Title: Opinion | The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries - The New York Times
Headings: The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries
Opinion
Op-Ed Contributor
The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

Content: This will take some doing. At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible. So how do teachers cope? Sixty-two percent work outside the classroom to make ends meet. For Erik Benner, an award-winning history teacher in Keller, Tex.,