Teachers’ pay rank
rises in national study

The state moves to 21st from 24th place
thanks to a pay raise

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Staff and news service reports

Public school teachers in Hawaii earned less than the national average last year but moved up slightly in state-by-state rankings because of their recent pay raise, the nation's largest teachers union reported yesterday.

Hawaii teachers edged up to 21st place from 24th place in a ranking of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Education Association.

They earned an average of $42,615 during the 2001-02 school year, a 6.4 percent increase from $40,052 in the previous year.

"Certainly we're going in the right direction, and that's heartening," said Danielle Lum, spokeswoman for the Hawaii State Teachers Association. "We've got negotiations coming up now, and we're looking to continue this upward trend."

The report said the average salary of a public school teacher across the country for the 2001-02 school year was $44,499, with 36 states paying salaries below that level.

Lum said Hawaii's teacher shortage means that the state must keep raising salaries to attract and keep good teachers. "Treading water isn't enough anymore," she said. "We need to take good strides."

Teachers in California earned the most last year, an average salary of $53,870, and those in South Dakota the least with an average of $31,295, according to the NEA.

The group represents more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers and other education professionals.

Teacher salaries grew more slowly than the economy, with an expected increase of 2.7 percent for the school year, the group said. At the same time, enrollment in public schools rose by nearly 500,000, with the largest increases in Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

"These new numbers show that despite the vital importance of education for our future, schools around the country are just barely holding their own," said Reg Weaver, the NEA's president.

Enrollment in Hawaii rose slightly, 0.6 percent, to 184,546 students last year from 183,520 the previous year. The number of teachers, however, rose 1.8 percent to 11,196 from 11,000.