Colorado Ranks Low On National Teacher Pay Rates

ACROSS COLORADO –High-profile teacher strikes and walkouts in a handful of states earlier this year could be a foreshadowing of issues in newly configured state legislatures in 2019. School funding and teacher pay drove at least 177 teachers to run for election in recent midterm elections, and at least 42 of them won, mostly in statehouse races.

Nationally, teachers were paid an average annual salary $60,483 in the 2017- 2018 school year, according to the most recent data available from the National Education Association.

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In general, teachers in K-12 public schools are paid about 30 percent less than comparably educated U.S. workers, according to the Brookings Institute. Globally, U.S. teacher salaries lag far behind, even when compared to Finland, known for its meager teacher salaries. The Brookings Institute said that to match salaries in Finland would require a 10 percent raise for elementary school teachers, an 18 percent raise for middle school teachers and a 28 percent raise for high school teachers.

While more teachers lost their elections than won, teachers still tout the impact their activism had on voters. Among those who won office was a high school social studies teacher in Oklahoma who joined his colleagues in a 10-day strike in April. The state’s average teacher pay is the third-lowest in the country, according to the NEA data.

“Today, let’s take back our state and our nation for the people — for working families, for kids, for students, and for teachers,” the teacher, John Waldron, wrote on Facebook hours before he was elected to Oklahoma’s state legislature. In office, he will become part of the Education Caucus, a group of bipartisan lawmakers with direct ties to education.

Two teachers ran, and lost, in the 2018 general election in Colorado, according to Education Week's list of teacher candidates who ran nationwide. Brianna Buentello, a special education teacher in Pueblo City Schools, won in her bid for State Representative as a Democrat. Debra Gustafson, also a Democrat, lost her bid for State Senator.

Statewide, Colorado voters shot down Amendment 73, a ballot issue which would have used a special new income tax formula to fund schools statewide.

But local school referendum bond and funding initiatives did well across the state, with every one passing except in two small rural districts, Manzanola and Briggsdale.

Low pay and school funding cuts aren’t sitting well with America’s teachers.

West Virginia teachers were the first to walk out and strike for higher pay. State lawmakers approved and the governor signed a bill that would boost teacher pay 5 percent. In the 2017-2018 school year, West Virginia teachers earn an average of $45,642, according to data from the National Education Association, well below the national average.

Emboldened by the nearly two-week strike in West Virginia, teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma and Kentucky also swarmed statehouses demanding higher pay and more funding for public schools. Some Arizona teachers staged a sick-out in March to protest their salaries, which averaged $47,746 last year.

In Colorado, teachers staged two walkouts in April.

Here’s how the states ranked:

1. New York: $83,585
2. California: $81,126
3. Massachusetts: $79,710
4. District of Columbia: $76,486
5. Connecticut: $73,113
6. New Jersey: $69,917
7. Maryland: $69,761
8. Alaska: $69,474
9. Pennsylvania: $67,398
10. Illinois: $66,778
11. Rhode Island: $66,758
12. Oregon: $63,143
13. Michigan: $62,702
14. Delaware: $60,484
15. Wyoming: $58,578
16. Vermont: $58,572
17. Ohio: $58,000
18. New Hampshire: $57,833
19. Hawaii: $57,866
20. Nevada: $57,812
21. Minnesota: $57,782
22. Iowa: $56,790
23. Georgia: $56,329
24. Wisconsin: $55,895
25. Washington: $55,175
26. North Dakota: $54,421
27. Indiana: $54,846
28. Nebraska: $53,473
29. Texas: $53,167
30. Kentucky: $52,952
31. Montana: $52,776
32. Colorado: $52,389
33. Maine: $51,663
34. Virginia: $51,265
35. South Carolina, $51,027
36. Tennessee: $50,900
37. North Carolina: $50,861
38. Kansas: $50,403
39. Louisiana: $50,256
40. Alabama: $50,239
41. Idaho: $49,225
42. Missouri: 6;49,208
43. Arkansas: $49,017
44. South Dakota: $47,944
45. New Mexico: $47,839
46. Florida: $47,721
47. Arizona: $47,746
48. Utah: $47,604
49. Oklahoma: $45,678
50. West Virginia: $45,642
51. Mississippi: $43,107

By Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff

This article has been updated to correct that Brianna Buentello won her race for state representative.

Photo via Shutterstock