Teacher pay rising faster than inflation

Kurt Rogahn of The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette found that
teacher
pay "is increasing at rates better than inflation, despite warnings from
the state's leading teacher organization that Iowa's average teacher pay
hasn't kept pace with inflation." One researcher says the numbers show pay
has gone up quite a bit, though the averages say it hasn't. "A
Gazette analysis shows that though average teacher pay rose 16
percent between 1996-97 and this school year in the two Technology Corridor
counties, base salaries for beginning teachers rose an average of 26
percent." Inflation over the same period was 21 percent. Rogahn points out
that most news stories focus on average pay, a measure that can be
misleading. (Extra! Extra! readers get special access to the story for one
month by entering username "ire" and password "sherlock8" — both
without the quotes.)