Teacher Pay & Per Student Spending

Key Takeaways

Even with record-level increases in some states, average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation over the past decade.
Adjusted for inflation, on average, teachers are making 5% less than they did 10 years ago.
The largest one-year increases were in New Mexico (17.2%), Mississippi (11.4%), and Alabama (8.2%).

$69,544

National Average Teacher Salary

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4.1%

increase from the previous year

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Ranking & Estimates

NEA Research collects, maintains, and analyzes data on issues and trends affecting the nation’s public education systems, their employees, and students.

This report, Rankings of the States 2023 and Estimates of School Statistics 2024, contains data primarily based on information from state departments of education.

Highlights

Enrollment and Attendance

In fall 2022, U.S. public schools enrolled 49, 033, 092 students, an increase of 0.3 percent from fall 2021.
The largest increases occurred in Arizona (3.5%), the District of Columbia (2.4%), and Texas (1.7%). The greatest declines were in Hawaii (−1.7%), Illinois (−0.8%), and Rhode Island (−0.8%).
The number of students in average daily attendance (ADA) increased by less than 0.1 percent nationwide, from 45, 603, 712 in 2021-22 to 45, 634, 724 in 2022-23.

Classroom Teachers

U.S. public schools employed 3, 222, 170 teachers in 2022-23. Texas (371, 802), California (292, 378), and New York (215, 761) employed the most teachers, while Alaska (7, 030), Wyoming (7, 277), and the District of Columbia (8, 052) employed the fewest.
The average number of students enrolled per teacher decreased 0.8 percent from 15.3 in 2021-22 to 15.2 in 2022-23. States with the highest number of students enrolled per teacher in fall 2022 were Nevada (25.4), Arizona (22.9), and Utah (22.2).
States with the lowest student-teacher ratios in fall 2022 were Vermont (10.6), New Hampshire (10.7), and New York (11.1).

Teacher Salary

The national average public school teacher salary for 2022-23 was $69,544. State average teacher salaries ranged from those in California ($95, 160), New York ($92, 696), and Massachusetts ($92, 307) at the high end to West Virginia ($52, 870), Florida ($53, 098), South Dakota ($53, 153) at the low end.
The national average one-year change in public school teacher salaries from 2021-22 to 2022-23 was 4.1 percent. The largest one-year increases were in New Mexico (17.2%), Mississippi (11.4%), and Alabama (8.2%).

School Revenue

Federal funding continued to comprise a historically high share of school revenues due to the influx of federal COVID relief funds, accounting for 13.2 percent of total revenue receipts in 2022-23. Shares of state and local funding in 2022-23 remained at similar levels as the previous year, at 44.5 percent and 42.3 percent, respectively.

Expenditures per Student

The national average per-student expenditure in 2022-23 based on fall enrollment was $16, 281, a gain of 3.0 percent from $15, 808 in 2021-22.
The following states had the highest per-student expenditures: New York ($30, 867), the District of Columbia ($26, 766), and Vermont ($26, 749).
Idaho ($9, 599), Utah ($10, 282), and Oklahoma ($11, 089) had the lowest per-student expenditures.

Key Charts

Filter by State:

State	Salary 2021-22	Rank 2021-22	Salary 2022-23	Rank 2022-23	2021-22 to 2022-23 Percent Change	2021-22 to 2022-23 Change Rank
Alabama	$55,882	34	$60,441	31	8.2%	3
Alaska	$74,167	10	$76,371	10	3.0%	33
Arizona	$56,775	32	$60,275	32	6.2%	8
Arkansas	$52,610	45	$54,309	45	3.2%	24
California	$88,508	3	$95,160	1	7.5%	4
Colorado	$60,130	25	$60,775	29	1.1%	50
Connecticut	$81,185	6	$83,400	6	2.7%	41
Delaware	$66,918	16	$68,787	16	2.8%	39
District of Columbia	$82,523	4	$84,882	5	2.9%	37
Florida	$51,532	48	$53,098	50	3.0%	32
Georgia	$62,240	21	$64,461	20	3.6%	19
Hawaii	$67,000	15	$70,947	14	5.9%	9
Idaho	$54,232	42	$56,365	40	3.9%	16
Illinois	$72,315	12	$73,916	12	2.2%	45
Indiana	$54,625	39	$57,015	36	4.4%	14
Iowa	$59,581	27	$61,231	28	2.8%	40
Kansas	$55,250	35	$56,481	39	2.2%	44
Kentucky	$54,574	40	$56,296	41	3.2%	27
Louisiana	$52,589	46	$54,248	46	3.2%	28
Maine	$57,929	29	$59,964	33	3.5%	21
Maryland	$75,766	9	$79,420	8	4.8%	13
Massachusetts	$89,538	2	$92,307	3	3.1%	30
Michigan	$64,884	17	$67,011	17	3.3%	23
Minnesota	$67,600	14	$70,005	15	3.6%	20
Mississippi	$47,902	51	$53,354	48	11.4%	2
Missouri	$52,481	47	$53,999	47	2.9%	36
Montana	$53,628	43	$55,909	42	4.3%	15
Nebraska	$57,420	31	$58,763	34	2.3%	43
Nevada	$57,804	30	$61,719	27	6.8%	5
New Hampshire	$62,783	20	$64,169	21	2.2%	46
New Jersey	$78,387	7	$81,102	7	3.5%	22
New Mexico	$54,272	41	$63,580	22	17.2%	1
New York	$91,097	1	$92,696	2	1.8%	48
North Carolina	$54,863	36	$56,559	38	3.1%	31
North Dakota	$56,364	33	$56,792	37	0.8%	51
Ohio	$64,353	18	$66,390	19	3.2%	26
Oklahoma	$54,804	38	$55,505	43	1.3%	49
Oregon	$70,402	13	$72,476	13	3.0%	35
Pennsylvania	$73,072	11	$74,945	11	2.6%	42
Rhode Island	$76,852	8	$79,289	9	3.2%	25
South Carolina	$54,814	37	$57,778	35	5.4%	10
South Dakota	$50,592	49	$53,153	49	5.1%	12
Tennessee	$53,285	44	$55,369	44	3.9%	17
Texas	$58,887	28	$60,716	30	3.1%	29
Utah	$59,671	26	$63,481	23	6.4%	7
Vermont	$64,162	19	$66,536	18	3.7%	18
Virginia	$61,367	22	$63,103	24	2.8%	38
Washington	$81,510	5	$86,804	4	6.5%	6
West Virginia	$50,315	50	$52,870	51	5.1%	11
Wisconsin	$60,724	24	$62,524	25	3.0%	34
Wyoming	$60,819	23	$61,979	26	1.9%	47
United States	$66,805	-	$69,544	-	4.1%	-