Teacher Pay & Per Student Spending

Key Takeaways

$66,745

National average public school teacher salary

Average public school teacher salary increase from the previous year.

Rankings & 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 2022 and Estimates of School Statistics 2023, contains data primarily based on information from state departments of education.

Key Findings

Enrollment and Attendance

In fall 2021, U.S. public schools enrolled 48, 867, 123 students, a decrease of less than 0.1% from fall 2020.
The largest increases occurred in Montana (2.5%), Vermont (1.9%), and South Carolina (1.9%). The greatest declines were in Hawaii (−1.9%), California (−1.8%), and New York (−1.5%).
The number of students in average daily attendance (ADA) increased by 0.6 percent nationwide, from 45,412,448 in 2020-21 to 45,664,289 in 2021-22.

Classroom Teachers

U.S. public schools employed 3, 192, 475 teachers in 2021-22. Texas (369, 762), California (270, 867), and New York (215, 092) employed the most teachers, while Alaska (7, 145), Wyoming (7, 203), and the District of Columbia (7, 829) employed the fewest.
The average number of students enrolled per teacher decreased 0.5 percent from 15.4 in 2020-21 to 15.3 in 2021-22. States with the highest number of students enrolled per teacher in fall 2021 were Nevada (22.9), Utah (22.6), and Arizona (22.4).
States with the lowest student-teacher ratios in fall 2021 were Vermont (10.2), New Hampshire (10.3), and North Dakota (11.0).

Teacher Salary

The national average public school teacher salary for 2021-22 was $66,745. State average teacher salaries ranged from those in New York ($91, 097), Massachusetts ($89, 538), and California ($88, 508) at the high end to Mississippi ($47, 902), West Virginia ($50, 315), and South Dakota ($50, 592) at the low end.
The national average one-year change in public school teacher salaries from 2020-21 to 2021-22 was 2.0 percent. Salaries declined in four states: Hawaii (−5.5%), Minnesota (−3.6%), New Mexico (−1.2%), and Nevada (−0.6%). The largest one-year increase was in Arizona (5.3%).

School Revenue

State funds constituted 46.2 percent of public school revenue in 2020-21 and 44.3 percent in 2021-22. Local funds’ share of K-12 education revenue declined from 44.2 percent in 2020-21 to 42.5 percent in 2021-22.
The influx of federal COVID relief funds resulted in an increase in the percentage of federal funding from 9.6 percent in 2020-21 to 13.2 percent in 2021-22.

Expenditures per Student

The national average per-student expenditure in 2021-22 based on fall enrollment was $15, 368, a gain of 5.9 percent from $14, 512 in 2020-21.
The following states had the highest per-student expenditures: New York ($28, 963), the District of Columbia ($26, 786), and Vermont ($25, 053).
Idaho ($9, 046), Utah ($9, 618), and Arizona ($10, 186) had the lowest per-student expenditures

Key Charts

Filter by State:

State	Salary 2020-21	Rank 2020-21	Salary 2021-22	Rank 2021-22	2020-21 to 2021-22 Percent Change	2020-21 to 2021-22 Change Rank
Alabama	$54,271	35	$55,834	33	2.9%	9
Alaska	$72,715	10	$74,167	10	2.0%	25
Arizona	$53,924	37	$56,775	32	5.3%	1
Arkansas	$51,668	46	$52,610	46	1.8%	26
California	$85,856	3	$88,508	3	3.1%	6
Colorado	$58,183	26	$60,130	25	3.4%	5
Connecticut	$79,742	5	$81,185	6	1.8%	27
Delaware	$65,141	16	$65,647	15	0.8%	42
District of Columbia	$80,659	4	$82,523	4	2.3%	20
Florida	$51,009	48	$51,230	48	0.4%	44
Georgia	$60,553	21	$62,240	21	2.8%	12
Hawaii	$70,922	12	$67,000	14	-5.5%	51
Idaho	$51,817	45	$54,232	42	4.7%	3
Illinois	$70,653	13	$72,315	12	2.4%	19
Indiana	$53,072	42	$54,596	39	2.9%	10
Iowa	$58,831	24	$59,581	27	1.3%	34
Kansas	$53,619	38	$54,988	35	2.6%	17
Kentucky	$54,139	36	$54,574	40	0.8%	40
Louisiana	$52,532	44	$54,097	43	3.0%	8
Maine	$57,167	30	$58,757	29	2.8%	13
Maryland	$74,006	9	$75,766	9	2.4%	18
Massachusetts	$87,108	2	$89,538	2	2.8%	11
Michigan	$64,262	17	$64,884	16	1.0%	38
Minnesota	$66,561	15	$64,184	18	-3.6%	50
Mississippi	$46,862	51	$47,902	51	2.2%	21
Missouri	$51,557	47	$52,481	47	1.8%	28
Montana	$53,133	41	$53,628	44	0.9%	39
Nebraska	$56,463	31	$57,420	31	1.7%	31
Nevada	$58,167	27	$57,804	30	-0.6%	48
New Hampshire	$61,849	20	$62,783	20	1.5%	33
New Jersey	$77,677	7	$79,045	7	1.8%	30
New Mexico	$54,923	32	$54,272	41	-1.2%	49
New York	$91,034	1	$91,097	1	0.1%	47
North Carolina	$53,458	39	$54,863	36	2.6%	16
North Dakota	$54,755	34	$55,666	34	1.7%	32
Ohio	$63,082	18	$64,353	17	2.0%	24
Oklahoma	$54,762	33	$54,804	38	0.1%	46
Oregon	$68,565	14	$70,402	13	2.7%	14
Pennsylvania	$71,787	11	$73,072	11	1.8%	29
Rhode Island	$75,966	8	$76,852	8	1.2%	36
South Carolina	$53,185	40	$54,814	37	3.1%	7
South Dakota	$49,547	50	$50,592	49	2.1%	23
Tennessee	$52,871	43	$53,285	45	0.8%	41
Texas	$57,641	28	$58,887	28	2.2%	22
Utah	$57,226	29	$59,671	26	4.3%	4
Vermont	$62,483	19	$62,866	19	0.6%	43
Virginia	$58,506	25	$61,367	22	4.9%	2
Washington	$79,388	6	$81,510	5	2.7%	15
West Virginia	$50,261	49	$50,315	50	0.1%	45
Wisconsin	$59,992	23	$60,724	24	1.2%	35
Wyoming	$60,234	22	$60,819	23	1.0%	37
United States	$65,456		$66,745		2.0%