Scott Calvert

Yeah, well, the school district has been grappling with this problem of high teacher turnover for a long time.

In any given year, about 20% of the teachers walk out the door.

And one of the big reasons for that is the high cost of living.

And a big reason for that is the incredibly expensive housing in the Monterey area.

And so their thought was, well, we'll become a landlord.

We'll provide the housing at a discount in hopes that that will stem the tide.

No, it's really not.

You see it in the context of all sorts of like municipal employees and police officers and firefighters who essentially have been priced out of the communities that they serve.

I spoke to one teacher, Albert Platt, who talked to me about all of the benefits he sees as a result of offering the housing.

Housing is just so expensive there.

You have these teachers who are having to live with roommates or commute from an hour, hour and a half, two hours away.

And so what they're deciding is, geez, you know, I can have my own place and not have this monster commute if I go work someplace else.

Another factor in California is that, you know, these school districts have a lot of land and declining enrollment.

And so a lot of them are electing to develop their own apartment complexes basically on district-owned land.

One thing that people will say is this is a help, but it's very far from a panacea.

Monterey, the teachers union, said this is great, but really we need to do a lot more in the area of salaries.

There also are some concerns because the housing is tied to the job.

So if you leave the district, you've got to move out.

And, you know, some people don't necessarily like the idea of living amongst their colleagues.

It may not be ideal for everybody.