Browse the NEA’s data and state rankings.
With some 97,000 of its current teachers over the age of 50, California could soon be facing a “huge” teacher shortage, according to a new report by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning.
That forecast is based on an expected wave of retirements, attrition among more junior teachers, and estimates of new teachers going into the field.
CFTL predicts that the state may need as many as 27,000 teachers as soon as 2007-08, with demand expected to be greatest in middle and high schools and in special education and English-language learning.
Read the complete report, “The Status of the Teaching Profession 2005".
Salary Data
The average teacher salary rose by 2.3 percent to $47,808 over the past year, but failed to keep pace with the nation’s 3.1 percent increase in inflation, according to the National Education Association’s annual study of teacher salaries.
Connecticut had the highest average teacher salary at 58,688, while South Dakota had the lowest at 34,040. In all, 15 states had average salaries lower than $40,000.
California, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania all had average teacher salaries above $52,000, while nine others increased salaries at a rate higher than inflation: Maryland, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Virginia, Tennessee, New Mexico, Montana, and Oklahoma.
“Public education in America must raise teacher salaries at a rate faster than inflation in order to attract and retain the quality teaching force necessary to remain competitive in the global marketplace, as well as to maintain a high functioning society,” said NEA President Reg Weaver.
Browse the NEA’s data and state rankings.
—Anthony Rebora
