Idaho Public Teacher Pay

The January 9, 2008 Idaho Statesman has an article about how Idaho public school teachers are paid that is quite startling, especially to those of us who are constantly hearing how poorly teachers are paid:

A national study shows the state’s teachers come within a few cents of the median pay compared to what Idahoans earn in 16 other comparable professions including counselors, clergy, accountants and registered nurses.
The study, released by Education Week Wednesday morning, shows that Idaho teachers’ median income is 96.6 cents on the dollar compared to what Idahoans earn in those other professions.
Nationally teachers earn only 88 cents on the dollar compared to those other professions. The lowest state is North Carolina at 78.8 cents.
Idaho ranks 15th highest out of the states and District of Columbia in the pay parity compared to the other professions.
In 10 states, teachers salaries meet or exceed the pay for the other categories in the same state. The report, done by EPE Research Center, shows the average median income for Idaho teachers in 2005 and 2006 was $40,060. The average of the other 16 professions in Idaho was $42,060.

What, exactly, does this mean? It means that they compared the salaries of teachers to other professions that require at least a college degree, and that involve working with people. You might argue about whether that list of other professions is the appropriate comparison, but the point of the study is that Idaho public school teachers are paid, relative to those other professions, not so differently from other states.

This is to say that Idaho public school teachers aren't being treated significantly worse, relative to those other professions, than the average of public school teachers in other states. Salaries are low in Idaho for a lot of professions (not just school teachers) because the cost of living is low as well. If you live in the Boise area, you may find this hard to believe, especially with the increase in housing costs the last few years, but once you get out into the sticks, where a lot of Idahoans live, things are still really, really cheap. For example, I searched for 3 bedroom, 2 bath houses for sale in Twin Falls, and there were 84 houses for sale with asking prices of $150,000 or less.

I generally think that teachers really aren't paid all that well for what they do, but at least part of this is because teachers in most school districts work nine months of the year. Yes, I know that they are generally doing preparation and continuing education classes during the summer, and they are often working more than 40 hours a week during the school year, but I know enough teachers to know that they aren't busy all summer long. Add 20% to a teacher's salary to make up for three months off and working perhaps 50 hours a week during the school year, and suddenly, teachers aren't paid all that poorly. This indicates that the Superintendent of Public Instruction's current proposal would make $31,000 a year the new minimum salary for teachers.