The nine-day teacher strike in West Virginia may soon be followed by walk-outs in Oklahoma and Arizona over low wages and potential increases in the cost of benefits.
We shouldn’t be surprised. For more than 20 years, teacher salaries have not even been keeping up with the cost of inflation.
West Virginia, which has become a national flashpoint, makes for a good case study, and one available in my recent report for EdChoice, “Back to the Staffing Surge.” Like virtually all states, West Virginia has significantly increased its public school expenditures in recent decades. Using publicly available data, since 1992, and adjusting for inflation, West Virginia public schools have increased spending by 39 percent per student to $12,512 per student by 2014, while average teacher salaries fell by 3 percent during that time period.
So while school districts had cash to spend, teachers were seeing money actually leave their wallets. So where did that additional money go?
Like public schools in virtually all states, West Virginia public schools increased its staffing of non-teachers far in excess of what was needed to accommodate changes in enrollment, which fell by 12 percent between 1992 and 2015. Despite the decline in student population, West Virginia public schools increased employment of non-teaching staff by 10 percent during this 23-year period, from 17,533 to 20,029—an increase of almost 2,500 personnel as the West Virginia public schools saw their student population decline by almost 40,000 students. These increases include new assistant principals, district officials, curriculum specialists and teacher aides.
Succinctly put, taxpayers spent a lot more per student, but teachers did not get a raise relative to the cost of living. Instead, schools hired more non-teachers—while student enrollment was falling. As of 2015, West Virginia public schools had significantly more staffing—of both teachers and non-teachers—relative to the national average. – READ MORE
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