Just the Facts: Teacher Salaries and Education Spending

Published May 1, 2004

Total spending on public K-12 education reached $437.0 billion in the 2002-03 school year–more than $9,100 per pupil nationwide. Less than a third of this money ended up in the paychecks of teachers, whose average salary was $45,930 in 2002-03, up 3.2 percent from the average salary of $44,999 reported last year for 2001-02. With spending of $16,740 per pupil, the District of Columbia had the nation’s most expensive public school system.

These and other data on public schools are derived from the latest update to the “Ranking and Estimates” report published annually by the Research Department of the National Education Association (NEA). A much-quoted source of national and state-level data on teacher salaries, the report also provides statistics on state-by-state student enrollments, student-teacher ratios, and total expenditures on public K-12 education.

According to the NEA supplemental report for the school year 2002-03, published last fall, public school enrollments were up less than 1 percent to 47,789,062, while the number of teachers rose about 2 percent to 3,039,831. The student-teacher ratio fell about 2 percent from 16.0 reported in the previous supplement to 15.7 in 2002-03. Total expenditures on education, including capital and interest, rose by about 5 percent from the $413.0 billion reported in the 2002 supplement.

While NEA Research reports teacher salaries and other statistics in rank order by state, in the table on this page School Reform News puts these data in context by reporting them as percentages of the national average. For example, California teachers are paid 123 percent of the national average, while South Dakota teachers are paid 71 percent of the national average.

To place spending on teacher salaries in the context of total expenditures, each state’s teacher salaries were multiplied by the number of teachers to produce an estimate of state-level expenditures on teachers. When reported as a percentage of total expenditures, those figures show most states spend less than a third of education funds on teachers, with only Virginia (48 percent), North Dakota (47 percent), and Rhode Island (42 percent) being notable exceptions. By contrast, in the District of Columbia, only one out of five education dollars (21 percent) is spent on teacher salaries.


George A. Clowes is managing editor of School Reform News. His email address is [email protected].


Public Schools 2002-03:
Teacher Salaries, Student-Teacher Ratios, and Per-Pupil Spending
  As a % of U.S. Total Value   Teacher Salary Expenditures
(# Teachers x Average Teacher Salary)
Average Teacher Salary Student Teacher Radio Total Expenditure Per Pupil $/Pupil Rank State Average Teacher Salary Student Teacher Ratio Total Expenditure Per Pupil Total Expenditures Teacher Salary Expenditures As A % Of Total Expenditures
$45,930 15.7 $9,142   United States 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% $436,981,627 $139,619,438 32.0%
$38,246 15.5 $6,811 46 Alabama 83.3% 98.7% 74.5% $4,915,090 $1,780,313 36.2%
$49,685 16.7 $10,338 13 Alaska 108.2% 106.4% 113.1% $1,388,990 $400,064 28.8%
$40,894 20.9 $6,418 48 Arizona 89.0% 133.1% 70.2% $6,036,093 $1,844,401 30.6%
$37,753 14.0 $7,157 42 Arkansas 82.2% 89.2% 78.3% $3,186,356 $1,199,451 37.6%
$56,283 20.7 $8,448 29 California 122.5% 131.8% 92.4% $52,754,038 $16,941,915 32.1%
$42,679 16.6 $8,973 23 Colorado 92.9% 105.7% 98.1% $6,746,222 $1,936,517 28.7%
$55,367 13.2 $12,564 3 Connecticut 120.5% 84.1% 137.4% $7,185,300 $2,393,183 33.3%
$50,772 15.2 $11,651 4 Delaware 110.5% 96.8% 127.4% $1,354,662 $388,964 28.7%
$40,281 18.0 $8,084 36 Florida 87.7% 114.6% 88.4% $20,480,627 $5,680,749 27.7%
$45,533 15.6 $9,436 19 Georgia 99.1% 99.4% 103.2% $14,116,034 $4,365,476 30.9%
$44,464 16.5 $8,144 33 Hawaii 96.8% 105.1% 89.1% $1,497,088 $495,951 33.1%
$40,148 17.9 $6,841 45 Idaho 87.4% 114.0% 74.8% $1,700,000 $555,970 32.7%
$51,289 15.5 $11,269 8 Illinois 111.7% 98.7% 123.3% $23,548,725 $6,899,345 29.3%
$45,097 16.4 $10,138 17 Indiana 98.2% 104.5% 110.9% $10,089,554 $2,730,263 27.1%
$39,059 14.0 $8,128 34 Iowa 85.0% 89.2% 88.9% $3,919,245 $1,350,074 34.4%
$38,123 14.4 $8,488 28 Kansas 83.0% 91.7% 92.8% $3,986,147 $1,242,085 31.2%
$38,981 16.2 $7,896 37 Kentucky 84.9% 103.2% 86.4% $4,966,732 $1,510,709 30.4%
$37,300 14.5 $7,767 39 Louisiana 81.2% 92.4% 85.0% $5,665,853 $1,877,682 33.1%
$38,518 12.8 $10,199 15 Maine 83.9% 81.5% 111.6% $2,084,023 $617,020 29.6%
$49,677 15.6 $9,180 21 Maryland 108.2% 99.4% 100.4% $7,956,674 $2,759,210 34.7%
$52,043 13.8 $11,393 6 Massachusetts 113.3% 87.9% 124.6% $11,256,083 $3,736,687 33.2%
$53,798 17.1 $10,160 16 Michigan 117.1% 108.9% 111.1% $17,728,706 $5,489,171 31.0%
$44,745 16.1 $10,941 9 Minnesota 97.4% 102.5% 119.7% $9,265,938 $2,354,034 25.4%
$34,555 16.1 $6,586 47 Mississippi 75.2% 102.5% 72.0% $3,237,942 $1,056,312 32.6%
$39,292 13.5 $8,269 32 Missouri 85.5% 86.0% 90.4% $7,392,658 $2,601,680 35.2%
$35,754 14.5 $7,818 38 Montana 77.8% 92.4% 85.5% $1,172,718 $370,483 31.6%
$37,896 13.7 $8,092 35 Nebraska 82.5% 87.3% 88.5% $2,297,595 $784,788 34.2%
$41,795 19.0 $8,496 27 Nevada 91.0% 121.0% 92.9% $3,139,398 $813,289 25.9%
$41,909 13.9 $9,166 22 New Hampshire 91.2% 88.5% 100.3% $1,903,090 $627,587 33.0%
$54,158 13.0 $11,604 5 New Jersey 117.9% 82.8% 126.9% $15,865,410 $5,709,445 36.0%
$36,965 15.2 $7,716 41 New Mexico 80.5% 96.8% 84.4% $2,469,418 $776,967 31.5%
$52,600 12.6 $12,957 2 New York 114.5% 80.3% 141.7% $36,863,831 $11,887,600 32.2%
$43,076 15.6 $7,744 40 North Carolina 93.8% 99.4% 84.7% $10,421,985 $3,710,093 35.6%
$33,210 13.3 $5,313 51 North Dakota 72.3% 84.7% 58.1% $547,340 $257,211 47.0%
$45,498 14.8 $8,672 26 Ohio 99.1% 94.3% 94.9% $15,725,403 $5,557,353 35.3%
$34,877 15.4 $7,022 44 Oklahoma 75.9% 98.1% 76.8% $4,382,849 $1,416,355 32.3%
$47,600 20.4 $8,417 30 Oregon 103.6% 129.9% 92.1% $4,655,503 $1,291,198 27.7%
$51,424 15.2 $8,760 25 Pennsylvania 112.0% 96.8% 95.8% $15,915,365 $6,132,621 38.5%
$51,076 11.8 $10,348 12 Rhode Island 111.2% 75.2% 113.2% $1,634,883 $682,988 41.8%
$40,362 15.2 $9,260 20 South Carolina 87.9% 96.8% 101.3% $6,224,918 $1,781,458 28.6%
$32,416 13.9 $8,285 31 South Dakota 70.6% 88.5% 90.6% $1,035,474 $292,327 28.2%
$39,677 15.6 $6,386 49 Tennessee 86.4% 99.4% 69.8% $5,813,353 $2,313,764 39.8%
$40,001 14.6 $8,895 24 Texas 87.1% 93.0% 97.3% $37,565,997 $11,587,490 30.8%
$38,385 22.3 $6,112 50 Utah 83.6% 142.0% 66.9% $2,940,915 $827,657 28.1%
$41,491 11.4 $11,346 7 Vermont 90.3% 72.6% 124.1% $1,130,723 $363,212 32.1%
$43,152 12.6 $7,082 43 Virginia 94.0% 80.3% 77.5% $8,332,713 $4,016,113 48.2%
$44,963 19.2 $10,258 14 Washington 97.9% 122.3% 112.2% $10,421,726 $2,384,613 22.9%
$38,481 14.1 $9,530 18 West Virginia 83.8% 89.8% 104.2% $2,683,594 $767,465 28.6%
$42,775 14.7 $10,605 10 Wisconsin 93.1% 93.6% 116.0% $9,345,333 $2,565,987 27.5%
$38,838 13.3 $10,486 11 Wyoming 84.6% 84.7% 114.7% $903,000 $252,059 27.9%
$50,763 14.2 $16,740 1 District of Col 110.5% 90.4% 183.1% $1,130,312 $242,089 21.4%
FOOTNOTES:
Computed from NEA Research, Estimates databank.
Source for raw data: national Education Association, “Rankings & Estimates” Fall 2003 Update published November 2003. http://www.nea.org/edstats/03rankingsupdate.html

For more information …

The Fall 2003 Update of the National Education Association’s “Rankings and Estimates” report is available online at http://www.nea.org/edstats/03rankingsupdate.html. The previous full report is available at http://www.nea.org/edstats/images/03rankings.pdf.