Photo of a teacher in a classroom. North Carolina sits 49 when it comes to a 10-year change in teacher salaries.
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Alyssa Gamble is completely happy with the school where her 5-year-old daughter Abby goes to kindergarten, but she’s anxious about other schools after hearing about a report by the personal finance website Wallethub.
The report ranks the best and worst states for teachers, based on things like average starting salary, median salary, and spending per student.
Leigh said that in order for the state to improve their rankings, they must make themselves more competitive compared to states like South Carolina and Virginia. “This information, coupled with being just average in categories such as pupil-to-student ratios makes the state, according to the study, a particularly bad state to teach in”.
Maness added that lawmakers are looking at raising starting pay and ending pay.
“It gets no better than the children”, said Emily Klinedinst, a Pitt County teacher.
See where other states rank in the map below. Virginia ranked second overall and second for job opportunity and competition rank.
Only North Carolina and Virginia fared worse than Arizona and isn’t that a story the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry can tout as it seeks to lure quality employers to our state.
Its overall ranking was 34 out of 51 states and the District of Columbia.
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“While that’s a lot of students, nearly the largest in the country in terms of this ratio, at the same time teachers in Arizona are making one of the worst compensations”, she said. Georgia ranks 37th overall, and Massachusetts ranks 1st.
