CMNEA president says teacher salary comparisons sometimes useful
Monday, February 16, 2015 at 2:00 pm Columbia Daily Tribune
Teachers’ salaries in Columbia Public Schools lag behind those in other Missouri school districts with similar enrollment sizes but are ahead of the state average, according to data from the Missouri State Teachers Association and the district.
A salary comparison among districts of similar size is part of the annual Missouri Salary Schedule and Benefits Report from the state association, and a comparison to the state average is included in the CPS annual audit.
“Across the board, minimum salaries for Missouri teachers with a bachelor’s degree increased by a disappointing 1.45 percent this year, down slightly from the equally paltry 1.46 percent last year,” MSTA Executive Director Bruce Moe said in a release accompanying the report.
MSTA is a not-for-profit professional association for Missouri teachers.
A yearly audit report from CPS shows the district’s minimum teacher salary is $34,353, unchanged since 2008. The maximum teacher salary is $66,848, the report notes. The average salary is $46,918, slightly above the state average of $46,754.
The MSTA report ranks teachers’ salaries based on enrollment, comparing districts with enrollments greater than 15,000. The estimated enrollment in Columbia Public Schools is 17,256. Among districts with more than 15,000 students, the average minimum salary is $37,855 and the average maximum salary is $68,086; both numbers are higher than their CPS counterparts.
The MSTA report also includes a compression ratio, which is computed by dividing a district’s salary schedule maximum by the minimum. The CPS compression ratio is 1.95.
The Warrensburg School District boasts a 2.15 compression ratio, the highest ratio in the state’s central region. The minimum salary for Warrensburg teachers is $33,500, and the maximum is $71,932. The lowest compression ratio in the central region the Prairie Home School District’s 1.4 ratio, with a minimum salary of $27,500 and a maximum of $38,500.
The report did not include a state average.
The Columbia Missouri National Education Association is seeking a 5 percent increase in the minimum salary, which would boost it to $36,071. The association is also seeking a base salary increase from $30,514 to $32,040. CPS teachers in their first four years receive the minimum salary, and in subsequent years a formula dependent on the base salary helps determine salaries.
Susan McClintic, CMNEA president, said the MSTA report and similar information from the Missouri National Education Association can be useful.
“It’s very helpful to us because it lets us know what’s going on in the rest of the state,” McClintic said. Because there is such a wide range of salaries and ways to compute salaries, she said the report can also be confusing.
“Every school district and every state does it differently,” she said of teachers’ salaries.
The report says districts with fewer than 700 students — usually in rural areas — have a more difficult time funding adequate teacher salaries.
McClintic said corrections to the state’s funding formula would benefit both teachers and students.
“The Missouri legislature doesn’t fund the foundation formula at 100 percent,” she said of the formula that determines state funding of school districts based on enrollment and other factors.
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