Massachusetts Ranked Second-Best State for Teachers

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With a hotly contested charter school question looming on the November ballot, education’s the word of everyone’s lips this fall.

Massachusetts was ranked the second-best state for teachers, according to a new report by personal finance social network WalletHub. New Jersey took top honors, while Connecticut was the only other New England state to crack the top 10, at No. 10.

To compile their ranking, WalletHub compared all 50 states using 16 metrics in two categories: job opportunity and competition (average starting and median annual salaries, average pension size, projected demand for teachers, public school enrollment growth) and academic and work environment (pupil-teacher ratio, school safety, per-pupil spending, average commute time).

Teachers in Massachusetts had the fifth-highest salaries, while their peers in Maine had the fourth-lowest. Vermont had the pupil-teacher ratio, as well as the highest public school spending per student.

The worst state for teachers? That’d be Hawaii. You can read WalletHub’s full report here.