Paying teachers more continues to be an issue. But while lawmakers talk salaries, some teachers are taking matters into their own hands -- they're working a side hustle. We found a teacher with a side gig like no other. Only in Vegas, right?
Katie Steele is Lady Gaga by night, theater teacher by day. For more than a decade she's performed on the Las Vegas Strip. But the grueling schedule was taking its toll on her family life. Now, she teaches theater to more than 800 students at Doral Academy's Pebble campus.
"I'm very dedicated to teaching. But teaching for 8 hours and then working gigs in evenings, I couldn't do that."
But for her summer break, she'll be heading to Branson, Missouri, and performing as Lady Gaga with "Legends in Concert."
"I realized as I was going along in my new career of teaching that I wasn't quite seeing the numbers that I was seeing as a performer."
Being Lady Gaga is a fun gig that feeds the performer in her. But it's also practical. Performing pays better. Way better.
"Gaga still needs to make her coins honey. I gotta do what I gotta do."
Students know their teacher is a performer. A picture of her dressed as Lady Gaga hangs on the wall of her classroom. And her school's principal is flying to Branson to watch her perform this summer. But come next fall, she'll be back in the classroom, changing the world one student at a time.
"My goal is not that every child leaves my door loving theater but has grown in self esteem, grown in confidence. Theater is about more than performing. It's about how you feel inside."
