State Publishes Fuller Data on Teacher Wages
- Details
- Category: News
- Created on Monday, 11 December 2023 14:57
- Hits: 766
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
An article in the latest issue of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s magazine outlines the data behind shrinking teacher wages in Alaska.
Dunleavy administration staff stopped the publication of the article last month, which was slated to be the cover article. It was published in this month’s issue, but not as a cover article and with a different headline, after reporting from multiple news outlets and op-ed pieces from current and former Labor Department leaders who expressed their discontent with what they said was censorship and suppression of state data.
The new framing of the article is gentler: The headline went from “Teachers’ shrinking wage advantage” to “How teachers’ wages compare,” but little in the article itself changed at all.
The numbers bear out what teachers and education advocates have said for years: Alaska’s teacher wages have dropped and it is the only state in the country without a defined pension for teachers.
Between the 1980s and the 1990s, Alaska lost much of its competitive pay advantage, or pay premium, which has hovered closer to the average national pay since. New teachers now make less over the course of their careers — educators who started careers in fiscal year 2012 earned roughly $2,000 per year less than those who did 10 years before — and the state is losing teachers faster than it can hire them.
The report comes as Alaska school districts report problems hiring teachers. Earlier this year, Dunleavy vetoed half of a $175 million one-time boost to education funding that was approved by the Legislature.
–––
https://alaskabeacon.com/claire-stremple
Thanks to the generosity and expertise of the the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska broadband department, Tidal Network ; Christopher Cropley, director of Tidal Network; and Luke Johnson, Tidal Network technician, SitkaSentinel.com is again being updated. Tidal Network has been working tirelessly to install Starlink satellite equipment for city and other critical institutions, including the Sentinel, following the sudden breakage of GCI's fiberoptic cable on August 29, which left most of Sitka without internet or phone connections. CCTHITA's public-spirited response to the emergency is inspiring.
Login Form
20 YEARS AGO
September 2004
Photo caption: A replica of the sign reading “Annahootz Head Chief of the Sitka Tribe” in this 1904 photo of the Kaagwaantaan Wolf House is among items to be rededicated Oct. 23-24 at the 100-year anniversary celebration of the Last Potlatch of 1904. The sign was part of the Wolf House artifact collection loaned to Sitka National Historical Park in 1963.
50 YEARS AGO
September 1974
A seminar course, Topics of Aquaculture will be offered by Sheldon Jackson College. ... Dennis Lund, an SJC aquaculture program instructor, will coordinate the seminar..
Calendar
