Wrong Ranking: Colorado Teachers Not 46th In Nation For Pay
By Mark Ackerman
DENVER (CBS4)- As teachers across the state are participating in walkouts to protest a lack of school funding, the National Education Association is saying there was a mistake in labeling Colorado in the bottom five states for teacher pay.
Colorado actually ranks 31st in teacher pay, not 46th as the NEA previously reported.
The NEA says it received incorrect data from the Colorado Department of Education.
"An error in previous years' data was discovered by NEA Research last year but after the release of NEA's 2016-17 report. The revised numbers are in the current NEA's Rankings & Estimates report, which was released on Monday," said NEA spokesperson Staci Maiers.
Spokesperson Dana Smith said CDE changed to a different data collection system and some part-time hourly employees were not included in the NEA's request. But Smith said CDE sent "revised data for 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 almost a year ago, in May 2017."
The NEA previously reported the average Colorado's teacher salary for 2016 was $46,000. In the revised report, teachers in Colorado averaged $51,000 in 2016 and close to $52,000 in 2017.
Check out this interactive map to see how teachers near you are paid:
Darker Green Dots = Higher teacher salaries
Larger Dots = a higher school district performance rating from the CDE
Thursday and Friday on CBS4 News at 10 p.m. get ready to meet two Colorado teachers. The first teaches in one of the lowest paying districts in the state. The second teaches in the highest paid district.
Mark Ackerman is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. Follow him on Twitter @ackermanmark
