I was tempted to say, how about $5000 LESS than the starting salary for an elementary school teacher? Just kidding--in part. I guess the rationale in the example offered is that the museum educator has 5 years' experience, and how much is that experience worth? But comparing the two jobs is an apples/oranges situation. In my book, classroom teacher is a far tougher, more challenging job in many ways than that of museum educator--and certainly a more important one within the sphere of education (say, it's getting hot--I can feel the flames already). Seriously, I think that comparing these two jobs within the framework of "education" may be to the disadvantage of the museum educator. I think it's more a question of how the educator fits into an individual museum situation and how should that role be compensated? Perhaps it's comparable to the curatorial scale. (Whatever happened to the title "curator of education?") --David Haberstich