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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

Wisconsin teachers’ salaries average above $27,000, although teachers do sometimes have to pay for school supplies using their own money.

Wisconsin public school teachers made an average salary of $59,992 during the 2020-21 school year, ranking the state at 23rd in the nation for the highest average salary, according to official state figures published by the National Education Association. The average starting salary for Wisconsin teachers was $38,961.

In 2019, TurboTax did estimate that the average salary of Wisconsin preschool teachers was $27,000, according to tax returns from 162 preschool teachers.

Wisconsin public school teachers do not pay for all school supplies, but in 2011-12, they did spend an average of $380 (adjusted for inflation to 2018 dollars) that was not reimbursed, according to an Economic Policy Institute — below the national average of $459.

Sources

National Education Association: Educator pay and student spending: How does your state rank?

TurboTax: Pre-school teacher salary in Wisconsin

Economic Policy Institute: It’s the beginning of the school year and teachers are once again opening up their wallets to buy school supplies

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Jacob Alabab-Moser joined as Wisconsin Watch’s fact checker in September 2022, as part of the effort by The Gigafact Project in partnership with different state-level news outlets to combat misinformation in the 2022 midterm elections. Jacob has several years of experience as a fact checker and research assistant at a variety of organizations, including at The Gigafact Project. He holds a BA from Brown University and is pursuing a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.