Teacher salaries in the United States are not keeping pace with inflation, concludes a report by the 2.7 million-member National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
“Rankings and Estimates Update” is available from the National Education Association.
The report—an update of data from the NEA’s annual research report “Rankings and Estimates: Rankings of States 2004 and Estimates of School Statistics 2005”—provides the latest information from state education departments.
Over the past year, the report says, average teacher salaries for public school educators rose 2.3 percent, compared with a 3.1 percent increase in inflation over that time.
The report, which ranks states on a number of measures—such as teacher salaries, pupil-teacher ratios, and education spending—found that Connecticut has the highest average teacher salary, at $58,688.