[Rik Devney-(giving a spelling test)]"15, Curl. I wanted to curl my straight hair."
Rik Devney teaches fifth graders at a Lincoln elementary school. Teaching is his passion. It's something he has always wanted to do.
[Rik Devney] "I've always liked being around kids, liked the rewards of helping kids out and made the decision when I was in high school and really never turned back."
The most rewarding thing about teaching, Devney says, is influencing kids in a positive way.
[Devney] "Seeing their growth and learning and knowing you're a part of that and you're responsible for it and just the little-- the little things that kids say and do to make you aware that they care about you and you care about them. Kids can be very giving."
Rik teaches his students literature, social studies, and English, among other things.
[Devney] "You're also responsible for teaching growth and development, skills for growing."
[female student] "They moved around the room trying to find clues to guess who was who."
With four years of teaching experience under his belt, Devney makes less than $25,000. He says it's not enough especially with a new addition to his family. In order to make ends meet, Devney is more than a teacher, husband, and parent. Often when he leaves Humann Elementary for the day, he heads to another job.
[Devney]" I was fortunate enough during college to learn a trade."
He installs ceramic tile in houses. Devney says if he did this full-time, he could make at least $10,000 more than he makes now and he wouldn't have to bring work home with him.
[Devney] "It has helped financially quite a bit, but yet it's pretty exhausting juggling both. I'm a fifth grade teacher in Lincoln at Julius Humann Elementary."
Last year Devney testified in front of the legislature's Education Committee. He told them how he works two jobs but doesn't want to give up teaching. He asked for their help to increase teachers' salaries.
[Devney] "I cannot see myself doing anything else but teaching, however, I cannot see myself continuing to work the hours I do just to make ends meet. Something has to give."
Devney, along with 1,300 other teachers, showed State lawmakers how serious they are about this issue. In late January, educators from across the state rallied together and marched from a Lincoln school to the State Capitol carrying signs that read top 10 academics, bottom 10 teachers' salaries.
[Becky Tegeler, student teacher] "The people that are getting trained here in education are going elsewhere to teach. Nebraska can't hold onto them. And if we want the best and brightest to teach our kids, we've got to pay them what they're worth."
A number of teachers told lawmakers why they should increase teachers' salaries. One brave woman told them why teachers should not get a pay raise.
[Martha Toews] "I am concerned about the taxpayers of Nebraska being able to fund increased teachers' salaries with the increased retirement that they're going to get."
The image of hundreds and hundreds of teachers coming together for a common cause certainly got the attention from State legislators.
[Sen. Ron Raikes]"I was certainly surprised and impressed".
Senator Ron Raikes sits on the Education Committee. This past year he had to vote on three measures dealing with teacher pay. The only one that passed was a bill creating a task force that would study the need for teachers' salaries. Raikes says they need more information before they can make an educated decision especially one involving a lot of state money.
[Sen. Raikes] "Is it where they're located in the state? Is it the amount of experience they have in teaching? Is it the load they have, number of students that each one of them meets in a classroom each day? Or it may also be a function of the organization of the system they're in."
But others were disappointed the legislature did not take immediate action on increasing teachers' salaries. State Education Association president Duane Obermier.
[Duane Obermier] "We were disappointed that we weren't able to start addressing the problem in terms of actually getting some State money in to the salaries of teachers.
Initially the goal was to reach the national average, $38,000 per year."
But it would take millions of dollars to reach that level.
[Obermier] We originally had a goal of reaching the national average over a few years time, and over three years, the price tag was tremendous. It was over $400 million. Well, that kind of got us some bad press because that's a very, very big number. But we did that to illustrate the magnitude of the problem."
Now the goal is to reach the average salary of other states in the Midwest including Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Wyoming. This would bring the average salary in Nebraska up to $36,000.
[Obermier] "We're just not competitive in our salaries. That's what we need to be, particularly in the face of the shortage which is upon us and the graying of our teaching faculty here in Nebraska."
Bonnie Spomer is an elementary school principal. She has more than 20 years invested in the education field. She believes the biggest problem isn't so much the teachers who are making at or above the average salary of $33,000 but instead the younger teachers who make around $21,000.
[Bonnie Spomer, Humann Elem. Principal] "$21,000 doesn't allow them to do very much about buying a home or if they're a young family and they have babies, they're really short of money. And so it's those people I think that it's hard to keep in the profession."
As an administrator who hires teachers, Spomer also comes across another problem, the lack of male teachers in elementary education jobs.
[Spomer] "Parents often request men because they want their child to have the opportunity in elementary school to have a male teacher. Well, it's hard to keep men in this profession because they still perceive themselves as the bread winner and they can make more money other places."
Senator Raikes says it's not easy to come up with a way for teachers to make more money without taking a big chunk of the State's budget. He would like to tie in teacher compensation with performance.
[Sen. Raikes] "Is there a way that we can direct whatever additional money we come up with toward the highest performing teachers either as a form of encouragement or as a form of reward or both."
Obermier says that if the legislature can't come up with a solution, they may have to turn to the court system.
[Obermier] "It would be a true tragedy if we waited, didn't do anything, didn't do anything, didn't get salaries up to a competitive level and then all of a sudden our academic-- not all of a sudden but gradually our academic level would start to slip. That would be a real tragedy and that's what we want to prevent."
[Devney]"Number 16, purse. P-U-R-S-E."
Meanwhile Rik Devney could leave his fifth grade class. He recently had an opportunity to take a full-time job installing ceramic tile. He would make more money working fewer hours. For now, he's staying with the kids.
[Devney] "It was a decision that I did make to stay with teaching because that's what I want to do and that's what I love."
[Spomer] "I think people will always love teaching. It's a very rewarding career.
Jill, Katie, Lester."
A career that will likely be in the spotlight during next year's legislative session.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .