Question

In recent years fewer students have been graduating from education programs across the US, leaving many states with a teacher shortage. K-12 teacher wages, however, have not significantly risen during this same period. How would you explain this market oddity?

Answer 1

Quality teachers are one of the most important factors in student achievement.[1] Yet since the recession, the real value of teacher salaries (adjusted for inflation) has decreased in the majority of states.[2] In about half of all U.S. states, the average teacher does not even earn a living wage needed to support a family. Inadequate compensation has predictable consequences for attracting and retaining the skilled professionals so crucial to student outcomes—especially in schools and subjects that are hard to staff. The strikes and protests that erupted last spring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Colorado are visible manifestations of this troubling reality.

At the heart of the teacher salary issue are growing funding inequities among the states. Some states may need to invest more in education to raise baseline levels. But it will not be enough just to throw more money at the problem—states also need to take a thoughtful look at how well and how equitably all resources are allocated. When teachers are compensated fairly and strategically and when they are supported in their growth as professionals, students have a better chance to succeed.

There is also a correlation between states that reduced education funding and states with a decline in inflation-adjusted teacher salaries. Real teacher salaries declined in 40 states between the 2009–10 and 2014–15 school years—by 5 percent or more in 24 states. As figure 1 demonstrates, the states that cut per-pupil funding tend to be the same ones where the real value of teacher salaries declined.

In about half of all states, the average teacher salary is less than the family living wage. This aligns with other research findings.

The majority of states where teacher salaries earn less than the living wage are also most likely to have lower K-12 spending as a percentage of state GDP.

Yet all states show signs of labor market problems, since even states where teacher salaries are above the family living wage pay on average only 9 percent above.

In their role as advocates for educational quality and equity, state boards of education can help guide state agency policymakers and legislators toward funding strategies that address the problem of stagnating teacher salaries. They can call attention to the need for improving the entire value proposition for teachers—salary, benefits, and working conditions—rather than merely putting more money into existing structures. State boards’ efforts to set high standards for teachers will be for naught if highly skilled individuals do not want to enter the teaching profession in the first place.

The current unhealthy state of the labor market for teachers is a challenge that must be met. But it is also an opportunity to modernize the teaching profession and to adopt practices that foster innovation and lead to more effective use of all K-12 resources. Supporting teachers as the professionals they are is a critical step that will lead the way to achieving student performance goals.