Education: Lucky Six

A salary of $12,000 yearly* was made possible last week by Philadelphia’s Donner Foundation, for one teacher at each of six blue-chip U.S. private schools: Andover, Exeter, Groton, Hill, Mount Hermon, St. Paul’s. Reason: the schools are “among those setting teaching standards.” By giving them endowments of $300,000 apiece, the Donner Foundation has a sound scheme: releasing money to raise all teachers’ salaries within the lucky six schools, and creating a lever to boost pay across the country.

* Exceeded throughout U.S. secondary schools only by Scarsdale (N.Y.), which recently upped its teachers’ maximum to $13,000.