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Teachers pay up,
but isles still rank
last considering
cost of living

The teachers union says
low pay compared to the
mainland makes it difficult
to recruit teachers

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Lianne Zuber is leaving her teaching job at Waikoloa Elementary School on the Big Island for one on the mainland.

Although Zuber will make only $1,000 a year more at her new job in the Midwest, the cost of living will make her salary go a lot further, she said.

"I bought a loaf of bread there for 33 cents," Zuber said. "It matches the cost of living. In Hawaii, I'm so far behind in the cost of living, it's so unbelievable."

A national survey of teacher salaries, out today, is right on the mark, Zuber said.

It shows Hawaii No. 18 among states for average salaries for public-school teachers.

But the cost of living in paradise drops that ranking to last place, as it has in at least two previous years.

A year ago, Hawaii was ranked No. 25 in the survey by the American Federation of Teachers.

The teachers union survey of salaries for the 50 states and the District of Columbia during the 1998-99 school year showed Hawaii teachers were paid $40,416, up from $36,598 the previous year.

But adjusted for the cost of living, Hawaii's average salary fell to $30,388.

"It really just confirms what we are saying, and teachers deserve the higher salary," said Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, who is with Zuber and other Hawaii delegates at the National Education Association convention in Chicago.

Ginoza said that without higher salaries and other incentives, Hawaii will be unable to compete with other states in a time of a national teacher shortage.

The state ranks higher in salaries for beginning teachers -- No. 13 with a salary of $28,315, up from $27,263 the previous year.

The 1998-99 school year, covered in the latest survey, saw the inclusion of seven extra instructional days in Hawaii public schools, and it was the last year of a four-year Hawaii State Teachers Association contract in which average salaries rose to $42,000 from about $37,000.

Teachers do not yet have a new contract. Ginoza said the AFT survey will be added ammunition in trying to reach a new one.

"We will definitely use it. We're competing with other states that need teachers," she said.

The U.S. average salary for teachers was $40,574, an increase from $39,347 in the previous survey. New Jersey topped the list with an average salary of $51,692; South Dakota trailed with $28,386.

The survey also compared starting teachers' salaries in the nation's 100 largest cities. Honolulu ranked No. 39 with $28,414. Yonkers, N.Y., ranked No. 1 with $37,045, and Lincoln, Neb., was No. 100 with $20,883.

The AFT says that while teachers' salaries are rising across the country, the raises have not kept pace with other white-collar professions. Low salaries are being blamed for teacher shortages across the country, including Hawaii.

The HSTA, which represents Hawaii's 11,000 public-school teachers, is associated with the NEA and not the AFT. But the HSTA has said in the past that it uses the AFT's cost-of-living-adjusted salary figures to justify pay increases for teachers.

Ginoza said the HSTA is in line with the NEA on the issue of performance, which is being voted on by the national organization.