--- description: Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her... title: ‘I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.’ This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e93b7818445960/69893960929fadc82ebf17e3/teachers-05.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 'I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.' This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America (13 Sep 2018) by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 13, 2018 10:09 AM CUT  U.S. history teacher Hope Brown sits in a classroom at Woodford County High School in Versailles, Ky., on Aug. 31, 2018. U.S. history teacher Hope Brown sits in a classroom at Woodford County High School in Versailles, Ky., on Aug. 31, 2018.Maddie McGarvey for TIME/Economic Hardship Reporting Project by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 13, 2018 10:09 AM CUT Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her clothes at a consignment store. It’s usually just enough to cover an electric bill or a car payment. This financial juggling is now a part of her everyday life—something she never expected almost two decades ago when she earned a master’s degree in secondary education and became a high school history teacher. Brown often works from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her school in Versailles, Ky., then goes to a second job manning the metal detectors and wrangling rowdy guests at Lexington’s Rupp Arena. With her husband, she also runs a historical tour company for extra money. “I truly love teaching,” says the 52-year-old. “But we are not paid for the work that we do.” [_Read TIME’s full cover story here._](http://time.com/longform/teaching-in-america/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5395001/teacher-in-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5395001/teacher-in-america/"},"headline":"'I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.' This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America (13 Sep 2018)","datePublished":"2018-09-13T10:09:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T20:12:03.883Z","description":"Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her...","url":"https://time.com/5395001/teacher-in-america/","keywords":["Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e93b7818445960/69893960929fadc82ebf17e3/teachers-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66e93b7818445960/69893960929fadc82ebf17e3/teachers-05.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Teachers","caption":"Hope Brown sits in a classroom at Woodford County High School in Versailles, KY on Aug 31.","creditText":"Maddie McGarvey for TIME/Economic Hardship Reporting Project","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5395001/teacher-in-america/","name":"'I Work 3 Jobs And Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.' This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America (13 Sep 2018)"}}]}] ```