Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 14, 1993 TAG: 9310140091
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The American Federation of Teachers reported Wednesday that public school teachers around the country were paid an average $35,104 in 1992-93, up 3.2 percent from the previous year.
That's the highest average salary ever, the AFT said. But taking inflation into account, the union figured that teachers earned about $56 more than the previous year.
The AFT said the 3.2 percent raises teachers received in 1991-1992 and again in 1992-93 represented the smallest increases in 35 years.
Salaries were generally higher in the Northeast, and lower in the South, though the most poorly paid teachers in the nation were in South Dakota, according to the survey.
Teachers there were paid $24,291, just 69.2 percent of the national average.
Virginia ranked 25th, with the average teacher pay $32,896. In previous years, Virginia ranked 18th or 19th.
"We've lost a lot of ground," said David Johnson, executive director of the Virginia Education Association. "Teachers have gotten virtually no salary increases, and other states have."
At the top end of the scale is Connecticut.
"A lot of people are calling and applying because of our salary," said Ted Obieglo, a Hartford schools official. The average annual salary in Hartford is about $54,000.
Obieglo said applications for teaching positions have come from as far away as California and Florida, but the school district expects to hire fewer than 30 new teachers for the current school year.
"Salary is certainly a very strong attractor," said Charles Marshall of the Association for School, University and College Staffing. The Chicago-based organization helps place new teachers.
But he said there was a "rather depressed market" for teachers.
The AFT survey found that only two states - Maryland and Wyoming - reported that the average teacher's salary had actually dropped in the 1992-1993 school year - less than 1 percent in both cases.
West Virginia reported the largest increase - 10.7 percent.
F. Howard Nelson, AFT's associate director of research and author of the study, said the trend this year, however, is for salaries to increase.
For example, he said, salaries in Maryland were going up all around the state, while teachers in the District of Columbia were getting their first pay raise in two years.
The survey found that the 10 states with the highest teacher salaries were Connecticut, $48,918; Alaska, $46,799; New York, $44,999; New Jersey, $43,355; Michigan, $42,256; Pennsylvania, $41,515; Rhode Island, $40,548; District of Columbia, $40,228; California, $39,922; and Massachusetts, $39,245.
The states with the lowest average salaries were: South Dakota, $24,291; Mississippi, $24,367; North Dakota, $25,211; Louisiana, $26,074; Oklahoma, $26,355; New Mexico, $26,463; Utah, $26,997; Idaho, $27,011; Alabama, $27,490; and Montana, $27,617.
by CNB