What school districts in Austin, Texas pay teachers the highest? (Houston: vs, rating)

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by CarnivalGal

Teachers in Texas are among the lowest paid.

They are actually kind of 'middle of the pack'.

22. Texas

Median salary, school teachers: $56,536
Median salary, all workers: $36,170 (24th lowest)
Per pupil expenditure: $8,485 (4th lowest)
High school graduation rate: 89.0% (4th highest)
Cost of living: 3.2% less than nat'l avg. (24th highest)

NJ is around No. 7

7. New Jersey

Median salary, school teachers: $68,893
Median salary, all workers: $42,500 (7th highest)
Per pupil expenditure: $16,337 (6th highest)
High school graduation rate: 89.7% (2nd highest)
Cost of living: 13.4% greater than nat'l avg. (3rd highest)

[ScoPro]

Plus our teachers get to live in Texas.

[karpo1]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

They are actually kind of 'middle of the pack'.

NJ is around No. 7

Double investment per pupil does not seem to help on graduation rate in NJ compared to TX.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by karpo1

Double investment per pupil does not seem to help on graduation rate in NJ compared to TX.

It is an interesting issue, to be sure; one one hand, you have to wonder if the graduation 'requirements' are more or less stringent on from one place to another. I honestly don't know. On the other hand, it does seem to imply that 'throwing money at it' does not fix the problem.

One of my pet-peeves with rankings of state schools is that most have a $/student number in their metrics. If you have a higher $/student number, it moves you up; if you have a low $/student number, it moves you down. In the rankings that have Texas very low, the importance of that metric is weighed heavily. In the rankings that have Texas in the top third to middle, that number is not used or is not heavily weighted. That bugs me. If you spend lots more money but get the same 'results', then you are doing a better job of educating the kids? Blah.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

It is an interesting issue, to be sure; one one hand, you have to wonder if the graduation 'requirements' are more or less stringent on from one place to another. I honestly don't know. On the other hand, it does seem to imply that 'throwing money at it' does not fix the problem.

One of my pet-peeves with rankings of state schools is that most have a $/student number in their metrics. If you have a higher $/student number, it moves you up; if you have a low $/student number, it moves you down. In the rankings that have Texas very low, the importance of that metric is weighed heavily. In the rankings that have Texas in the top third to middle, that number is not used or is not heavily weighted. That bugs me. If you spend lots more money but get the same 'results', then you are doing a better job of educating the kids? Blah.

Texas also has way more kids then New Jersey.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Texas also has way more kids then New Jersey.

But it is on a 'per student' basis, although I suppose there is some economy of scale (although maybe not, as we fund on a district basis, generally).

Out of curiosity, I tried to find some numbers:
- 5.4MM public school students in Texas (2017) across 1031 districts.
- 317k private school students
- 146k home-school students

- 1.4 MM public school students in NJ (2017) across 691 districts
- 224k private school students
- 50k home-school students

NJ has ~2.7X the percentage of kids in private schools (5.9% in TX vs 16% in NJ) and actually 1/3 more (percentage-wise) that are home-schooled (2.7% vs 3.6%).

NJ has 'school districts' (590) and 'operating districts' (691), and I am not sure exactly what the difference is. However you do the math, though, TX school districts are, on average, well over 2X as large (student-wise). The largest in NJ appears to be Newark at 38k, followed by Jersey City at 28k. In Texas, the largest are Houston and Dallas at 216k and 159k, respectively.

Not sure what any of that means, if anything .

[Mimmyu]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

You can find all the pay schedules on line. Eanes would likely be one of the highest in the area, with 14 years experience, the pay is $52,725. It maxes out at $66K with 36 years of experience. With just 4 years of experience, you would start in Eanes (highly desirable and affluent district) at $47, 525. You can add $2K for a master's degree.

Lake Travis and Leander are higher

Austin starts out higher, but the scale slows down compared to the rest.

[mhudson78641]

Also keep in mind AISD takes out for social security and TRS and Leander only takes out TRS.

[Snowpacked]

The low pay in Texas is one thing to overcome. It is the disrespect and contradiction in guidance that would drive me crazy. Especially since the GOP speaks about individualism then forces the "teach to the test" concept. That would be a horrible way to spend most of my working years.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by mhudson78641

Also keep in mind AISD takes out for social security and TRS and Leander only takes out TRS.

This is super important to remember.