SETH MICHAEL MEYER
Staff Writer
From West Virginia to Colorado, teachers have been striking across the country demanding more compensation for their work.
Starting back in February, teachers in West Virginia staged a widespread strike that finally resulted in a pay raise of 5 percent. Similar events have since taken place in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona and Colorado, and these strikes are just beginning.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual salary for a high school teacher in 2016 was $58,030. Reported by The Economist, the average American teacher makes less than 60 percent that of other equally-educated professionals. And sadly, teachers aren’t getting any richer: “In inflation-adjusted terms, teachers’ salaries have fallen by 1.6% over the past two decades.”
With this being said, doesn’t this mean that teachers are underpaid? Well, that depends on the state.
In Oklahoma, a teacher makes about half ($42,460) of what a teacher makes in Alaska ($82,020). To say that all teachers are worse off is ignoring the influence of state governments.
To all education majors out there I must warn you: if you have interest in teaching, you must have an interest in politics because teachers’ salaries are largely controlled by the government.
According to the projections of the U.S. Department of Education, by 2021, 91 percent of students in the preK-12 levels will be enrolled in public institutions. Democrats and Republicans argue year-in and year-out over the massive public service’s funding.
Fortunately, most of the government control of education is reserved to state officials (rather than federal ones), which makes for a 50-player market for education.
Kaitlin Mulhere writes in Time “Money” that the average 1.6 percent decrease in salary “hides wide state-by-state discrepancies.” Mulhere elaborates that “teacher salaries in Arizona, Indiana and North Carolina have fallen at least 12 percent . . . while teachers in Massachusetts, North Dakota and Wyoming have seen double-digit increases.”
This vast distribution spread can only be described as the supply and demand effect of the teaching market.
A specific example: New York. The New York State Teacher Retirement Program reports that within the next five years, 270,000 members could be eligible for retirement.
In preparation for the future, New York has moved mountains trying to retain fresh teachers. The highly disputed Excelsior Scholarship provides massive tuition breaks for students willing to stay in New York after graduation. This coupled with one of the highest median salaries for teachers in the country, New York has shown its commitment to attract workers by means of incentives.
With that said, I must also note that not every state is a teacher haven like New York. It is hard to examine each state, let alone each municipality, but a determining factor in cuts and raises to education is expenditure. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that, on average, states spend $10,700 per pupil on education. This distribution is also wide-spread, the lowest expense being $6,555 in Utah to $19,818 in New York. This goes to show how differently each state values education.
To be a teacher you may also have to be a traveler so that you can follow the money. In some instances, you may just need to work in a neighboring district to earn a few more G’s. Or you may find that the state you live in really doesn’t compensate teachers well, and you might want to think about packing up and moving out. Luckily for you, New Yorkers, you’ll be just fine.
For those aspiring teachers in the worse-off states, stop supplying said states with teachers and then watch them scramble to increase incentives.