Teacher salaries don't add up.
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A good education is priceless.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Visa is everywhere you want to be.
Those three slogans are not mutually exclusive for those trying to make a living in Santa Fe while providing a decent education for the city's impressionable young minds.
Teachers in the Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) district earn one of the lowest average salaries in New Mexico, even though they work and live in a city with one of the highest cost of living rates in the country.
Koo Im Tong, president of the National Education Association-Santa Fe teacher's union, says other SFPS employees like secretaries, bus drivers and cafeteria workers fare even worse.
"I know a lot of employees who qualify for welfare and food stamps," Tong says. "That is not acceptable."
A minimum 5 percent pay raise recently negotiated by NEA-Santa Fe and the school district [Outtakes, Aug 16:
] will certainly help when school starts on Aug. 28. But, considering the State Legislature mandated a statewide 5 percent average pay raise during its last session, Santa Fe teachers will likely continue to lag behind many of their New Mexico colleagues.
But talk is cheap, which is why SFR pored over various reports, statistics and budgets to compile the following figures (which cover the 2005-2006 school year unless otherwise noted) on those teaching reading, writing and arithmetic to future generations.
Estimated average teacher's salary in New Mexico: $42,139.
Estimated average salary for an SFPS teacher: $40,512.
Rank of SFPS (out of 89 school districts in New Mexico) for average teacher salary: 73rd.
Median household income in Santa Fe (according to Santa Fe Trends 2006): $45,500.
Estimated average salary of public school teachers in the United States during the 2004-2005 school year: $47,808.
Estimated average salary for a public school teacher in Connecticut
(the highest in the country) in 2004-2005: $58,688.
Estimated average salary for a public school teacher in South Dakota
(the lowest) in 2004-2005: $34,040.
Estimated national rank of New Mexico for average teacher salary in
2004-2005: 40th.
Average salary for a teacher in the Los Alamos school district: $47,648.
Average salary for a teacher in the Pojoaque Valley Schools district: $41,425.
Average salary for a teacher in the Carlsbad school district (the highest average in the state): $56,918.
Estimated amount an SFPS teacher would have to make, when adjusted for cost of living, to earn the Carlsbad average in Santa Fe: $69,707.
Estimated amount a Carlsbad teacher would have to make, when adjusted for cost of living, to earn the Santa Fe average in Carlsbad: $33,079.
Number of 100-sheet packages of résumé paper an SFPS teacher could buy online from the Southworth stationary company with the average SFPS teacher's salary: 2,978.
Average salary for a district superintendent in New Mexico: $90,576.
Projected 2006-2007 salary for SFPS Supt. Dr. Leslie Carpenter: $118,761.
Projected average pay raise for full-time Santa Fe High teachers: $1,500.
Number of full-time teachers lost at Santa Fe High between the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years: 6.
Actual decrease in spending on Santa Fe High teacher salaries (even with
projected raises) between the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years: $46,970.
