VA pays teachers more than national average, with mixed results

by Kathryn Watson
Watchdog.org
September 16, 2013

Gov. Bob McDonnell said Virginia’s teachers are underpaid in December when he announced his educational agenda for the 2013 General Assembly session.

Are they really?

The Virginia Department of Education said public classroom teachers earned $52,096 in the 2011-2012 school year, claiming that was less than the national average.

But new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Virginia’s non-special education elementary and middle school teachers earn about $2,000 more than the national average — well over $58,000, compared with more than $56,000 nationally in May 2012. Of course, there is some disparity within Virginia. The average elementary school teacher in the northern Virginia area makes nearly $68,000, while the same teacher in southwest Virginia makes just over $40,000.

“Virginia teachers produce some of the best results in the nation,” said Meg Gruber, president of the Virginia Education Association, in a statement. “To recruit and retain the best possible teachers, Virginia needs to pay them fairly.”

Of course, those results depend on whom you ask.

Education Week, which grades states largely on resources invested rather than results, gave Virginia fourth place in its national report card this year.

The State of Education’s 2013 Policy Report Card by the organization StudentsFirst, however, ranked the Old Dominion at 38— nothing to brag about. And Virginia consistently gets ‘F’s from the Center for Education Reform for its lack of charter schools.

— Kathryn Watson is an investigative reporter for Watchdog.org’s Virginia Bureau, and can be reached at katie@watchdogvirginia.org.