School spending is up. So why aren’t teacher salaries?
For example, from 2002 to 2022, per-pupil spending in the Los Angeles Unified School District rose 108%. That’s in real terms, after accounting for inflation.
But that money didn’t lead to higher pay. In fact, the average salary earned by district employees rose just 5%.
These trends are not unique to Los Angeles and are, in fact, playing out in most schools and districts across the country.
We set out to document the disconnect between rising school spending and stagnant salary levels.
Nationally, average teacher salaries have been remarkably flat for a very long time. In inflation-adjusted terms, they’ve been hovering around $70,000 for decades.