A newly released report from the Washington Area Boards of Education (WABAE) has found that a teacher can make significantly more money—just by relocating to the district next door.

As a result, school districts struggling to offer competitive teacher pay are suffering from the worst of the nation’s teacher shortages, according to The Washington Post.

The report took a look at Washington-area districts and found that teacher pay varied considerably depending on the district considered.

"Teachers in Manassas Park — a small city system that employs about 250 classroom teachers — have an average salary that is $20,000 less than [nearby] Arlington’s, but the district’s teachers tend to be younger, said Shannon Watson, the school system’s human resources director,” the Post said.

This causes the oftentimes best teachers to be “hired away” from low-paying districts to ones next door that pay better.

"Theresa Mitchell Dudley, the president of the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association, said she had a colleague who was hired away by Montgomery, where the average teacher salary is $9,300 higher.”

In one of the lower-paying districts in the area, Prince William school district, the struggle to retain teachers has resulted in a number of other factors that negatively effect the students it serves.

"The school system has the largest classes, packing an average of more than 30 students into high school classrooms. That’s an average of three more students per class than in Montgomery and Loudoun counties.”

Spending only $10,724-per-pupil, teachers in Prince William district are paid less to educate more students compared to districts just a hop, skip and a jump away.

Read the full story.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

11/23/2015