Teaching: It's Beginning to Pay

Whatever else public school teachers may get out of teaching, some of them are beginning to get money. Last week the National Education Association hap pily reported that in at least 75 school systems in the U.S. (out of 28,738) the maximum salary for classroom teachers is $11,000 a year or higher. The best-paying system of all is Beverly Hills, Calif., with a $14,000 maximum for holders of doctorates. Of the 75 systems on the N.E.A. list, 49 are in New York, mostly in suburban counties near New York City. The other high-maximum systems are scattered among nine states: California (7), Illinois (5), New Jersey (4), Minnesota (3), Pennsylvania (3), Connecticut (1), Indiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Missouri (1).

The average salary of U.S. classroom teachers, however, is $5,735, only slightly higher than the average pay of factory workers. That helps explain why nearly three-quarters of the nation's men teachers work at moonlighting jobs.