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NEA/TSTA: Texas Ranks 29th in Teacher Pay; 47th in Per-Pupil Spending

Image: Blue square logo of TSTA. Says TEA/NEA.
Image: TSTA

The Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) — citing newly released National Education Association (NEA) data — reported on Tuesday (April 29) that:

SY 2024-25 Data
  • The average Texas teacher pay reported by TEA is $63,749 (see also this prior TexEdNews article and graphic) which is $10,428 less than the NEA calculated national average teacher pay of $74,177 — ranking Texas 29th (the same as last school year) from among the nation’s states and District of Columbia.
  • When inflation is considered, Texas teachers’ average salaries are now 8.12 percent lower than they were in 2016.
  • Texas spent an average of $13,189 per student in average daily attendance (ADA) from all revenue sources in SY 2024-25.

    This is $5,664 less per child than the national average of $18,853, and ranks Texas near the bottom, in 47th place (down from 46th place in SY 2023-24). Only Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho spend less per student.
SY 2023-24 Data

Meanwhile, another NEA report for the 2023-24 school year reflects that:

  • The average salary for first‐year teachers in Texas was $48,526. This was $2,000 more than the national average, ranking Texas 18th (down from 15th in SY 2022-23) nationally.

  • The average top salary for Texas’ most experienced teachers was $67,762. That was $16,510 less than the national average of $84,272 and ranked Texas 42nd (down from 41st in SY 2022-23) among the 47 states that reported a top salary.


  • Full-time K-12 school support employees — including teacher aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, school secretaries and clerks — averaged $31,812 in pay, ranking Texas 31st nationally (up from 34th nationally in SY 2022-23) and putting the state $3,142 behind the national average of $34,954.
TSTA Cites Data in Blasting Governor

TSTA President Ovidia Molina cited the data in blasting Gov. Greg Abbott and his legislative allies “for undermining Texas’ public education system and jeopardizing the futures of millions of Texas children as well as the state’s future economy.”

“So far during this year’s legislative session, they have found time to divert $1 billion from the state budget to private schools with a voucher program that will drain even more resources from our students,” Molina said.

The NEA data can be accessed beginning here.