Disparities in Q-C teacher pay: There's a great divide
Julio Almanza knows his school district is headed for trouble.
The Davenport superintendent has more teachers nearing retirement age than any other district in the area. The exodus comes at a time when fewer college graduates are going into teaching and competition for new teachers is high.
The reasons teachers choose to work for a school system vary, but money often plays a major role. And that puts Almanza’s district at a disadvantage. It’s hard to land quality applicants when they can make $10,000 more working for a district just across the river in Illinois, he said.
“It’s scary,” Almanza said. “What am I going to do?”
An analysis by the Quad-City Times shows districts in the Illinois Quad-Cities pay teachers with the same degree and level of experience $9,600 more on average than their Iowa counterparts. In addition, they provide better retirement benefits and require teachers to spend fewer days and hours on the job. Teachers in Iowa, however, receive better health insurance and pay less for it.
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Taxpayers are responsible for paying teacher salaries that reach upwards of $80,000 in Illinois and $60,000 in Iowa, depending on the district. Teachers receive bumps in pay based on their years of experience and the number of college credits they earn. Performance is not a factor.
The Times study examined the salaries of full-time teachers in Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, North Scott,
Rock Island-Milan, Moline-Coal Valley, United Township High School and East Moline during the 2006-07 school year. The wages did not include money for benefits or extra duties, such as coaching or extended contract days. Benefits were analyzed separately.
Among the study’s findings:
Teachers in Illinois districts are 10 times more likely to earn more than $60,000 than those in Iowa districts.
Using the days and hours required by teacher contracts, the average hourly salary of teachers in Iowa districts is comparable to that of marketing managers, real estate agents, and computer software engineers. In Illinois, the average hourly pay stacks up to that of lawyers, pharmacists and financial analysts, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Teachers’ annual earnings in both states, however, do not compare to the yearly pay for those same jobs.
Only two of the 350 highest paid teachers in the Quad-Cities are from Iowa school districts.
The Moline-Coal Valley School District pays teachers the highest wages, while North Scott pays the lowest. Almost half of Moline teachers make more money than the highest paid North Scott teacher.
“We are recruiting and attempting to retain teachers out of the same pool,” said Tim Dose, superintendent in North Scott. “When a teacher can accept a position elsewhere and make several thousand dollars more right off the bat, they are going to take that job. It’s becoming more of an issue.”
The difference in pay between the two states makes it more enticing for teachers in Iowa districts — especially those just beginning or near the end of their careers — to take jobs across the river. It also makes it harder to attract quality teachers to fill vacancies, Iowa administrators said. However, some teachers interviewed by the Times said money plays a minor role in their choice of district.
“I have only heard of a few teachers that have made the jump (from Iowa to Illinois),” said Shawn Dykstra, a math teacher in Davenport. “It’s no secret Illinois pays much better. But where you work and who you work with is just as important.”
Gap explained
The gap between teacher pay in the two states exists because of an Iowa farm crisis 20 years ago or a forceful Illinois teachers’ union, depending on which set of school leaders are explaining it.
Some school leaders also blame competition for new hires with schools in the Chicago suburbs, some of which pay more experienced teachers more than $100,000.
Funding differences, however, did not make officials’ list of reasons for the pay disparity.
Districts in both states pay for teacher salaries out of a general fund and, by and large, in the Quad-Cities, Illinois districts have more money in these funds than do Iowa districts.
“The general fund drives what you can do with teacher salaries,” Dose said.
The money pools are different, in part, because the two states approach their general funds differently.
In Iowa, lawmakers determine how much money districts need to educate a child. That figure is then multiplied by the number of children enrolled in the district, and that is the amount the school system receives.
Illinois has a somewhat similar system. But on top of those dollars, districts can raise local property taxes to collect more money.
“What we are trying to do is play catch up,” said Linda Schneider, director of the Great River UniServ Unit, which is a part of the Iowa State Education Association, the union that represents teachers statewide. “Our students get a good education, but the money hasn’t caught up for teachers.”
Area Illinois districts, for the most part, also choose to devote a greater percentage of their general funds to teacher pay. For example, 54 percent of Moline’s general fund goes to teacher salaries, while North Scott spends 39 percent on teacher pay. However, when the cost of benefits is included, the gap narrows somewhat.
It’s not just salary
Michael Brooks grew up in East Moline, graduating from United Township High School in 2000. Six years later, the 25-year-old returned to the school as a teacher.
When he graduated from college in 2005, Brooks moved back to the Quad-Cities after he landed a job teaching business classes in Bettendorf. He was offered a similar job two years later at United Township. Although he makes about $3,000 more at his new job, the salary wasn’t the main factor behind his decision to leave Iowa.
“I would be lying if I said pay didn’t have anything to do with it,” Brooks said. “I just went to (United Township), and that’s a big reason I went back. You go into this profession knowing you aren’t going to be rich.”
Dean Breneman agreed. The high school math teacher, who has a specialist’s degree, retired from his position at Davenport’s North High School last spring after 36 years of working for the district. He ended his career making just more than $60,000, which is $6,000 less than a Rock Island math teacher with about half of the experience and a master’s degree makes.
“I never thought about leaving my job,” Breneman said. “I was happy with the job, and I saw no reason to change. The money wasn’t the object of where I was working.”
Although Brooks and a handful of other teachers said money doesn’t dictate where they work, administrators said their ability to pay does make a difference.
District leaders in Rock Island and Moline said a majority of teachers who apply with them also send their resumes to the other local districts. Districts in Illinois most often have their pick from the candidate pool because they can offer better compensation packages, officials said.
“It affects the quality of your education,” said Jay Morrow, United Township superintendent. “In the reality of things, the less-quality candidates will go to a place that can’t attract a large candidate pool, and it’s the kids who suffer.”
On average, administrators from Rock Island and Moline said they have 80 to 100 people apply for vacancies in their elementary, middle and high schools. Across the river, schools see a similar number of candidates for elementary positions. However, some districts such as Bettendorf are lucky to have 10 teachers apply for most middle and high school openings, officials said.
“We definitely benefit,” said Rick Loy, Rock Island superintendent. “It gives us a major competitive edge … If you want to have a successful school system, you have to have the best teachers.”
Although Iowa was once touted as having one of the best education systems in the nation, it has lost ground in recent years, according to numerous studies.
It is hard to compare the performance of students in Iowa and Illinois Quad-Cities because each state measures student performance differently.
“Iowa has had a historically rich history of investing in education,” Almanza said. “One may argue that we may not be in that same position today.”
Paying the price
In recent years, districts in the Iowa Quad-Cities have offered teacher raises that keep pace with what’s offered in Illinois but fail to narrow the pay gap.
To afford the salary increases, local administrators in both states said they often trim expenses from other areas. Districts offer early retirement to the most experienced teachers so they can replace them with younger, less expensive ones. Layoffs and the elimination of empty positions lead to more work for other teachers and larger class sizes but keep costs lower. When an opening is filled, it goes to the qualified teacher with the least experience and level of education.
In the end, it’s the children who pay the price, administrators said.
“If a job comes down to two people and one has a bachelor’s degree and the other has a master’s degree, and they are both qualified, we will hire the one with a bachelor’s as a cost-savings measure,” said Joel Moeller, Moline assistant superintendent for administration and human resources.
In an effort to make teacher salaries in Iowa more competitive, lawmakers voted this year to pump $145 million into them over the next two years. Districts are still waiting to hear how much that will equate to for their teachers.
Early estimates by some area districts predict teachers would each get an additional $5,000 by the end of the second year. However, initial figures from the Iowa Department of Education put that figure at $8,700.
Administrators in the four local districts said they are not building the state’s pay increase into their negotiated contracts because the state could decide in future years to cut funding.
“It’s to be seen how that gets supported by the economy,” said Jeff Berger, a lobbyist for the state education department. “Your economy has to continue to grow to sustain the increase. The general response (from legislators) was that this is a reshifting of priorities, and we will find the money.”
Regardless of how much teachers end up getting from the state, their salaries will still fall short of those across the river.
“For a state that has prided itself on having a strong education system, it sure isn’t reflected in the numbers,” Almanza said. “A lot of our staff is here because they want to be. Without that we’d be hard pressed.”
Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
About the series
The Quad-City Times has spent the past seven months scrutinizing teacher salaries in the Quad-Cities. The analysis of salaries from eight school districts has resulted in a three-day series:
Today: Teacher pay varies dramatically between Illinois and Iowa, with educators in the Illinois Quad-City districts earning thousands more than their counterparts in Iowa with the same experience and educational levels.
Monday: Teachers in schools with predominantly low-income students tend to have less experience, less education and are paid less than those in schools with more affluent students.
Tuesday: School districts are evaluated based on the core subjects of math, English and science, but teachers in those subjects are paid less on average than those in business, music, physical education and family and consumer science.
About the reporter
Sheena Dooley, 27, has been the education reporter for the Quad-City Times for the past year and a half. Previously, she worked at the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota and the News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth and has covered education issues for the past five years.
In February, she attended an Education Research and Statistics Boot Camp at Harvard University, where a mentor, professors and journalists helped her refine the ideas that led to this series.
About the analysis
The Quad-City Times used salary figures from the 2006-07 school year for full-time teachers from eight area school districts to compare teacher compensation between Iowa and Illinois districts. Those districts include Davenport, Bettendorf, North Scott, Pleasant Valley, Rock Island-Milan, Moline-Coal Valley, United Township and East Moline.
Brad Thiessen, an assistant professor and the chair of the mathematics department at St. Ambrose University, aided in the analysis.
In its study, the Times used Iowa teachers’ base salaries and the additional money they received from Teacher Compensation and Phase II funds. Both funds were established by lawmakers to raise teacher wages in the state. Teachers do not have to take on additional responsibilities to receive the money, which serves as an automatic pay bump for all teachers. For Illinois teachers, only the base salary was used.
In addition to salaries, the Times analyzed levels of education and years of experience teaching in their current district. Total years of experience were not included because Davenport, Bettendorf and United Township officials said they do not collect that information.
Benefits, such as health insurance and retirement plans, were not included in the analysis for any of the districts but, instead, were looked at separately.
Hourly rates for teachers were figured using the average salary for each district and the length of their school day and year, which are outlined in their contracts. Hours and days worked outside of the contract were not factored in.