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