The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and other major media outlets in Missouri, continually claim that Missouri teachers are, on average, the lowest-paid in America. That claim is false. As the data clearly show in the National Education Association’s report, which the Post-Dispatch cites for its claim, Missouri ranks 50th. That’s 50 out of 51 because Washington, D.C. is included. Montana ranks lower than Missouri.
You may ask, “So what? Isn’t this just splitting hairs?”
Undoubtedly, being second to last is hardly better than being dead last. But this correction is not simply about making Missouri teacher salaries look marginally better. It is about calling for clarity when it comes to this important policy discussion.
Right now, the Missouri Legislature is debating measures that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to increase teacher pay. To date, no lawmaker has been provided accurate information regarding Missouri teacher pay. That’s the problem.
Take, for example, this NEA report in which Missouri ranks 50th. The figures from this report are being described as the average starting “teacher” salary. But the numbers are actually the average starting “district” salary.
“So what?”
But this distinction matters! Each year, Missouri hires thousands of new teachers. An actual calculation of the average starting teacher salary would use the data from each of these teachers. A district that pays well and hires a bunch of teachers would pull the average up.
The NEA report calculates the average starting salary of Missouri’s more than 500 districts. It counts small, low-paying school districts the same as it counts large, higher-paying school districts.
If the Middle Grove School District, which according to the Missouri State Teachers Association is the only district to start teachers at the state minimum of $25,000 and has just 35 students, were to hire one teacher, and the Parkway School District, with more than 17,000 students, were to hire 20 teachers at the starting salary of $44,250, the NEA report would count each district once and say the average starting salary was just $34,625. In reality, the average of those 21 new teachers would be $43,333. This is a difference of more than $8,700.
If you haven’t noticed, Missouri has a lot of school districts Our state has more than 550 school districts, which ranks 11th in terms of total number of districts. Meanwhile, Missouri is 21st in the number of students. Florida, which has about two million more students, has just 75 school districts. All of these figures come directly from NEA reports. Taken together, these facts mean the NEA calculation of district averages leads to lower averages and lower rankings for Missouri teacher pay.
The NEA reports Missouri’s starting salary as $33,234. But what is Missouri’s actual average starting teacher salary?
According to data I have obtained from DESE, the average regular term salary for a first-year teacher in Missouri was $38,367.33 in 2022. This figure was provided directly by DESE after my request. The increase of more than $5,000 would move Missouri up to 37th on the NEA report.
While we’re at it, I’d like to note some other relevant data. Missouri ranks 43rd in average salaries for instructional staff. Meanwhile, Missouri ranks 48th in student-to-teacher ratio, with 11.3 students per teacher. In comparison, Illinois’s ratio is 14.3 to 1, ranking the state 28th. In 2021, revenues for Missouri’s public schools were $15,809 per student, which is 31st overall nationwide. These data suggest that part of the reason Missouri’s teacher salaries are relatively low is due to staffing choices made by school districts themselves.
Missourians deserve an honest discussion about Missouri’s teacher salaries. For that, we must have all the facts.
