First of all it is not a “fact” you do not know that this educator can get a job in a metro school system in Minnesota, no where in this article does she state She has a Minnesota teaching license or most important a JOB OFFER!

Secondly why are you so blinded to simple geography? You have lost that part of the argument. Critical thinking and good debating skills would lead you to bring up a different point to prove what you are saying, such as why is the average income in Minnesota so much higher then it is in Wisconsin? Why do we lose good people with teaching degrees to Minnesota private companies or Metro school districts even though we have such great community’s like Somerset. Why is it that good people with teaching degrees are so motivated by money as shown on a pay stub and not all the other good things that Wisconsin has to offer?

Cheers

The factual references provided are regarding the interviewee’s statement.

The interviewee made no claims about teacher salaries specifically in rural communities.

The interviewee said: “I could move across the border and get a job as a speech and language pathologist in the schools of Minnesota and make about $20,000 more than I am now.”

A check of publicly available data shows that the interviewee’s statement is factually accurate.

The interviewee states: “I could move across the border and get a job as a speech and language pathologist in the schools of Minnesota and make about $20,000 more than I am now.”

The publicly available data for the St. Paul, MN, public school district, located about fifteen miles west of the WI/MN border, shows that in the 2010-11 school year a comparably qualified and experienced district-wide speech language pathologist was paid a salary of between $80,545 (MA+45 with 25 or more years experience) to $82,077 (MA+60 with 25 or more years of experience) plus benefits (see “2009-2011 St. Paul Public School District Terms and Conditions of Professional Employment” at http://hr.spps.org/uploads/c_teacher.pdf).

The publicly available data for the Somerset public school district, located about thirty miles east of St. Paul, MN, shows that in the 2009-10 school year the interviewee was paid a salary of $63,300 plus benefits (see “DataMine: Search Wisconsin teacher salaries” at http://www.postcrescent.com/article/99999999/APC0110/80221166/DataMine-Search-Wisconsin-teacher-salaries?appSession=1392510417584&RecordID=655661&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=&cbCurrentRecordPosition=1).

FYI, both the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Minnesota Department of Education publish public school staff salary data that you can use to compare teacher salaries and total compensation (see, http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/newasr.html; and http://extra.twincities.com/car/schlsalaries/default.aspx).

Tom