Star Tribune
How well are Minnesota’s teachers paid?
Teacher unions across Minnesota have pushed for higher-than-typical raises in contract negotiations this year, saying boosts in pay are overdue and necessary to bolster efforts to recruit and retain teachers amid widespread educator staffing shortages.
Some have managed to negotiate salary boosts of 4%, 6% and even 10% in deals that, in some cases, were worth nearly the same amount their districts received through last year’s $2.2 billion state investment in schools.
But just as teacher unions cite the rising cost of living as one reason they deserve pay boosts, districts are also bemoaning inflation and scrambling to balance budgets without the millions in pandemic relief funds that run dry this year.
Wages and benefits proved a sticking point in negotiations between St. Paul Public Schools and its teacher union, which this month reached a tentative agreement less than a week before a planned walkout. Union members ratified the deal this week and said it includes 4% raises next school year, among other things. According to district leaders, it is not expected to add to the district’s $107 million projected deficit for 2024-2025.
The Minneapolis public school district is in ongoing mediation with its teacher union amid what district leaders say is a $110 million deficit for next year.
“Recent historic new state education funding has helped immensely,” said Minneapolis Public Schools finance director Ibrahima Diop at a recent school board meeting. “But that amount is not keeping up with the national increase in cost of operation that we see.”
Investing in public schools and public teachers takes work at the federal, state and local level, said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest national teachers union. In the State of the Union address this month, President Joe Biden said he wants to “give public school teachers a raise,” and the Minnesota legislature invested historic amounts into education last year, she said.
“What we’re saying is local districts also have to do that,” Pringle said. “If all three levels are working together, that’s where you’re going to be able to raise salaries to the level that is commensurate with the important work our educators do.”
Here’s how Minnesota teachers are paid:
Salaries in the largest MN districts
According to data from Minnesota’s educator licensing board, average teacher pay among the ten largest districts in the state ranged from about $70,000 a year in Mounds View and Rochester to over $89,000 in Wayzata. Those numbers are from last year — before the latest pay raises were negotiated and went into effect.
In St. Paul, the average teacher salary last year was about $87,000.
The average salary for Minneapolis teachers is $76,000. The district is in mediation with the teachers union, which was initially pushing for an 8.5% salary increase for teachers in the first year of the next contract and 7.5% the following year.
No. 18 in the nation
A report by the National Education Association ranked Minnesota 18th in the nation for average teacher pay last year.
Minnesota’s teachers make $64,200 on average — about $2,500 less than the national average. The highest average, $91,100, was in New York. Mississippi’s average, $47,900, ranked the lowest in the country.
The average starting pay for teachers in Minnesota was about $42,300, slightly less than the national average, according to the association. The lowest-ranking state for starting pay was Montana, where new teachers make $33,500 on average. Washington, D.C., ranked the highest, with an average starting salary of more than $56,000.
Bottom and top scale
Most school districts in Minnesota base teacher compensation based on education and years of experience. Teachers enter a “lane” based on their highest level of education and progress through “steps” in the salary schedule determined by years of experience.
First-year teachers with a bachelor’s degree make between $45,000 and $50,000 in Minnesota’s five largest districts: Anoka-Hennepin, St. Paul, Rosemount-Apple Valley Eagan, Minneapolis, Osseo, and South Washington County.
Teachers at the top step and lane in those districts — those who have earned a PhD and have two decades of experience — can earn more than six figures. The pay raises agreed to in the latest contracts in Anoka-Hennepin and South Washington County school districts pushed their top scales above $100,000.
Minnesota teachers make nearly 28% less than other comparable college-educated workers in the state, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C. That gap is about 26% nationally.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
