Teacher Salary Report Does Not Reflect Reality
Typical Wisconsin teacher salaries rose between 2.1% and 2.8% per year
over the last two years, a far cry from the 7.6% two-year increase reported
in a new study, WEAC President Terry Craney said.
In a letter to major daily newspaper editors throughout the state, Craney
pointed out that independent research confirms WEAC statistics.
- Just last week, Education Week magazine's annual "Quality Counts"
report stated that from 1996 to 1997, the average teacher salary in
Wisconsin fell by $175 when adjusted for the cost of living.
- The Department of Public Instruction figures show that the average
teacher salary in Wisconsin rose 4.5% over the last two years (an average
of 2.25% per year).
Craney said he has been getting calls from perplexed and angry teachers
wondering how the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance could claim teachers have
received 7.6% increases when their paychecks prove otherwise.
"The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance is a respected organization. But
there are a lot of ways to collect, analyze and report numbers,"
Craney wrote. "For example, WTA researchers told us their study excluded
part-time teachers, excluded the state's smallest school districts, and
excluded teachers who were not employed in the same position three years
in a row. These filters excluded more than 10,000 teachers from the analysis.
Such methodologies can significantly skew the figures.
"In this case, the result is a report that simply does not accurately
reflect what is really happening."
Craney said he is in contact daily with teachers, many of whom have been
receiving pay increases of 1.5% or less since the Qualified
Economic Offer law was passed in 1993.
"Believe me, we wish Wisconsin teachers were receiving pay increases
of 7.6% over the last two years," he wrote. "We believe they
deserve that - and much more - for the outstanding job they are doing,
as reflected in the consistently high achievement scores of Wisconsin
students.
"But the unfortunate reality is that Wisconsin teachers are not
seeing anything like that in their paychecks. In fact - because of the
severe salary limits resulting from the Qualified Economic Offer law,
many Wisconsin teachers are losing ground every year to the cost of living."
Posted January 12, 1999