Connecticut Teachers' Salaries

 

 

Third-Highest In Country

 

 

5:52 PM EDT,July 15, 2004
Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut's teachers earned an average of $53,962 last year, a salary that ranks them among the highest paid in the country and the highest in the Northeast region.

But to earn that paycheck, they have to stay on the job awhile.

According to the annual national salary survey from the American Federation of Teachers, the state ranks 28th in the nation when it comes to paying first-year teachers. They earned an average salary of $28,848 last year, below the national average of $29,564.

"If you're a young kid coming out of college, how do you rent an apartment, get a car and pay off $100,000 worth of student loans and live off that salary? You can't," said Sharon Palmer, president of the Connecticut AFT chapter, the second-largest teacher's union in the state.

State education officials have said they anticipate a need to hire about 19,000 new teachers in the next decade because of a wave of retirement of older teachers. But because states surrounding Connecticut pay their teachers more, union leaders say it will be difficult to lure beginning teachers to the state.

Starting teachers in New Jersey made $35,673 - the second highest in the nation - last year, the survey said. New York teachers earned $35,259, while in Massachusetts, beginning teachers earned an average of $33,168.

"You need to increase the salary because you have to make the profession attractive to bright, talented young people," said Thomas DeFranco, an associate dean at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. "That's an argument that seems very obvious, but that hasn't always been in place."

First-year teacher John Provencher, 23, said he was inspired to go into education because of a teacher who gave him a second chance when he was a student. He said he knew he wanted to teach no matter what the salary. But there have been sacrifices.

Car payments put a dent in his paycheck, and he's trying to save up for a place of his own in the town where he teaches.

"I want to move out, but I'm still living at home right now," said Provencher, who teaches history to sixth graders in West Hartford.

Kevin Maloney, spokesman for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said that in tight budget times, municipalities and unions may have worked out contract agreements that favored current union members rather than those who may join in the future.

"As municipal budgets have become tighter and state aid, especially education aid, hasn't kept up, there have been constraints in salary negotiations both on the school side and the municipal side," he said.

According to the report, Connecticut teachers on average earn more than their counterparts in surrounding states. New Jersey teachers came in fourth at $53,872; New York teachers were ranked sixth at $53,017; Rhode Island teachers were seventh at $52,879; and Massachusetts teachers were eighth at $51,972.

Figures compiled by the National Education Association differ slightly, said Rosemary Coyle, the president of the Connecticut Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the state.

In that survey, Connecticut teachers were ranked second-highest in total average salary for 2002-03, listed at $55,367. The union did not have figures available for first-year teacher salaries.

But the state has done poorly in adjusting its salary over the last decade to catch up with inflation, Coyle said.

"Teacher salaries really need to be competitive with other professions," Coyle said. "While Connecticut may appear near the top in average teacher salaries, you have to look at Connecticut and the cost of living."