Flashpoint

From the Cato Institute (Kudos to Rob):

There’s a common perception in this country that public schools are underfunded, and that if they could only spend as much as private schools do, they’d be in clover. When it is pointed out that the average private school tuition is around half of total public school spending per pupil, defenders of the status quo counter that tuition only covers a fraction of total costs.

So wouldn’t it be interesting to know how much private schools actually spend, in total, per pupil? Well now we do, at least for the state of Arizona.

…

Teachers make up 72 percent of on-site staff in Arizona’s independent education sector, but less than half of on-site staff in the public sector. In order to match the independent sector’s emphasis on teachers over non-teaching staff, Arizona public schools would have to hire roughly 25,000 more teachers and dismiss 21,210 non-teaching employees.

When teachers’ 9-month salaries are annualized to make them comparable to the 12-month salaries of most other fields, Arizona independent school teachers earned the equivalent of $36,456 in 2004 — about $2,000 less than reporters and correspondents. The 12-month-equivalent salary of the state’s public school teachers was around $60,000, which is more than nuclear technicians, epidemiologists, detectives, and broadcast news analysts. It’s also about 50 percent more than reporters or private school teachers earn.

I wonder what effect these numbers will have on the flood of education stories about how desperately underpaid public school teachers are… given that those teachers are earning the equivalent of 50 percent more than the journalists who cover them.

Full study.

Not convinced?  Try this column from John Stossell.

Just rhetoric and spin you say?  Here are real numbers on teacher pay in Alabama.  It’s a relatively old report (circa ~2000).

Teacher compensation is the largest and most important component of public school expenditures. Like other southeastern states, Alabama in the past has paid teacher salaries that were well below the national average. This low-salary policy began to change in recent years, however, with teachers receiving substantial raises in 1994-95 (8.5%), 1996-97 (4%), and 1998-99 (8.5%). Since 1994, the average teacher salary in Alabama has risen by more than $7,000, or 25 percent, climbing from 41^st to 29^th in the state rankings compiled by the National Education Association (NEA). Consideration is now being given to a policy of paying Alabama’s teachers at the national average salary.

The report went on to say that the average teacher salary compared to per capita personal income placed Alabama at 8th in the nation.  In other words, our teachers are some of the best paid in the nation.