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Jassmin Smith

Teacher Pay & Per Student Spending

Rankings & Estimates
NEA’s Rankings and Estimates report provides a wide array of public K-12 education statistics and includes the average teacher salary by state and nationally.

Key Takeaways

  1. Even with record-level increases in some states, average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation over the past decade.
  2. Adjusted for inflation, on average, teachers are making 5% less than they did 10 years ago.
  3. The largest one-year increases were in New Mexico (17.2%), Mississippi (11.4%), and Alabama (8.2%).

$69,597

National Average Teacher Salary

4.2%

increase from the previous year

Ranking & Estimates

NEA Research collects, maintains, and analyzes data on issues and trends affecting the nation’s public education systems, their employees, and students.

This report, Rankings of the States 2023 and Estimates of School Statistics 2024, contains data primarily based on information from state departments of education.

Highlights

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1
Enrollment and Attendance
  • In fall 2022, U.S. public schools enrolled 49, 033, 092 students, an increase of 0.3 percent from fall 2021.
  • The largest increases occurred in Arizona (3.5%), the District of Columbia (2.4%), and Texas (1.7%). The greatest declines were in Hawaii (−1.7%), Illinois (−0.8%), and Rhode Island (−0.8%).
  • The number of students in average daily attendance (ADA) increased by less than 0.1 percent nationwide, from 45, 603, 712 in 2021-22 to 45, 634, 724 in 2022-23.
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Classroom Teachers
  • U.S. public schools employed 3,217,744 teachers in 2022-23. Texas (371,802), California (292,378), and New York (215,761) employed the most teachers, while Alaska (7,030), Wyoming (7,277), and Vermont (7,924) employed the fewest.
  • The average number of students enrolled per teacher decreased 0.7 percent from 15.3 in 2021-22 to 15.2 in 2022-23.
  • States with the highest number of students enrolled per teacher in fall 2022 were Nevada (25.4), Arizona (22.9), and Utah (22.2).
  • States with the lowest student-teacher ratios in fall 2022 were Vermont (10.6), New Hampshire (10.7), and New York (11.1).
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Teacher Salary
  • The national average public school teacher salary for 2022-23 was $69,597. State average teacher salaries ranged from those in California ($95,160), New York ($92,696), and Massachusetts ($92,307) at the high end to West Virginia ($52,870), Florida ($53,098), South Dakota ($53,153) at the low end.
  • The national average one-year change in public school teacher salaries from 2021-22 to 2022-23 was 4.2 percent. The largest one-year increases were in New Mexico (17.2%), Mississippi (11.4%), and Alabama (8.2%).
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School Revenue
  • Federal funding continued to comprise a historically high share of school revenues due to the influx of federal COVID relief funds, accounting for 13.2 percent of total revenue receipts in 2022-23. Shares of state and local funding in 2022-23 remained at similar levels as the previous year, at 44.5 percent and 42.3 percent, respectively.
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Expenditures per Student
  • The national average per-student expenditure in 2022-23 based on fall enrollment was $16, 281, a gain of 3.0 percent from $15, 808 in 2021-22.
  • The following states had the highest per-student expenditures: New York ($30, 867), the District of Columbia ($26, 766), and Vermont ($26, 749).
  • Idaho ($9, 599), Utah ($10, 282), and Oklahoma ($11, 089) had the lowest per-student expenditures.
teacher pay penalty

Gains in Teacher Pay May Not be Enough to Ease Shortages

Despite record-level salary increases in some states, average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation.

Key Charts

Section with embed

AVERAGE TEACHER SALARY DATA

State Salary 2021-22 Rank 2021-22 Salary 2022-23 Rank 2022-23 2021-22 to 2022-23 Percent Change 2021-22 to 2022-23 Change Rank
Alabama $55,882 34 $60,441 31 8.2% 3
Alaska $74,167 10 $76,371 10 3.0% 34
Arizona $56,775 32 $60,275 32 6.2% 8
Arkansas $52,610 45 $54,309 45 3.2% 25
California $88,508 3 $95,160 1 7.5% 4
Colorado $60,168 25 $63,224 24 5.1% 11
Connecticut $81,185 6 $83,400 6 2.7% 42
Delaware $66,918 16 $68,787 16 2.8% 40
District of Columbia $82,523 4 $84,882 5 2.9% 38
Florida $51,532 48 $53,098 50 3.0% 33
Georgia $62,240 21 $64,461 20 3.6% 20
Hawaii $67,000 15 $70,947 14 5.9% 9
Idaho $54,232 42 $56,365 40 3.9% 17
Illinois $72,315 12 $73,916 12 2.2% 46
Indiana $54,625 39 $57,015 36 4.4% 15
Iowa $59,581 27 $61,231 29 2.8% 41
Kansas $55,250 35 $56,481 39 2.2% 45
Kentucky $54,574 40 $56,296 41 3.2% 28
Louisiana $52,589 46 $54,248 46 3.2% 29
Maine $57,929 29 $59,964 33 3.5% 22
Maryland $75,766 9 $79,420 8 4.8% 14
Massachusetts $89,538 2 $92,307 3 3.1% 31
Michigan $64,884 17 $67,011 17 3.3% 24
Minnesota $67,600 14 $70,005 15 3.6% 21
Mississippi $47,902 51 $53,354 48 11.4% 2
Missouri $52,481 47 $53,999 47 2.9% 37
Montana $53,628 43 $55,909 42 4.3% 16
Nebraska $57,420 31 $58,763 34 2.3% 44
Nevada $57,804 30 $61,719 28 6.8% 5
New Hampshire $62,783 20 $64,169 21 2.2% 47
New Jersey $78,387 7 $81,102 7 3.5% 23
New Mexico $54,272 41 $63,580 22 17.2% 1
New York $91,097 1 $92,696 2 1.8% 49
North Carolina $54,863 36 $56,559 38 3.1% 32
North Dakota $56,364 33 $56,792 37 0.8% 51
Ohio $64,353 18 $66,390 19 3.2% 27
Oklahoma $54,804 38 $55,505 43 1.3% 50
Oregon $70,402 13 $72,476 13 3.0% 36
Pennsylvania $73,072 11 $74,945 11 2.6% 43
Rhode Island $76,852 8 $79,289 9 3.2% 26
South Carolina $54,814 37 $57,778 35 5.4% 10
South Dakota $50,592 49 $53,153 49 5.1% 13
Tennessee $53,285 44 $55,369 44 3.9% 18
Texas $58,887 28 $60,716 30 3.1% 30
Utah $59,671 26 $63,481 23 6.4% 7
Vermont $64,162 19 $66,536 18 3.7% 19
Virginia $61,367 22 $63,103 25 2.8% 39
Washington $81,510 5 $86,804 4 6.5% 6
West Virginia $50,315 50 $52,870 51 5.0% 12
Wisconsin $60,724 24 $62,524 26 3.0% 35
Wyoming $60,819 23 $61,979 27 1.9% 48
United States $66,813 - $69,597 - 4.2% -
Note: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Montana, and Rhode Island salary averages are estimated. National averages are weighted by the number of teachers in each state. Source: NEA Rankings & Estimates, September 2024
Elizabeth Horvat
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Starting Teacher Salaries

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Jassmin Smith

Teacher Pay & Per Student Spending

NEA’s Rankings and Estimates report provides a wide array of public K-12 education statistics and includes the average teacher salary by state and nationally.
Download the Report (pdf)
National Education Association

Great public schools for every student

The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.