Despite the clamor about low teacher pay in America, the average teacher in a taxpayer-supported public school earns more in base salary alone — with summers off — than the median U.S. household earns in an entire year.
According to a new report from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the average base salary for a full-time public school teacher in the 2011-2012 school year was $53,100.
The Census Bureau estimated that the median household income in the United States was $50,054 in 2011, the latest year for which figures are available.
The income earned by public school teachers is also significantly higher than the base salary of the average private school teacher, $40,200 a year, according to the NCES.
Many public school teachers earn more than their base salary. For example, 41.8 percent of teachers receive additional income to work in extracurricular activities in the same school system; 4 percent earn additional compensation based on students' performance; and 7.3 percent receive income from other school-system sources, such as state supplements.
On top of that, 16.5 percent of public school teachers have another job outside the school system.
When all sources of income are included, the average public school teacher earned $55,100 in the school year studied.
Teachers at public high schools earned even more: $57,700 in 2011-2012, and teachers at schools with at least 1,000 students made $59,100.
In contrast, teachers at private elementary schools earned just $38,400 that year, and those who work in a community classified as a "town" earned only $31,200.
Footnote: The NCES figures for public school teachers do not include their often generous retirement pensions.
Sunday, September 01, 2013
Public School Teachers Paid More Than Most Households