According to the 2017 EdNext poll, no fewer than 61% of Americans are in favor of raising teacher salaries—until they find out how much teachers currently earn. Then, the level of support for teacher raises drops down to 36%. Both those readings show a modest cooling of public enthusiasm for higher salaries since 2016, with a drop of 4 percentage points for the uninformed and 5 percentage points for the informed. To learn more about teacher salary schedules, check out our 2008 article “Scrap the Sacrosanct Salary Schedule.” To get more information about the public’s opinion on teacher policies, read the full poll essay, or use our 11-year trends interactive to see the change in public opinion over time.
—Education Next
