NJ Education Report

First NEA put out a press release claiming that “inflation over the past decade has outpaced teachers’ salaries in every state across the country.” Bloggers pounced on NEA’s data and arrived at a different conclusion; in fact, teacher salaries rose at a rate of 3.4% over the last ten years and faster than the rate of inflation in 36 states.

No problem. A new press release is out today qualifying the original claim. Inflation has outpaced teachers salaries in “many states,” as the average rose “only 3.4%.”

Here’s NEA’s full report, which lists NJ as one of the 6 states where salaries declined 5% of more. On the other hand, a report from less inflammatory and error-prone sister-union AFT reports that NJ teachers have the 3d highest salaries in the countries, closely following Connecticut and California.