N.J.
teachers earn nation's second-highest starting
salaries
Thursday, July 15,
2004 • BY KRISTA LARSON • Associated Press
New Jersey offers its new
teachers the second-highest average beginning salaries in
the country, according to a report released yesterday by a
national teachers' union.
Beginning educators made
nearly $35,700 during the 2002-2003 year, the American
Federation of Teachers estimated. Teachers who began last
fall were expected to have earned about $36,800, the report
found.
That was substantially
above the national average of $29,600 for 2002-2003 and
$30,500 last year, and behind only Alaska.
However, Janet Bass, a
spokeswoman for the organization said that likely
represented the high cost of living in certain parts of New
Jersey, combined with some "very challenging school
districts" that have to entice applicants.
"It's probably a
combination of cost-of-living and the realization that to
hire quality teachers, you have to pay," she
said.
A spokesman for New
Jersey's largest teachers' union, which is not affiliated
with the organization releasing the report, said the Garden
State has made a "concerted effort" to improve its starting
salaries.
More than 100 school
districts pay more than $40,000 for a starting salary, said
Steve Wollmer with the New Jersey Education
Association.
"That's important because
that makes New Jersey very competitive in the national
market," Wollmer said. "This is not an inexpensive state in
which to live. With auto insurance and taxes and just the
cost of living, living on a teacher's salary is very
challenging."
By comparison, neighboring
Pennsylvania offered an average starting salary of $32,900
in 2002-2003, and new teachers last year were expected to
make just under $34,000. In New York, they made $35,300 in
2002-2003 and were expected to earn about $36,400 during the
last academic year.
The AFT report released
yesterday also found that New Jersey's teachers on average
made about $53,900 in 2002-2003, an increase over the
$50,100 made the preceding year.
While that represented an
increase of about 7.5 percent, an NJEA spokesman said those
figures varied somewhat from those detailed in that
organization's report, which found an increase of only about
1.8 percent.
New Jersey ranked fourth
in average teacher salaries, behind only California
($55,693), Michigan and Connecticut. On the bottom end,
South Dakota teachers averaged $32,414.
"We still don't think that
after working in midcareer that earning $53,000 (in New
Jersey) given the challenges of the job is necessarily
something to crow over," said Bass.
The American Federation of
Teachers is the country's second- largest teachers
union.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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