damon, and a national outreach campaign that has reached 600 communities and thousands of followers, we work to highlight the critical role teachers play in ensuring our democracy works and helping our economy grow.

Now, through The Governors' Challenge, The Teacher Salary Project is asking leaders in all 50 states to immediately and meaningfully address the question of teacher compensation in order to increase the desirability and sustainability of teaching in every state. Our kids and our country deserve the most talented, dedicated teachers available who can stay and thrive in the profession—and those teachers deserve our respect and fair pay.

By signing this petition, you are taking our pledge to show your governor that you want to see change happen in your state. We will be sharing each governor’s response on our website, and you can help your governor see how important it is to take action. Together we can shine the spotlight on states making progress in attracting and developing expert teachers, while spurring action in states where reform is needed.

TAKE THE PLEDGE: Great teachers are vital for our kids and our communities, but we are losing them because we don't pay them like the professionals we ask them to be. I pledge to support raising teachers' salaries so that excellent teachers will be able to afford to stay in the classroom, and talented graduates will choose to join the most important profession in the world.

For more information about The Governors' Challenge campaign and The Teacher Salary Project, visit our website.