New law to boost teacher pay could increase salaries for 451 educators next school year - Independent Record
A little more than a quarter of early career teachers in Montana could see their salaries boosted by about $3,500 annually during the first year of a new program passed by the state Legislature in 2021.
The Office of Public Instruction on Tuesday released data showing teachers who qualify could see a $3,472 increase in their salary in the coming school year. The press release said 94 of the state’s 402 school districts, encompassing 33 counties, are participating in the program.
OPI estimated 451 teacher salaries could be supplemented. There were 1,646 new teachers licensed in Montana in 2021. Teachers could have the salaries boosted for their first three years in the classroom.
The program was created under the TEACH (Tomorrow’s Educators Are Coming Home) Act, advanced by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte in the 2021 legislative session and carried by Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad. It passed the Senate on a unanimous vote and cleared the House with just two votes against it.
In a press release, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen said in a statement “I am grateful that the Legislature has recognized the need for incentivizing salaries for beginning teachers. Students and families deserve a quality teacher in every classroom for learning to be successful. Montana must look at all solutions.”
During his run for governor in 2020, Gianforte called for raising teacher pay. On Tuesday, he welcomed the estimates on what the new legislation will do in its first year.
"I campaigned on the promise of doing better by our starting teachers, and we did that, providing $2.5 million in incentives to schools to improve starting teacher pay. With this investment, we've made it easier for our starting teachers to choose to stay in Montana or to come back home to teach our kids and make our communities stronger," Gianforte said in a statement.
The bill works by directing more state money toward districts that meet criteria for competitive base teacher pay. Last year the Associated Press reported the act would boost salaries for teachers in districts that set starting pay at a minimum of $34,000. Districts with more than 6,500 students need to start teachers at salaries equal to 70% of the median pay for a teacher in the district.
Montana has struggled to recruit and retain teachers in part because of low salaries. In support of the bill during the legislative session last year, state Sen. Dan Salomon, a Republican from Ronan, said Montana ranked 25th in the nation for average teacher pay and last for salaries for those starting out in the field.
A 2019 report from the Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest found that during the 2017-18 school year, district administrators in Montana said 62% of positions in subject areas like math and science were difficult to fill or unable to be filled, and that rural schools had a harder time filling positions.
Dennis Parman, the executive director of the Montana Rural Education Association, said Tuesday the TEACH Act is a great start to improving the recruitment and retention of teachers that are already in the state.
“This will really give those … rural schools a much more level playing field in terms of salary,” Parman said of efforts to recruit teachers coming out of preparatory programs in the state.
Parman said while it wasn’t a criticism of the TEACH Act, he didn’t think it would help with recruiting teachers from out of state, either those early or in the middle of their careers.
MREA is running a social media-based recruitment project called Teach in Montana. Parman said that when schools provide a starting base salary of around $34,000 it’s not very attractive, but if a job posting can say someone coming to Montana with experience can earn $50,000-$60,00, that’s much more effective.
Tapping the out-of-state candidate pool is important to filling open positions, Parman said.
Montana University System educator prep programs graduate just about the same number of students as open positions in the state, but 10-12% of those graduates immediately leave Montana, creating a gap, Parman said.
Going forward, Parman said he’d like to see more districts take advantage of the TEACH Act. As the program first rolled out, he said districts had questions about how to pay for their share of the cost and some were concerned they couldn’t afford it. Others wanted to wait to see how it worked elsewhere.
Other programs like the teacher loan assistance and improving benefits for educators through a statewide pool could help with retention and recruitment too, he said.
source: https://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/new-law-to-boost-teacher-pay-could-increase-salaries-for-451-educators-next-school-year/article_83861cbe-dfc2-5d61-94fd-2d4e219bc454.html
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.