So, just how much do Wisconsin teachers really make?

Wisconsin is still in the news as public unions continue to battle Governor Walker and other states are considering reducing union power.  Plenty of people voiced their opinions, emotions have run high (typical) and positions have been entrenched.  What has not been discussed or at least not reliably are actual facts.  Specifically, what are we talking about in terms of numbers.

Many have correctly pointed out that Governor Walker is now going purely after union power given the fact that Wisconsin teachers already agreed to benefit cuts in the form of increased contributions.  The question really should be phrased in the following manner:  How much exactly are they sacrificing and what have collective bargaining rights given Wisconsin teachers up to this point?

When discussing compensation, total compensation is the number that needs to be examined.  This includes both health insurance and retirement contributions.   

Let us look at the numbers.

To get the skinny, we go right to the source:  Wisconsin Department of  Public Instruction.

The department prepared a Statistical Information Center containing a decade worth of salary data.

I downloaded the 2010 average salary report that contains average salary and benefits for every single Wisconsin district.  All 426 of them.  The excel spreadsheet can be downloaded under the teachers section.

I then ran the average salary number and average fringe benefits numbers for all districts and got the following information:

Average 2010 Salary:  $49,093
Average 2010 Benefits: $25,750
Average 2010 Total Compensation: $74,843

These numbers do not include the shortened work year, vacations, early retirement and unions that protect poor performing teachers (tenure).  Business Insider does a fantastic job at exploring the pay and amount of work performed by Illinois teachers. 

The mean national income stands at: $43,460

Now I am sure that most will agree that teachers play a crucial role in our society because education is an important aspect of mobility and higher earning potential.  So it would not be too crazy to see teachers make more than mechanics, secretaries or janitors.  However because taxpayers are footing the bill for the teacher salaries we are obligated to examine what exactly Wisconsin gets for their money.

Turning to US News as a reliable ranking mechanism we find a list of the best high schools in America. 

Wisconsin is ranked 44th out of 47, with several states tied for 47. 

In terms of reading, according to the 'Nation's Report Card' only 34% of Wisconsin's 8th graders scored above a 'proficient' reading level (national number comes in at 30%).


When examining the reading scores in terms of proficiency, it is quite telling to see that the Wisconsin numbers have not changes since 1998!   For what it's worth using the same Wisconsin data total teacher compensation stood at:  Average 1998 Total Compensation: $51,308

So factoring in inflation, it seems that at least as far as reading is concerned and overall high-school ranking, Wisconsin is paying more and more for teachers, but getting just about the same.  If the union power was diminished and bad teachers could be removed, the scores would go up and it would be much more difficult to ask for pay concessions in the face of increasing results - as it stands though, the demands made by Walker are not only obvious, but should have happened years ago.

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