[Vision2020] Idaho Teachers Among Nation's Lowest Paid

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (October 11, 2005) Spokesman review -

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Idaho teachers among nation's lowest paid 
Low salary structure makes state 'training ground'

Anne Wallace Allen
Associated Press

October 11, 2005

BOISE - Idaho teachers are some of the lowest-paid in the nation, according
to a report from a teachers union.

Idaho ranked 32nd in the nation for its annual teacher salaries, and 44th in
the nation for starting teacher salaries, according to the American
Federation of Teachers. Idaho was also one of 28 states where the increase
in average teacher salary was lower than the national rate of inflation.

"Teachers are underpaid," said John Davis, chairman of the University of
Idaho's College of Education in Moscow. "We lose people because salaries in
teaching are not commensurate with comparable professions."
 
Idaho teachers made starting salaries of just under $25,908 in the 2003-2004
school year, the year on which the AFT report was based. That amount hasn't
changed since then, though Idaho schools Superintendent Marilyn Howard
proposed in September a budget that would raise teacher salaries for the
first time in five years.

The national average in 2003-2004 for starting teacher salaries was $31,704.

Experienced teachers in Idaho had an average salary of $40,111 in that
school year; the national average was $46,597.

Connecticut had the highest average teacher salary, at $56,516, while South
Dakota had the lowest at $33,236, said the AFT, which represents school
staff and government employees. The group said in a statement that Alaska's
beginning teacher salary was the highest, at $40,027, and Wisconsin's was
the lowest, at $23,952.

Howard proposed a $1 billion education budget for the fiscal year that
begins in July. It includes $47.5 million for the payment that Idaho sends
to school districts to pay for teacher and staff salaries and benefits - an
increase of 5.2 percent over the current year's spending.

The Legislature will vote on that spending plan next winter.

Education policy-makers in Idaho have long said that good teachers often
leave to take jobs in neighboring states with higher pay.

"If your salary structure is sufficiently low overall, then what happens is
you are a training ground for teachers who then leave," said state Sen. Gary
Schroeder, R-Moscow and a former chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
"California and Las Vegas come up to Idaho recruiting."

California's average salary for experienced teachers is one of the highest
in the country, at $56,444; Nevada's is $43,211.

Davis, a former middle-school teacher in Utah, noted that the salaries cover
a nine-month period, not a 12-month period, but added that they are still
low compared to other professions, and the matter comes up frequently for
discussion in his department.

"My students talk about it," he said. "Would they like to earn more? Yes.
But they want to be teachers. They know that it's not high pay, and yet
they're here getting their degrees in it."

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At a glance 
Teacher salaries 
Average salary for experienced teachers 

for the 2003-2004 school year:

.Idaho: $40,111

.California: $56,444

.Nevada: $43,211

.Connecticut: $56,516

.South Dakota: $33,236

.National average: $46,597

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will
stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving
path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so
far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

-Sir Winston Churchill