Could housing assistance help address the shortage of Black male teachers, and the teacher shortage overall?

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Housing and education are intrinsically linked — a connection that while opens doors for some, closes them for others.

For most students in Minnesota and across the country, where you live determines where you go to school. Even in an open-enrollment state like ours, approximately 90% of students attend schools in their local community. The quality of schools and districts consistently rank as a top priority for families when deciding where to live, shaping housing markets and community demographics.

This connection between housing and education forms a nearly perfect feedback loop. Local property taxes, drawn from home values, provide one of the most stable sources of school funding, contributing about 20% of a district’s revenue annually in Minnesota. In turn, school performance drives home values higher, creating a cycle where wealthier neighborhoods have access to better-funded schools. The median value of homes near high-performing elementary schools is approximately four times greater than those near lower-performing schools, according to a national study.

However, families facing housing insecurity are often left out of this cycle entirely as they grapple with frequent moves and disrupted schooling. For these families, the link between housing and education becomes a trap, reinforcing inequity and limiting opportunities for upward mobility.

While the impact on children and families is widely recognized, another group deeply affected by this often goes overlooked: teachers.

A recent report by the National Council on Teacher Quality revealed that it takes the average teacher in the Twin Cities 10 to 15 years to save for a down payment on a median-priced home. Not surprisingly, teachers are less likely to own homes compared to similarly educated professionals, further underscoring the barriers they face in attaining stability and financial freedom.

And therein lies an opportunity for meaningful change.

Housing can serve as a powerful tool to diversify the teacher workforce and incentivize teacher retention. In 2023, the nonprofit I lead, Black Men Teach, launched a partnership with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to provide $30,000 in fully forgivable, interest-free down payment assistance to Black male teachers working in our partner schools. This assistance is structured to forgive 20% annually over five years, encouraging teachers to remain in the classroom and invest in their communities.

Programs like this can have a profound impact on educators. This month Black Men Teach’s first participant in this housing program, Keon Lewis, closed on his home. This is a milestone he never imagined reaching in his early 20s. A third-year teacher, Keon participated in a required homebuyer education course where he focused on reducing debt, consolidating finances and understanding the fundamentals of homeownership. Through the program, he eliminated his credit card debt and paid off his car loan, creating a solid foundation for financial stability. To qualify for this support, Keon had to teach for at least two years in our partner network, complete the homebuyer education course, find a home in the community that he teaches in, and commit to teaching for an additional five years.

Of course, both housing and education are burdened by legacies of discrimination that continue to shape our present reality. Nationally, redlining systematically denied Black families access to mortgages, blocking pathways to homeownership and generational wealth. Anti-literacy laws, which predate the founding of this country, criminalized education for Black people. Even after emancipation and before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, Black families were systematically denied access to equitable schooling or the freedom to choose where their children were educated.

Locally, Minnesota’s history is no different. Racial covenants intentionally created one of the most segregated urban cores in the country. Today, Ramsey and Hennepin counties are home to the largest Black-white homeownership gap of any major metropolitan area in the country. Similarly, Minnesota’s education system reflects these inequities: The state has one of the widest racial achievement gaps in the nation. Statewide education data paints a clear picture: Black and brown students are underrepresented by their teachers and overrepresented in disciplinary incidents.

Yes, Black Men Teach is a small organization with a narrow scope. However, our aim has always been to serve as a blueprint for rethinking how we recruit, prepare, place and retain teachers across all races and genders. By increasing the representation of Black men in Minnesota’s elementary school classrooms, we aim to inspire systemic change. A broader state or federal initiative offering down payment assistance for teachers could amplify this model and address the growing teacher shortage. In 2023, 240 out of 285 Minnesota school districts reported they were significantly or very significantly impacted by the teacher shortage. Such an initiative should be similarly structured to incentivize retention over a period of time and help get teachers past the five year mark where we see annual attrition rates drop significantly. Most importantly though, it would support educators to have the ability to live in the community they are committed to serving.

Housing and education are linked not just in practice, but metaphorically as well.

At the heart of the American dream lie three foundational pillars: homeownership, economic opportunity and social mobility. There are countless quotes that highlight the transformative power of education, but one that has always resonated with me comes from George Washington Carver: “Education is the key to the golden door of freedom.” If education unlocks the golden door to freedom, then homeownership is the key to unlocking the door to financial freedom.

The interconnectedness of housing and education demand solutions that are just as interwoven. At Black Men Teach, we believe the American dream is possible for everyone and that teachers are the locksmiths crafting keys for the future. Our role is to ensure someone is making keys for the locksmiths themselves.

Markus Flynn, a former classroom teacher, is the executive director of Black Men Teach, a Minnesota-based nonprofit headquartered in St. Paul.