Studies Seek To Adjust for Pay Variables

By Jeanne Ponessa

In Louisiana, the average teacher made $26,811 last year, an annual salary lower than almost anywhere else in the nation.

Low pay has become such a perennial sore point there that the new governor, Mike Foster, says he'll cut his own pay if teachers' salaries don't reach the regional average within two years.

A Connecticut teacher, on the other hand, earns almost twice as much--an average of $50,598, according to the American Federation of Teachers. The state's teachers are among the best-paid in the nation, and top candidates compete fiercely...