Gap cited in salaries among Nevada teachers

Friday, Nov. 22, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- The average teacher's salary in Nevada is above the national average, according to a survey released Thursday, but the president of Clark County's teachers' union said this morning it takes them 10 years plus a master's degree to reach that pay level.

A survey by the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, ranked Nevada 15th with an average salary of $44,738 for the 2001-02 academic year. The national average was $44,499.

A master's degree plus 10 years' experience will earn a teacher $43,000 a year, said Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, representing most of the district's 14,000 teachers. A teacher who goes on to earn 15 additional hours of academic credits will earn $45,000, Holloway said.

"We have teachers whose children qualify for the free and reduced lunch program in the schools," Holloway said.

Additionally, Clark County School District officials said they struggle to recruit the more than 1,500 new teachers needed each year because the starting salary -- $27,384 -- is so low, district officials said.

At the same time, the turnover rate for Clark County's teachers spikes at the 3-year point, Holloway said.

"Not many of us make it to 10 years," Holloway said.

Public school teachers in California earned the most last year and those in South Dakota the least, according to report released Thursday.

Overall, increases in education revenues and teacher salaries lagged behind rates set last year, while school enrollments increased, according to the National Education Association. The group represents more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers and other education professionals.

Revenues for education are expected to increase by 4.3 percent this year, the NEA said.

Teacher salaries grew more slowly than the economy, with an expected increase of 2.7 percent for the school year, the group said. At the same time, enrollment in public schools rose by nearly 500,000, with the largest increases in Nevada, Arizona, and Florida.

"These new numbers show that despite the vital importance of education for our future, schools around the country are just barely holding their own," said Reg Weaver, the NEA's president.

The report said that the average salary of a public school teacher for the 2001-2002 school year was $44,499, with 36 states paying salaries below that level.

California teacher salaries averaged $53,870, followed by Connecticut and New York. Teachers in South Dakota were paid $31,295, with North Dakota and Mississippi rounding out the bottom three.

The report said there are 2,968,904 million public school teachers and they teach more than 47.6 million students.