A new survey of teacher salaries in Kansas suggests there might be some long-term problems filling education jobs.
Teacher pay in Kansas has always been below the national average.
But a new report from the Kansas Association of School Boards says teachers in the state are also lagging behind the increased cost of living and nonteachers with the same amount of education.
Mark Tallman, the association's assistant executive director, says the longer a person remains a teacher, the further their salary will fall behind that of nonteachers.
"That, of course, I think raises some long term questions about the ability to continue to attract professionals here," he says.
Tallman says the best solution is to put more money into the system, a very heavy lift in a state that’s reduced classroom funding and questioned the efficiency of school districts.
He says districts could reduce faculty but that has its own problems.
“You can try to increase teacher’s salaries by reducing the number of paraprofessionals but that means the teachers have less support in their classroom," he says.
