Final answer:
The statistic that would compare the average teacher salaries in California and New York is the mean.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statistic that would compare the average teacher salaries in California and New York is the mean. The mean is obtained by adding up all the values and dividing by the number of values. In this case, we would add up the salaries of all the teachers in California and New York and divide by the total number of teachers in each state. This would give us the average salary for each state, which we can then compare.