Springdale, the district closest in enrollment to Little Rock, has the highest teacher salaries in the state. The Little Rock School District…doesn’t.
| District (2015-16) | Base Teacher Pay (BA: 0 Years) | Base Teacher Pay (MA: 0 Years) | Base Teacher Pay (Top of Schedule) | Average Teacher Pay |
| Springdale | $46,816 (1st) | $49,340 (1st) | $75,316 (1st) | $59,143 (1st) |
| LRSD | $35,232 (63rd) | $40,550 (37th) | $68,634 (10th) | $57,265 (2nd) |
Here’s why.
| Year | District | Enrollment | Classified | Licensed (Administrators) | Teachers | Total Personnel | Personnel per Pupil |
| 2016-17 | LRSD | 22,759 | 1,498 | 587 | 1,658 | 3,743 | 6.08 |
| 2016-17 | Springdale | 21,527 | 1,096 | 299 | 1,432 | 2,827 | 7.61 |
| 2015-16 | LRSD | 23,164 | 1,623 | 598 | 1,677 | 3,898 | 5.94 |
| 2015-16 | Springdale | 21,260 | 1,070 | 300 | 1,370 | 2,740 | 7.76 |
| 2014-15 | LRSD | 23,363 | 1,652 | 764 | 1,939 | 4,355 | 5.36 |
| 2014-15 | Springdale | 21,120 | 1,054 | 324 | 1,559 | 2,937 | 7.19 |
| 2013-14 | LRSD | 23,676 | 1,762 | 767 | 1,774 | 4,303 | 5.50 |
| 2013-14 | Springdale | 20,542 | 1,022 | 300 | 1,397 | 2,719 | 7.55 |
Even though Springdale has only 1,232 students less than Little Rock, it has 916 fewer employees. That gives Springdale over one-and-a-half employees less per pupil than Little Rock. And its licensed employees, which includes administrators, are nearly half of Little Rock’s total.
Since State intervention, however, Little Rock is making progress, dropping licensed employees/administrators 177 in just two years and increasing its personnel per pupil number by nearly .72 employees.
It should be noted that Springdale does not participate in collective bargaining. Little Rock does, for both teachers and classified staff. Why is that significant? When union dues are the same ($720 per year for teachers), regardless of income, the union benefits from volume of employees, with no incentive to raise pay. Increasing teacher pay may only come from reduction in volume of employees, and that does not benefit the union.
There is an alternative and immediate way to give Little Rock teachers a $522 raise. For comparable benefits at a fraction ($198) of LREA dues ($720), LRSD teachers could follow the lead of hundreds of their Springdale colleagues and join the non-union Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA). But teachers will have to contact ASTA on their own, as the union is, inexplicably, given a monopoly on access to LRSD teachers. Compare benefits here: