Washington Post under-reports Washington state teacher salaries

Two days ago the Washington Post published a map of the states showing average teacher pay in the 50 states. The map reports teachers in Washington state receive an average estimated salary of only $53,571. 
  

The numbers on the Washington Post’s state map under-report Washington state teachers’ salaries.  These numbers only include base salary funded by the state budget. Teachers also receive significant additional pay from local taxpayers.

When you include all sources, state and local, teachers in Washington receive an average $64,662 for a 10 month school year, plus a fair package of benefits that includes health care, pension, sick leave and other paid time off.  (See State Summary on last page of this OSPI report.)  

The people of Washington are deeply concerned about school funding.  As policymakers consider fair compensation for the hard-working educators in our public schools, it is important they have a full understanding of all sources of teacher pay.