Oct 10, 2023 2 min read

Teachers have become easy prey for criticism among those claiming today’s classrooms represent a liberal free-for-all.

Much of that noise comes from those who digest an overabundance of division from their media of choice, but haven’t set foot in a classroom in years.

There is no doubt, however, that the slowly rising tide of societal dysfunction that landed in teachers’ laps over the past several decades accelerated thanks to the pandemic. As a result, the profession is struggling more than ever.

All this led WalletHub, a personal finance company, to conduct a study on the best and worst places to be a teacher, noting that teachers are more fairly compensated and better protected in some states than in others, and that the best states are less likely to face a revolving door of teacher turnover.

Turns out Pennsylvania ranked 13th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., a solid showing that put it in the “best” end of the spectrum.

WalletHub compared 24 key indicators of teacher friendliness, and used data sets including teachers’ income, growth potential, pupil-teacher ratio and public-school spending per student.

The latter category was not weighted as heavily as some others, and that makes sense considering Pennsylvania’s 13th place ranking but its terrible record on per-pupil funding. A Penn State study found that 412 of 500 public school districts in Pennsylvania are inadequately funded, with a total shortfall of $6.2 billion.

Professor Matthew Kelly presented his findings to a bipartisan legislative commission on behalf of the six school districts that successfully challenged Pennsylvania’s public school funding system, including Shenandoah Valley, Panther Valley and Wilkes-Barre Area from our region.

As for the WalletHub survey, Ramon Goings, associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, pointed out the obvious in his analysis: “It has been discussed heavily in recent years how teachers remain underpaid despite the most important role they have in developing our next cadre of leaders, doctors, lawyers and scientists. Along with this, teachers are still supporting students dealing with crises including the impact of COVID-19 which has dramatically shaped how schools run.”

While critics in the Keystone state may use the WalletHub survey as ammunition for their “teachers-have-it-too-good” argument, the ranking’s relative bright spot should not be overstated considering the overall state of the teaching profession. To be at the “best” end of a bad spectrum is still … bad.