New study says teachers are overpaid

Teachers’ union: Salary isn’t why people begin teaching, but it is why they leave the field

A first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Prince George’s County Public Schools receives a $44,800 salary. Ten years later, that teacher would make about $56,500.

New research released Nov. 1 by two Washington, D.C.-based think tanks, American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, says that’s too much.

“There is this widespread perception that teachers are underpaid,” said Jason Richwine, one of the study’s authors and a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation. “Teachers are not underpaid in salaries, and may, in some cases, be overpaid.”