Report: PA Public Schools Falling Behind in Teachers’ Salaries

by Danielle Smith, Keystone State News Connection

A new report finds Pennsylvania schools are falling behind in teachers’ pay and still need to catch up with inflation.

The report from the Pennsylvania State Education Association highlights data on the state’s public schools, educator compensation, school district staffing and funding, and student performance.

Chris Lilienthal, assistant director of communications for the association, said the report aims to educate Pennsylvanians on the challenges and opportunities facing public schools, and educators’ salaries are a big one.

“The average starting salary for teachers in Pennsylvania in 2023-24 was just about $50,000 a year,” Lilienthal pointed out. “When we compared that to where starting salaries were in the mid-1990s and we adjusted that for inflation, we found that those salaries are lagging by about 12.5%.”

Lilienthal noted neighboring states such as New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland have starting teacher salaries of around $60,000 a year. The Pennsylvania State Education Association has been pushing for a minimum teacher salary of $60,000 and a living wage of at least $20 per hour for school support staff.

Lilienthal argued for the state to recruit and retain teachers, schools must have a competitive salary to attract the best and brightest to jobs in public education.

“We also found that there is a gap between what teachers are earning in Pennsylvania and what comparable professionals with similar levels of education can earn,” Lilienthal reported. “It’s about a 16% gap.”

He added the possibility of earning 16% more each year can be very tempting for young people deciding between careers like teaching, business, or engineering.

Lilienthal acknowledged data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for 2022, also known as the National Report Card, showed Pennsylvania’s public schools are still among the best in the nation.

“Particularly when we look at fourth-grade scores, math and reading, very high scores were also good,” Lilienthal observed. “There is some room for improvement in the area of eighth-grade math and reading. Six states had statistically significant higher eighth-grade reading scores. Twelve states had significantly higher math scores.”

Lilienthal emphasized that the annual report is an important resource for educators, parents, and policymakers and added that the association plans to update it throughout the school year.

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Source: bctv