(Editor's note: The increase in benefits per full-time teacher
was incorrectly listed as 50 percent; this has been updated to
the correct figure of 37 percent.)  According to new data just
released by the Michigan Department of Education for the
2009-2010 school year, the average teacher salary in Michigan
has risen for the 13th consecutive year. This most recent data
puts the figure at $63,024. If charter schools are excluded,
this raises the average salary figure for unionized teachers in
conventional districts to $63,445.  There’s less than meets the
eye in the salary figures, however, since after adjusting for
inflation, teacher salaries are up just 2 percent since 2000.
Benefits, however, are a completely different story: According
to the same data used by the MDE to calculate the average
teacher salary, from 2000 to 2010, benefits per full-time
classroom teacher rose by 37 percent even after adjusting for
inflation (this does not include charter school teachers).  This
might seem surprising to anyone f