The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, thinks wasted is the right word. In this policy brief, it lists state-by-state costs for the “master’s bump.”

In Florida, 37 percent of teachers have master’s degrees and on average they earned $3,496 extra for them, according to 2003-04 data (the most recent available from the National Center for Education Statistics.) Nationally, districts spent $8.6 billion on master’s degrees.

Says the center: Decoupling salary from experience is a tall order, but forward progress on school reform requires school districts to revamp their spending habits somehow … On average, master’s degrees in education bear no relation to student achievement. Master’s degrees in math and science have been linked to improved student achievement in those subjects, but 90 percent of teachers’ master’s degrees are in education programs – a notoriously unfocused and process-dominated course of study.

Ron Matus, state education reporter