HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania State Education Association released a report, “Fundamental Facts: Pennsylvania Public Education,” on Tuesday, Aug. 20, highlighting data on Pennsylvania’s public school system, teacher salaries and school funding.
“This report provides up-to-date facts and information about Pennsylvania’s public schools to help stakeholders better understand the challenges and opportunities we face,” said Aaron Chapin, PSEA president, in a statement. “As Pennsylvania’s 1.7 million students head back to school, we hope this report will be a resource to everyone who cares about Pennsylvania’s public school system and wants our schools to be the best they can be.”
The report found that the average teacher salary was 16.5% lower in the 2022-23 academic school year than the inflation-adjusted average salary in 1995-96. In the 2022-23 academic school year, on average teachers made $74,945, $14,798 less than the $89,743 inflation-adjusted 1995-96 salary. It also noted that the average starting educator salary in 2023-24 was $50,043, 12.5% less than the $57,191 inflation-adjusted starting salary in 1995-96.
“Pennsylvania schools are strong because of the quality of our educators and support staff,” Chapin said. “If we want to attract and retain them, salaries and wages need to reflect the value of our members’ work.”
Additionally, the report found that “the (state’s) basic education subsidy was 37.3% of total school district expenditures in 2022-23, a significant improvement from a historic low of 30.4% in 2020-21. At its peak in 1973-74, the share was 55%,” a statement from PSEA explained.
“In the FY 2024-25 budget, Gov. Shapiro and the Legislature approved a historic increase in K-12 public education funding and delivered more than a billion new state dollars for Pennsylvania’s public schools,” Chapin said. “Even more importantly, they took a significant step toward fixing our broken public school funding system.
“It is critically important that we continue to make these investments to close adequacy gaps and ensure that every child can succeed, regardless of their ZIP codes.”
The estimated state basic education subsidy for all school districts was $7.87 billion in 2023-24.
According to the study, Pennsylvania public schools rank among some of the best in the United States. Test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2022 National Report Card showed that only one state ranked higher than Pennsylvania in fourth grade math scores and three ranked higher in fourth grade reading scores. Pennsylvania ranked eighth for reading scores among eighth graders and 13th for math scores.
Within Pennsylvania, the report also revealed that roughly six out of 10 high school graduates had planned to pursue further education. The state ranks 14th for percentage of full-time college students who complete a bachelor’s degree program.
To read more results of the study, visit psea.org/fundamentalfacts.
