The 5 Best Paying States For Educators

 

Budget cuts in some areas are causing an education crisis. See which states are paying the most for good teachers.

 

The news is filled with reports of cities and states that are facing huge budget shortfalls and are in the midst of an education crisis. They are being forced to cut back on salaries, increasing class size and in some states, trying to get rid of unions that protect the rights of educators. With so many school districts being forced to make do with much, much less, you might think that teaching is a profession that is unstable and prone to layoffs.

 

Even though some states are being especially hard hit, there are still many jobs available in the education field. Of course, teaching has never been a lucrative career, some states are paying their educators much better than average. In fact, many states have found ways to recruit and keep the very best teachers. A recent article in Wall Street 24/7 ranked the 5 best paying states, take a look and see how these states are dealing with the tough economy:

 

Average salary: $72,708

Student/teacher ratio: 11.8/1

The New York school system is ranked highest for teacher pay, but it is still having some problems of its own. The New York City School system is being investigated for allegedly manipulating test scores. Across the state, fourth and eighth graders in the state are scoring below average in national and state science exams. There is also some debate about changing the state law to allow teacher layoffs to be determined by merit rather than tenure.

 

Massachusetts:

Average salary: $71,017

Student/Teacher ratio: 13.58/1

The Boston public schools are trying to cope with a $63 million budget shortage by cutting almost 250 positions. Even with the budget cuts, the state's math and reading scores are the best in the nation.

California:

Average salary: $69,434

Student/teacher ratio: 21/1

California might be in the top as far as teacher salary goes, but they have been laying off 20,000 teachers a year for the last three years. In addition, the test scores for math and reading are rated 46^th and 49^th respectively.

 

Average Salary: $66,985

Student/teacher ratio:11.8/1

 

There have been some loud and public debate between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the New Jersey Education Agency. Last year, the state cut more than $800 million from the education budget. This year, the Gov's new proposed budget plans to give $250 million back to the schools.

 

Connecticut

Average salary: $65,571

Student/teacher ratio: 13/1

Connecticut's newest proposed budget would keep the spending levels for primary and secondary schools the same, while cutting funding to colleges and universities. Some school districts are considering layoffs, but across the board, Connecticut's school are doing pretty good.

 

What do you think about the numbers from these states? Let me know in the comments.

 

 

If you liked this, take a look at the 5 Worst Paying States For Educators on this blogsite.

 

 

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for EducationJobSiteBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.