Average New York Teachers Makes $76,000 — Media Ignores to Exaggerate ‘Attacks'

In a recent New Yorker feature titled “Stop Humiliating Teachers,” author David Denby wrote: “We have been in such a panic for more than a decade, during which time the attacks on public-school teachers have been particularly virulent. They are lazy, mediocre, tenaciously clinging to tenure in order to receive their lavish pay of thirty-six thousand dollars a year (that’s the national-average starting salary, according to the National Education Association).”

ForTheRecord says: This paints a false picture of teacher compensation.

The New Yorker story attempts to make its point by posting a figure for starting pay only, which creates an inaccurate impression. While the author sneers at paying inexperienced new hires $36,000 (“lavish pay”), he fails to disclose that the average salary for a New York public schoolteacher is more than twice that amount: $76,409 as of the 2013-14 school year.

In Michigan, the average teacher was paid $61,979 a year in 2014-15 according to the Michigan Department of Education.