Money is tight for Clark County paraeducators; some opt for second jobs instead of vacations

Stephanie Bradshaw never expected her job to be easy. Adding a second one to pay the bills hasn’t been easy either.

Her main gig as a special education paraeducator requires the ability to be patient and listen carefully. Students with the greatest academic and social-emotional needs deserve as much help as possible, she said. The job has only grown more challenging as rates of student behavioral issues have increased since the pandemic. In her seven years on the job, Bradshaw said she’s been injured repeatedly and even suffered a concussion while working with students.

But when Bradshaw, 50, comes home from school, she usually has to jump right into her second job as an Uber driver.

“Sometimes after work, if I don’t need to pick up my daughter, I’ll just flip on the Uber sign right there in the school parking lot,” Bradshaw said. “Just to pick up a few rides on my way home.”

Finances

In the 2023-24 school year, special education paraeducators in Evergreen Public Schools started at $22.36 an hour — among the highest pay for such positions across Clark County. Most jobs aren’t full-time; Bradshaw, for example, works between 30 and 36 hours per week.

She estimates that after taxes, last year she made about $26,000 working in the district.

Without picking up shifts driving for Uber and Lyft — which she does four to five days a week even during the school year — Bradshaw said there’s no way she would stay afloat. During the summer, driving becomes her full-time job. On an average night driving, she nets about $100. More successful nights, like weekends, can net her as much as $300.

“It’s a cost-of-living thing at the end of the day. My checks barely cover my rent, and my rent is atrocious,” she said. “I have to have another job just to pay my bills.”

Her rent is $1,800 per month, which is a few hundred dollars below the average for a two-bedroom apartment in Clark County. A study released last month found that someone would have to make about $81,000 per year to comfortably afford the average two-bedroom apartment in the area — a salary that few educators in Clark County are able to reach.

Utilities, car payments, insurance, gas, food and other expenses add up — a nearly impossible monthly routine for someone on a budget between $2,200 and $2,500.

It’s possible she could have found a less expensive apartment, Bradshaw said, but the location is close to work, her youngest daughter’s school and her ex-husband’s house, where her daughter lives half the time.

Supporting family

Bradshaw’s children are the most important part of her life. A large portion of what Bradshaw manages to save, she said, goes toward supporting youngest daughter Olivia’s passion for competitive cheerleading. Bradshaw’s other children are older and live on their own.

“I can tell how hard she’s working,” 13-year-old Olivia said.

Bradshaw’s side job, while necessary, limits the time she’s able to spend with Olivia.

“I try to spend my time with my daughter as best as I can, but that puts a stress on me with finances,” she said. “On my down time, I don’t have a social life. I know a lot of people and have a lot of friends, but I haven’t even had a coffee date this summer.”

Recently, Bradshaw was rear-ended while on the job. Nobody was hurt, and the car is still operable, she said, but she’s having trouble getting the insurance company to cover repairs. Adding to her already stacked plate is a $2,500 deductible — a substantial portion of the savings she had worked months driving to set aside.

In the meantime, she can’t make extra money.

Bradshaw’s stress level is growing.

“When I’m driving around doing Uber and Lyft, I see a lot of homeless people. And there are so many people who are homeless just because they lost their job or they have medical expenses,” she said. “And it might sound dramatic, but sometimes, I hear that little voice in my head that says, ‘You’re one paycheck away from that.’ ”

Bradshaw’s experience as a paraeducator struggling to make ends meet isn’t unique.

While speaking with a group of educators from Vancouver Public Schools in February, Gov. Jay Inslee talked about how his children and grandchildren were supported by paraeducators. Key to supporting the positions long-term, he said, is ensuring the capital gains tax is not repealed.

A conservative-led measure on the November ballot, Initiative 2109, seeks to repeal the tax, which has collected hundreds of millions of dollars for education from the state’s wealthiest residents since 2022.

Staying in school

Angie Waudby is another special education paraeducator in the Evergreen district. Like Bradshaw, she said she’s fallen in love with her job because of the children she serves.

Unlike Bradshaw, however, Waudby, 49, said she’s able to do her job because her husband makes enough to comfortably supplement her income. She said most of her co-workers are in similar positions.

“I made $31,000 last year — you can’t live off that. I also do stat collection for almost all sporting events during the school year, so my wages are even higher,” Waudby said. “(Without her husband’s support) I might be homeless — probably living in my car. You hate to say that but rent at places is ridiculous.”

This summer, Waudby is working at a four-week summer school program with several of the students she serves during the school year. She said she does it because she worries her students might struggle if forced to change their routines with a new paraeducator.

Bradshaw had the same summer job as Waudby for six years but said she had to stop due to exhaustion.

Waudby’s summer job comes at the expense of time with her children, family vacations and more. The money she brings in will go to paying off bills and supporting her son’s education.

“Every day, there’s just chores at home. I’m exhausted right now from doing summer school. There’s just stuff not getting done that needs to be done,” Waudby said. “My husband tells me to find another job. Do something else. And I say, I don’t want to. I want to be involved in the school district. My son is there, and I want to make sure things are going the right way.”

Tough decisions

What keeps Bradshaw in the job, she said, is that same sense of responsibility to the students she serves that Waudby describes.

“I just love my program. It’s all about my program. You have to be have a certain temperament — not everyone can do our job,” Bradshaw said.

Before working in education, Bradshaw worked as a medical assistant. She made the transition to working with kids after Olivia was born, and she started taking substitute teaching jobs. Now, even with all the financial stress, she struggles to see another line of work in her future.

“I’ve considered other careers,” Bradshaw said. “It’s a very stressful situation where I’m in love with my work and my students, but I’m at a point in my life where I could go somewhere else, and I probably should, but I just can’t.”