With just months until they have to meet a July 1 deadline to raise teacher salaries to a $60,000 minimum, only about half of Maryland’s 24 school districts have reached the threshold and the rest are scrambling to get there, education officials said Monday.

“We got questions from the LEA [local education agencies] like, ‘Is there a waiver process? How could we get an exception?’” said Rachel Hise, executive director of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board. “And the answer was, ‘No, there isn’t a waiver process. This is a statutory requirement by July 1 of 2026.”

Hise said local school officials are still working on their fiscal 2027 budgets and negotiations with their teacher unions.

“I would say right now we are cautiously optimistic that most, if not all of them, will get there,” she said.

Her comments came ahead of a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and Economic Development hearing on the AIB, among other agencies. Hise was joined by Isiah “Ike” Leggett, chair of the AIB, which is charged with overseeing implementation of the Blueprint by the state’s school districts.

The $60,000 minimum teacher salary is one of the many requirements of the Blueprint. According to data from the AIB, the minimum teacher salary during the 2025-26 school year was below $60,000 at schools in all nine Eastern Shore counties, along with Harford, Frederick and Garrett counties.

Hise mentioned one school system, which she didn’t name during the less than 15 minutes of her hearing, that may have the most difficulty in meeting that mandate.

Somerset County is the only jurisdiction with a minimum teacher salary below $55,000 this year. Its has a budget work session scheduled for March 24.

Maryland State Education Association President Paul Lemle said that with budget talks still going on, “it’s too soon to say whether every district will cross the $60,000 starting salary threshold this year.” But he said that salary gains so far have helped cut the teacher vacancy rate by more than half in recent years.

“We strongly encourage all districts in the state to make school funding a priority and ensure that we are doing all that we can to recruit and retain great educators for our students,” Lemle said in a prepared statement.

State Superintendent Carey Wright, who was in Annapolis for a different budget hearing Monday, said in a brief interview that local superintendents and chief financial officers continue to assess their finances amid tight budgets.

“I think they’re doing the very best that they can to meet the needs of everything that they’ve got going on in their district[s],” she said. “It’s just hard, and you’ve got to make some tough decisions.”

Officials in Cecil County public schools are doing just that.

Denise Sopa, chief financial officer for Cecil County schools, said in a brief phone interview Monday that the county will be able make the $60,000 minimum. But in order to do that and keep its fiscal 2027 budget balanced, Sopa said the school system will have to cut about 85 positions. In an email, she said the cuts will likely include 56 teachers, 19 support staff and 10 administrators.

During the subcommittee budget hearing, the state Department of Legislative Services recommended the Blueprint board should outline what measures can be “taken for any LEAs that did not meet the July 1, 2026, deadline to increase minimum salaries to $60,000.”

Because the salary is required by state law, one step the AIB can take to enforce compliance is to withhold funding for school districts until they meet the salary threshold. Hise said specific criteria, including the possibility of withholding funds, will be laid out in the spring.

Meanwhile, summarized the work of the AIB for the subcommittee and how the Blueprint “is not a one-size-fits-all operation.”

“We are trying to ensure that all the counties are meeting the standards,” he said. “We’re trying to do this within the fidelity that we have, the flexibility that we have … and in order to ensure that many of the counties around the state are responding as appropriately as possible.”

The nonpartisan research organization, NORC at the University of Chicago, continues to work on an interim evaluation of the overall Blueprint plan. An interim report is due to the AIB by Dec. 1, and based on those findings, the Blueprint board must submit a report to the governor and General Assembly by Jan. 15, 2027.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.

The phrase “say the hard part out loud” has had a moment in the national spotlight recently. And within West Virginia, you’ll hear it repeatedly when you talk to education professionals in the Eastern Panhandle about teacher pay.

Something else you’ll hear with regularity is the word “crisis.”

Michelle Barnhart, a social studies teacher at Martinsburg’s South Middle School in Berkeley County, has seen the teacher shortage turn from a growing problem into something much more serious.

“When I started teaching in 2017, you had to be actively working on your degree to even be considered for a position. Now, they’re putting people with associate degrees — or no degree at all — into classrooms as full-time teachers,” she said. “They aren’t supposed to, but they have no choice.”

The state, added Barnhart, is ignoring the problem.

“Charleston doesn’t see it, or chooses not to. People downstate don’t understand that many of the adults in these kids’ classrooms up here aren’t actually teachers — because the teachers have gone elsewhere for better pay.”

Imagine, she said, if hospitals started hiring people with no medical background to be doctors. “Just pulling people off the street, handing them a clipboard, and saying, ‘Here, practice medicine.’ That’s what’s happening here in education.”

Barnhart said that many of her colleagues and fellow educators feel powerless at the end of the day.

“The cost of living in the panhandle is nowhere near the rest of West Virginia, but teachers, state workers — anyone whose salary is coded into law — get the same base pay. If you live elsewhere, that’s not a big deal. But if you move here, you suddenly realize this is a crisis.”

Parents, she said, are often unaware of just how bad the situation has become.

“They’ll see the bus driver shortage on the news and get outraged about routes being cut. But they don’t know what’s happening inside the classrooms. They don’t see how many positions go unfilled all year, or how often classes are just split up when a teacher calls out — overcrowding the ones that are already at their limit.”

Even for those who stay, Barnhart said, burnout is inevitable.

“You have algebra teachers covering trigonometry. English teachers covering history. Some days, they still can’t find someone to cover,” she said. “When that happens, learning just stops.”

Andrew Fincham, a health and physical education teacher at Martinsburg High School in Berkeley County, has seen the pattern repeat itself year after year.

“It’s only getting worse,” he said. “And with the population growth in the panhandle, we’re running out of room. Classrooms are overflowing, and we’re sticking kids in trailers to make it work — but the turnover rate with teachers is staggering.”

Currently, Berkeley County’s student population alone —  — exceeds the of 26 entire counties in West Virginia. As of the start of the current school year in August 2024, Berkeley County had permanent substitutes hired.

“We’re losing an alarming number of teachers every year throughout the county — whether it’s retirement or leaving for more money,” Fincham said. “And the impact on students is undeniable — all schools, all grade levels.”

Fincham doesn’t see the “revolving door” getting any better without major policy changes.

“All the nearby states — Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania — adjust salaries based on cost of living. West Virginia doesn’t. It’s easy to see where this is headed. If the state doesn’t start thinking about this in a new way, in five years, it’ll be catastrophic.”

The impact on retention, added Barnhart, can’t be overstated.

“Berkeley and Jefferson counties, especially, have become steppingstones. Teachers come here, get a few years of experience, and then leave for better pay — often nearby.”

For Barnhart, the predicament is both personal and professional. “I have kids in this school system; I see it as a parent and as an educator,” she said. “It’s frustrating because I don’t want to leave, but at some point, I might not have a choice.”

Considering almost all those choices are within 30 minutes or less, Barnhart admitted it’s hard to ignore the disparity.

“If I left for Frederick County Schools [Virginia], I’d make over $6,400 more per year,” she said. “In Washington County [Maryland], over $11,500 more. And Loudoun County [Northern Virginia], almost $25,000 more.”

The numbers don’t lie

At the end of the day, however, this isn’t a new conversation for people like Barnhart, Fincham, and thousands of others within the region. In recent decades, West Virginia’s education landscape has been punctuated by significant teacher strikes, notably in and 2018 — both primarily driven by concerns over inadequate compensation and escalating health care costs.

The , in particular, saw approximately 20,000 educators and school personnel shutting down schools across all 55 counties, culminating in a 5% pay raise for all state workers.

And yet, in 2025 — as in most years previous — West Virginia sits either nationally or perilously close to dead last on just about any average teacher salary list you come across — jostling for position between Florida, South Dakota and Missouri year after year. Be that as it may, according to the most recent data available from the National Education Association, the estimated national average annual salary for teachers — while West Virginia shuffles in at .

That said, the Eastern Panhandle’s three core counties — Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan — are the fastest-growing in the state, and closest to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, making them highly susceptible to issues like cost-of-living disparities and teacher-pay inequities.

According to the most recent data from the West Virginia Department of Education, the in Berkeley County lands at $55,412; the average for Jefferson County comes in at $54,153; and Morgan County sits at $55,624.

Compare that to West Virginia’s poorest county, McDowell, where the average teacher salary is . However, the average home value in McDowell County hovers with the median home sale price standing at approximately $41,000. Accordingly, almost all cost-of-living data is lower or significantly lower in . To that end, $53,296 goes a long way there, as it does in numerous other counties in West Virginia that boast similar cost-of-living data.

By contrast, average home values in Berkeley County climb into the . In Jefferson County, it’s even higher, with values . In Morgan County, values can . The cost of living within these three counties is commensurate with those values. But the average teacher salary within the Eastern Panhandle comes in at $55,063 — not even $2,000 more annually than West Virginia’s poorest county.

Talk to anyone close to this issue, and they will tell you in no uncertain terms — it’s becoming all but impossible to work as a teacher or education service worker in the Eastern Panhandle and pay the bills. And when extra money does arrive, it’s in the form of a statewide raise — without consideration for locality pay — which keeps that allotment relatively small in proportion to the ever-widening economic gap between the Eastern Panhandle and the rest of the state.

Bargaining power

“It’s economics 101,” said John Deskins, director of West Virginia University’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. “If salaries remain the same across the state, schools in more competitive job markets like the Eastern Panhandle will struggle to attract and retain teachers. It’s a matter of supply and demand — higher costs and a stronger labor market require higher pay.”

Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe, formerly superintendent in Cabell County, echoed the sentiment — and admitted to not fully grasping the depth of the problem until taking his current job.

“In my previous county, we competed with Ohio and Kentucky for teachers, but the disparity wasn’t nearly as severe as what we see here with Maryland and Virginia,” he said.

Saxe doesn’t believe West Virginia needs to match those salaries dollar for dollar, “… but we must close the gap,” he said. “Right now, we have around 200 permanent substitute positions because we can’t fill them with certified staff. That depletes our substitute pool and leaves us constantly reposting vacancies for high-need areas.”

Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, believes part of the issue is Charleston’s reluctance to even acknowledge cost-of-living disparities.

“The federal government has already done the research to determine appropriate salary increases for employees based on regional economic conditions,” she said. “A similar approach for public employees in high-cost areas in our state makes sense.”

But the push for locality pay has failed repeatedly, she said, primarily due to opposition from lawmakers outside the Eastern Panhandle.

“The Senate has passed similar measures three times, only for them to fail in the House,” Rucker said, “The last time, we were 14 votes short. That’s a big gap.”

The resistance comes from a long-standing belief in uniform pay across all 55 counties, said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.

“But that resistance mindset ignores an economic reality,” Lee said. “A few years ago, an attempt to secure locality pay for state police was soundly defeated. The challenge is that while it would benefit a few counties, the majority wouldn’t see any advantage — so their delegates aren’t inclined to support it.”

Instead of direct locality pay, some legislators are exploring alternatives, like reducing the “local share,” which would allow high-growth counties to keep more of their tax revenue to fund education salaries.

“If that money is earmarked for salaries and benefits, it could be a real solution,” Lee said.

As Lee indicated, the shortage isn’t limited to teachers — state police, social workers and other public employees face the same problem in high-cost areas.

Former West Virginia delegate John Doyle has been advocating for locality pay for over 30 years, first proposing a housing allowance in the early 2000s as a way to soften opposition.

“The state would provide a housing allowance based on cost-of-living data,” he said. “Every county would be ranked from 1 to 55, with the median county serving as the baseline. Any county ranked above the median would receive some level of housing allowance — smaller for those just above, larger for the highest-cost counties.”

He recalled that when cost-of-living data was first released to legislators, some were stunned by the housing prices in the Eastern Panhandle. “They assumed we all lived in large homes. I had to explain that I lived in a 1,000-square-foot FHA rancher, and it was worth almost double the state average.”

Doyle also warned against the idea that raising salaries in border counties would simply cause a ripple effect of teacher migration.

“Salaries don’t need to match Maryland and Virginia — just get close enough. If the gap is $20,000, they’ll leave. If it’s $10,000 or less, they might stay.”

But the state has spent decades failing to act. Doyle pointed out that in 1990, West Virginia was ranked 26th in teacher pay after a major statewide raise under former Gov. Gaston Caperton. By the late 1990s, Maryland and Virginia had surged past it once again.

“Every few years, the issue reaches a boiling point, like the 2018 teacher strike, which resulted in a 5% statewide raise — but failed to address the Eastern Panhandle’s unique economic challenges,” he underscored.

With legislative momentum reliably sluggish, greater political action might be required, said Rucker — who also chairs the Government Organization Committee.

“If we don’t have enough qualified teachers, we are failing to meet our constitutional obligation to provide an efficient education system. A class action lawsuit could force the state’s hand,” she said.

On the economic side, Deskins sees another consequence of inaction: economic decline.

“If schools decline due to this crisis, the region becomes far less appealing. People don’t want to move to areas with struggling schools, which would ultimately slow economic growth,” Deskins said.

Essentially, explained Deskins, West Virginia’s fastest-growing region — the only part of the state successfully attracting new residents — is being left to fend for itself.

“From a broad economic-development perspective, we’re making one of the state’s most promising regions less attractive — ultimately working against ourselves,” Deskins said.

The political fight will only continue, and will hopefully play a prominent role in the current legislative session, said Doyle — who believes the Eastern Panhandle finally has strength in numbers.

“The Eastern Panhandle now has more than 10% of the legislature,” Doyle said. “That gives our delegation real bargaining power. If they unify and make this a non-negotiable priority, they can trade support on other bills to get it passed.”

Rucker agreed.

“The delegates from this region have better strength in numbers, and are working hard to educate their colleagues and emphasize that this benefits the entire state, not just the Panhandle,” she said.

Nonetheless, Lee remains skeptical.

“In my experience, when the legislature makes something a priority, they find the money for it,” he said. “If this becomes a priority, a solution will follow. But that remains to be seen.”

Doyle, however, was more blunt: “At the heart of it all is the fact that the state doesn’t want to give money to teachers because they want to be able to give a giant tax break to corporations.”

Repeated requests for comment from State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt went unanswered.

The cost of inaction

Imagine a moment in the near future in the Eastern Panhandle — likely Berkeley or Jefferson Counties — when a brand-new high school opens with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with such occasions. And on day one, as the doors open and the students pour through them en route to homeroom and the new year ahead, not a single certified teacher is there to greet them. Rather, every room, and every subject, is being covered by a substitute.

Sounds crazy? Many education professionals in the Eastern Panhandle are calling it something else: inevitable.

“I can easily see that happening — we’re drowning,” said Jana Woofter, a chemistry and physical science teacher at Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg. Woofter also serves as president of the Berkeley County Education Association.

“Bills are often triple what they are in other parts of the state,” she said. “Housing costs are through the roof. Berkeley County tries to help with a housing allowance, but Jefferson and Morgan counties don’t have those same benefits. Even with the assistance, my members are struggling — especially with PEIA [West Virginia’s Public Employees Insurance Agency] .”

The struggle isn’t just with the state. Clay Anders, a physical education teacher at C.W. Shipley Elementary in Jefferson County’s Harpers Ferry, is frustrated that even as property values have doubled, teachers haven’t seen a county-based raise in over a decade.

“The local levy passed again, and there’s millions in additional revenue coming in — but none of it has gone to us in quite a while,” he said. “Meanwhile, the board office has added new positions and given themselves raises every year.”

As of Nov. 6, 2024, the passed with ease — totaling $25,427,656. According to Jefferson County Schools, the bulk of the levy — $19,376,035 — will go to “salary assistance for teachers and service personnel.”

At the same time, Anders pointed out, extra-pay options that once existed for Jefferson County educators have disappeared.

“The county cut a program that allowed teachers to earn up to 3,000 extra dollars per year. That was real money that made a difference. But then they phased it down to $1,500, and now it’s gone completely.”

The level of participation in that program told him everything he needed to know.

“Nearly 98% of eligible teachers took part in it,” Anders said. “That should tell you how much we need the money.”

He believes that if the county won’t act, teachers may have to take matters into their own hands.

“Maryland and Virginia have county-based unions that fight for local pay,” Anders said. “West Virginia doesn’t. We only have state-level unions, and they aren’t fighting county battles.”

Additionally, Anders and a group of teachers are preparing a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover exactly where the money is going.

“The board claims there’s no money for teacher raises, yet they’re increasing salaries at the top. If every million dollars in new revenue could mean an $800 to $900 raise per teacher, then where is that money going?”

The answer, at least in Berkeley County, according to Board of Education member Damon Wright, is complicated.

“Most of our budget already goes to salaries,” Wright said. “And we’ve denied requests for new administrative positions to keep costs down. But we continue to have growth needs — especially when it comes to mental health services for students, which require more funding.

“That said, every time we dip into reserves, we run the risk of the state stepping in and questioning our financial management. We’ve increased the housing allowance, and we’ll keep looking for ways to supplement pay, but we can’t solve this alone.”

The challenges only get more complex, he said, when Charleston refuses to act.

“The state doesn’t believe in cost-of-living adjustments. They think if we raise salaries in high-cost areas like the panhandle, teachers from rural counties will flood the region. But that’s not realistic. Most teachers in McDowell and similar counties are among the highest-paid professionals in their communities. Here, teachers need roommates just to afford rent.”

Michelle Pereschuk, a special education teacher at South Middle School, called the system broken and confessed that teachers are running out of reasons to stay — including herself.

“I’ve been at the tipping point for years,” she said. “I was born and raised in Berkeley County. My kids are in the school system. I want to stay — but I can’t afford it much longer.”

Like many in the county, Pereschuk’s mortgage swallows her paycheck. She once considered a position in nearby Washington County, Maryland, that would have paid her $11,000 more in the first year and up to $17,000 more over time. She ultimately stayed due to personal reasons, but the pull to leave grows stronger every day.

“Winchester City Schools and Frederick County, [both in Virginia], are 20 minutes from my house. Maryland and Virginia also allow out-of-state teachers to send their kids to school there. For the first three years, you pay a small tuition fee, then your kids attend for free. If I move, I could take my youngest with me and give him a better-funded education while making a lot more money.”

Such decisions aren’t just being measured in Pereschuk’s household, she assured, but rather, in many homes across the region.

“Off the top of my head, I can name at least 10 people in my school alone who are seriously considering leaving,” she said.

Woofter, who works multiple jobs to make ends meet, added that, even for those who choose to stay, survival requires sacrifices.

“I run the science fair for my school and the county, coordinate academic competitions, tutor, sell tickets at events — anything to make extra money. If I moved across the border, I wouldn’t have to do all that. But I stay because I love it here.”

As for rising insurance costs, Wright said, whatever raises the state offers at this point are quickly wiped out by PEIA increases.

“The misconception is that a raise actually means more money,” he said. “It doesn’t. When insurance premiums jump 40%, and co-pays triple, as they’re set to do, it’s actually a pay cut. Later this summer, when those PEIA increases hit, I think we’ll see a mass exodus — not just teachers, but public employees across the board.”

Without action, warned Woofter, the situation will only deteriorate. She’s already seeing it play out at her own school.

“Spring Mills High School opened in 2013. In just over a decade, fewer than 20 original staff members remain. That kind of turnover is devastating.”

Moreover, Wright said, Charleston’s inaction is feeding into another, larger movement — the privatization of education.

“Rather than addressing the crisis in public schools, the state is using the decline as an excuse to push private schools, charter schools and voucher programs,” he said. “The problem is, 25% of Berkeley County’s students have special needs, and public schools are required to serve them — private schools are not.”

West Virginia doesn’t fully fund those services so counties cover the gap.

“If lawmakers shift funding away from public schools to private options, that burden grows,” Wright said. “They’re letting the system fail so they can justify alternatives.”

At the end of the day, he said the community is the last line of defense.

“We’re already in crisis mode — whether the state chooses to address it or not. The public needs to understand just how bad this is getting. And the only way any of this changes is if the public demands it — loudly. If people in the panhandle make enough noise, Charleston can’t ignore it forever.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

As the brother of a recent graduate from the University of Wyoming’s College of Education, Rep. Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne) has seen firsthand how lagging teacher salaries in Wyoming affect the state’s pool of educators. 

“The offer that he received from Arizona was $22,000 more a year than what he was offered for any school district here in the state of Wyoming, including Cheyenne, where his home was,” Brown told his colleagues on the Joint Education Committee Thursday. 

“He picked up and moved to the state of Arizona, where he’s going to pay income tax, because he can make $22,000 more a year,” he continued. 

In the face of such anecdotes, as well as empirical evidence that Wyoming is , the Joint Education Committee recommended an 8.5% “external cost adjustment,” or temporary increase in funding, for teacher and other school staff salaries for the 2025-26 school year. The body voted 11-1 to recommend the increase.

The recommendation, which also includes shifts in funding for school materials and utilities, would increase funding by approximately $66.4 million in total. That would bring the funding in alignment with Wyoming’s “evidence-based model.” That funding model was implemented after the Wyoming Supreme Court in 1995 declared the state’s K-12 school finance system unconstitutional for failing to “provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction.” The new formula relies on consultants using complex economic data to periodically define appropriate funding levels instead of elected officials. 

The pay bump still has hurdles to clear. The Appropriations Committee will make its own recommendation on the matter to Gov. Mark Gordon by Nov. 1. 

But the Education Committee’s decision could represent a response to critics who say Wyoming has lost its ability to recruit and retain quality educators because it hasn’t kept up with the high relative pay it once offered. 

Background 

Wyoming periodically “recalibrates” how much the state is willing to spend on education and how the funds should be split — a complicated undertaking done with the help of consultants. The next recalibration is scheduled for 2025.

During the non-recalibration years, lawmakers decide whether inflation and cost models demand an external cost adjustment to appropriately fund staff, supplies and utilities. Any changes are then reflected in Wyoming’s Educational Block Grant Funding, a spending measure approved by the Legislature.

The committee’s discussion last week honed in on pay for teachers and other school staff. 

In 2010, teaching salaries in Wyoming were about 25% higher than salaries in adjacent states, according to a  by economics researcher Christiana Stoddard. But over the next decade, the state’s average teacher wage didn’t increase much, going from $59,268 in 2012 to $60,650 in 2020, the report states. 

Today, Wyoming still exceeds many Western states for teacher pay, but its edge has slipped. It’s ranked No. 26 in the nation for its average teacher salary of  $61,979, 

Teacher pay in surrounding states is creeping up, Stoddard told the committee Thursday, including in Utah, which now surpasses Wyoming. Teaching wages have also fallen relative to salaries in other comparable occupations in the state, she said. 

“Cost pressures matter because they affect the quality of teachers, and we know that teacher quality makes an enormous difference in terms of student outcomes,” Stoddard said. Many Wyoming school districts, she said, have opted to hire fewer personnel at a higher pay to remain competitive. 

Stoddard noted another concerning trend: “a pretty sharp drop in the number of bachelor’s degrees from the University of Wyoming who are graduating in teaching.” UW has been a major source of new teachers to Wyoming schools.

In an effort to sustain teaching levels, districts are coming up with creative solutions. Wyoming reported 190 teachers using emergency or provisional credentials and four teachers working outside their licensed subject area for the 2021-22 school year, according to a Learning Policy Institute  on the state of the teacher workforce. 

Keeping constitutional 

After listening to reports on the state of school funding Thursday, Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) made a motion to recommend an external cost adjustment that includes the 8.5% increase for both professional and non-professional staff. 

The total $66.4-million difference in the funding that adjustment would represent is “not an arbitrary number,” Rothfuss said. 

Instead, it’s the figure legislative staff identified to ensure Wyoming follows its constitutional mandates, he said. “It is the amount that it takes to make a constitutional, statutory model equivalent to the evidence-based model.” 

Sheridan County School District 1 Business Manager Jeremy Smith encouraged the 8.5% recommendation. The conversation leading to it, he said, had a consistent theme: high teaching salaries can attract quality candidates even when they have alternate employment opportunities. 

One only has to look at the University of Wyoming graduation data to see that Wyomingites are being dissuaded from the profession, Smith said. He also pointed to a 2022 survey conducted by the University of Wyoming’s College of Education and the Wyoming Education Association that found 65% of Wyoming’s teachers would quit if they could. 

“Teachers aren’t very satisfied in their profession right now for a whole host of reasons, but one is certainly salary,” Smith said. “You’ve got to give the ECA, it’s got to be substantial and substantive in order to turn the ship around.”

Sen. Charles Scott (R-Casper) was the sole lawmaker to protest, calling the adjustment “out of line.” 

Rep. Brown of Cheyenne, meanwhile, spoke in support of it, saying that failing to sustain external cost adjustments has already proven to be unwise. 

“We’re not funding our school districts with the valuable resources they need to teach these kids,” he said before the committee passed the recommendation. 

According to a survey of more than 3,000 teachers conducted by AdoptAClassroom.org, a nonprofit crowdfunding platform, teachers received a median classroom school supply budget of $200 last school year – an amount that 93% of the respondents said was not enough to cover their in-class needs.

Many teachers choose to subsidize the remainder of the costs, but it comes at a steep price. Out-of-pocket spending among teachers has increased by 44% since 2015, the survey found, with teachers reporting that they spent an average of $860 of their own money on supplies and other expenses during the 2022-2023 school year.

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“Teachers spend their classroom supply budget fast,” Melissa Hruza, Vice President, Marketing & Development at AdoptAClassroom.org, told ����Ӱ��. “Even though they are willing to provide basic items like food and supplies for their students, their ability to pay for it is decreasing.”

One big reason: teacher pay has failed to keep up with the sky high rate of inflation in recent years. Adjusted for inflation, teachers are making $3,644 less than they did a decade ago, according to the National Education Association.

Communities and parents appear to be recognizing the challenges teachers face. AdoptAClassroom.org said its site has received more donations to teachers for the 2024-2025 back-to-school season than last year.

“Comparing July and August 2024 to the same period in 2023, the number of contributions to educators on AdoptAClassroom.org is currently up 13% from 2023 to 2024 so far this year,” Hruza said. “There’s also been a 9% increase in the number of both new fundraisers and total number of teachers with active campaigns.”

GoFundMe has seen a similar bump. So far this year, more than $12 million has been raised for K-12 education on the crowdfunding platform. In 2023, total funds raised for educators reached over $24 million — a 7% increase from the previous year.

“[P]eople don’t always see the hidden costs that end up on teachers’ hands, like providing additional resources for students who can’t afford small items like pencils,” Shawn An, a first-year earth and environmental science teacher at Julius L. Chambers High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, told ����Ӱ��.

To ensure he and his students were fully prepared for this school year, An launched a GoFundMe campaign called A Classroom for Future Scientists, with a goal to raise $1,000. He ended up receiving $1,045 in donations.

“What this funding created is the opportunity for me to bring the basic necessities into the classroom I need to succeed, like organizers and writing utensils to grade with,” An said. “It’s helped me create a space where I can be efficient and to find resources for students to engage in the work we’re asking them to do.”

Lightening the load

To help teachers afford the supplies they need, GoFundMe launched its own fundraising initiative called the Education Opportunity Fund. Since the fund’s launch in 2020, GoFundMe has raised more than $240,000 and has distributed more than 550 grants to teachers in order to help them afford classroom supplies and other educational resources, Leigh Lehman, GoFundMe director of communications, told ����Ӱ��.

“The grants were an additional step to offer help to educators and lighten their load a bit, and there are still grants available for teachers who are in need,” Lehman said.

Grants of can be put toward common classroom items like school supplies, books and class decorations. Funds can also be used for other educational resources or items like field trips, playground equipment, updated technology and extracurricular activities.

Similar to GoFundMe’s grant initiative, AdoptAClassroom.org provides funding through their Spotlight Fund Grants program. This program targets classroom initiatives that address things like social-emotional wellness, Indigenous language, arts, STEM education and racial equity. Eligible teachers can apply for grants of $750 or more on AdoptAClassroom.org.

“People all around the country want to find ways to help more teachers,” GoFundMe’s Lehman said. “They understand there is a gap in funding and that teachers are incredibly stressed.”

Keeping kids engaged

Hana Syed Khan, a fourth grade teacher in New Jersey’s South River Public Schools district, started her own GoFundMe campaign, A Classroom Built on Kindness, in August to support her efforts to make her classroom “as useful, accessible and hands-on as possible.”

Entering her fifth year of teaching at a new school in a new district, Syed Khan knew she had to be more creative with the amount of classroom space she has, materials needed and the resources available.

Her campaign raised $1,920 in funds, which she used to purchase a spin-the-wheel device, a carpet for reading time, books for the classroom library and the classroom staple Better Than Paper.

“The [kids] want to touch everything, and they should be able to. It’s their room,” Syed Khan told ����Ӱ��.

Through sharing via family group chats, her husband’s LinkedIn account, word-of-mouth and other social media platforms, like and , Syed Khan said she “feels fortunate to have set up the fundraiser and leverage community support for her classroom.”

She plans to keep her fundraiser open to donations so she can continue to afford classroom activities and incentives with hopes to keep students engaged through the year.

“Students in this district suffer from chronic absenteeism, which may stem from lack of transportation, parents’ schedule or a lack of motivation for themselves,” Syed Khan said. “Classroom incentives, like parties at the end of the month, are a really big part of what I want to use the funds for next.”

Drawing from his own school experience, An said he understands that many of his students face challenges outside of the classroom. Bringing smaller tools and supplies like writing utensils and paper to class is not the first thing on their mind.

“That can be a real barrier for students to access what teachers are asking them to do,” An said. “Using the donations to directly address those barriers helps students stay engaged to do their best in the classroom.”

He used a portion of the donations he has raised to purchase a rolling cart that allows for easy access to classroom supplies.

An and Syed Khan hope their efforts inspire other teachers to overcome the fear of asking for help. For Syed Khan, it was difficult to find the right words for the campaign and the video she included to go along with it. She wanted to ensure her classroom needs were as clear as possible to potential donors.

“Trying to figure out what to say to grab people’s attention was the most challenging part,” Syed Khan said.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” she said. “But when people see someone speaking and explaining what the funds will be used for, it can attract many people because they see a real human.”

An experienced similar doubts about asking for help. He credits his family for providing feedback on his campaign narrative and helping him to frame his message.

“My family and I went through a co-writing process to get the point across that this was me, just as a person, asking a personal favor of people who were available,” An said.

GoFundMe currently hosts webinars for educators and education-related organizations to help them learn how to effectively fundraise. They’ve also updated their with tips for teachers to share their campaign and keep communities engaged.

“Seeing more teachers turn to external sources of funding to help support their students’ needs is definitely eye-opening,” An said. “It highlights the fact that not as much care is funneled into education as I think it should be.”

Seven of these bills, including the , have become law.

My research team has been monitoring and documenting the effects of the salary changes introduced by the Arkansas LEARNS Act. As the program completes its first year, one lesson is becoming clear: Successful implementation requires the support and buy-in of school districts. Salary schedules that merely satisfy the minimal requirements of such legislation might not produce the desired results.

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Signed into law in March 2023, the LEARNS Act represents one of the most significant changes to teacher compensation in any state in decades. It raised Arkansas’s minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, guaranteed raises of at least $2,000 and removed the requirement that districts follow state-mandated minimum salaries for different levels of experience and education. This gave districts the flexibility to move away from traditional salary schedules based on seniority and experience.

As other states, such as Missouri, consider similar changes, Arkansas can offer lessons to be learned.

In a , we documented how Arkansas school districts adjusted to the new legislation. The LEARNS Act notably increased funding for rural and high-poverty districts, leading to a more equitable distribution of starting teacher pay. As a result, teaching positions in high-needs areas have become just as attractive in terms of salary as those in higher-income regions. This is a very positive result, as it can help attract new teachers to places where there are severe staffing challenges.

However, in the first year of implementation, most school districts made only the minimum salary schedule adjustments required by the LEARNS Act, leading, in some cases, to all teachers earning the same compensation regardless of experience or level of education. Currently, 55% of districts in the state do not offer seniority benefits to teachers, and there will be no clarity on the possibility of raises going forward unless districts approve further changes to their flat salary schedules.

Although teachers will certainly earn significantly more than they would have under the pre-LEARNS schedules, the lack of differentiation in salary by level of experience risks leaving , as they won’t receive raises throughout their careers. Veteran teacher pay is also among superintendents and principals we surveyed, as is uncertainty about future funding.

Like all education funding in Arkansas, the LEARNS Act must be reapproved every two years. Without a permanent funding source, superintendents — especially in smaller districts — are hesitant to deviate from the minimum teacher salaries by adding raises to their budgets. 

One superintendent said, “Until there’s a consistent funding flow for the new salaries, I am refraining from making any commitments on the salary schedule.”

Superintendents and principals in our survey also reported difficulty in budgeting for desired salary changes and uncertainty about which would be most effective for recruiting and retaining teachers.

Although it is too early to assess the long-term impact of the Arkansas LEARNS Act, the lack of clarity around its implementation and funding have limited the law’s . Our analysis shows that while some positive trends emerged, such as increased placement of new teachers in geographic shortage areas, broader impacts on retention and mobility were limited in this first year of implementation, 

The LEARNS Act has the potential to improve teacher recruitment and retention. However, without increased state support and guidance to districts, Arkansas may miss an opportunity to implement innovative strategies with the potential for greater impact. State leaders and policymakers should address funding uncertainties and offer districts assistance with teacher compensation plans, enabling them to make desired changes to their salary schedules and adopt more creative approaches.

WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur —  the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year  — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

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“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

Minimum teacher salary 

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, in March 2023 that would set an of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the .

Maryland sets $60,000 minimum  

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

An “allocation issue”  

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the , which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper presented on Wednesday, calling for approximately an additional $1 billion to go toward public education — including an average 8.5% raise for teachers, a $1,500 retention bonus, and reinstatement of master’s pay.

His proposal includes a 5% raise for most state employees, which includes non-certified school employees, and most community college employees.

Cooper said his proposal presents lawmakers with a choice to invest in North Carolina’s public schools, instead of prioritizing further tax breaks and the expansion of private school vouchers.

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“That’s the billion dollar choice,” Cooper said during a press conference in Raleigh. “…We have the revenue to do this — it is about priorities.”

The governor’s proposal follows his declaration of  and proclamation of 2024 as

Cooper presented his budget proposal on during which lawmakers can adjust the . Most sessions, the governor’s proposal is released first, followed by the House and Senate. At that point, the two chambers work together to pass an updated compromise budget.

There is a Republican supermajority this session, meaning Republicans will drive fiscal and policy decisions.

This year, North Carolina has a projected one-time  through FY 2025, according to the . This essentially means there is $1.4 billion extra state dollars that lawmakers can choose to invest during the short session.

House Speaker Tim Moore, , has already  that he would like to put $300 million more toward . The program, which funds private school vouchers at eligible schools, was expanded during the long session to all families regardless of income.

Moore also said he would like to see funding for child care subsidies, additional raises to school and state employees, and an additional $400 million toward Medicaid.

On Wednesday, Cooper said his proposal includes “a moratorium” on further expansion of public school vouchers. His proposal freezes the investment in the Opportunity Scholarship program at 2023-24 levels — adding about $174 million toward his investments in public school pay raises.

“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “One path prioritizes giveaways to the wealthy over the well-being of our state. The other secures a future of success for everyone — let’s hope we make the right choice.”

Below, you can find an overview of the education investments included in Cooper’s proposal.

Educator pay, bonuses

Cooper’s proposal includes $322.7 million to raise salaries for educators by 8.5% on average. This includes the average 3% raise most educators are slotted to receive in FY 2024-25 under

Under the proposal, a $1,000 bonus would go to all state employees. An additional $500 bonus would go to employees making less than $75,000 per year. One half of the bonus would be paid in Oct. 2024; the second half in April 2025.

The budget “lifts starting teacher salaries to more than $47,500 — the highest in the Southeast,” the proposal packet says. This number seems to include the $1,500 retention bonus the governor is proposing for most teachers.

Take a look at Cooper’s proposed teacher salary schedule for FY 2024-25, in the rightmost column.

The proposal also includes $10 million to “restore 10% master’s pay supplements for over 1,000 teachers whose advanced degrees are in the subjects they teach.”

As mentioned above, the proposal includes a raise of at least 5% for all state employees, which includes non-certified school employees.

Most state employees would receive an additional 2% raise in FY 2024-25, on top of the raise approved in the 2023 budget. Employees paid on an experience-based salary schedule would receive an extra 3%.

Finally, the governor’s budget proposal includes a one-time 3% retiree supplement in FY 2024-25. The 2023 budget included a one-time 4% supplement.

Cooper’s proposal also includes:

• $25.4 million to improve recruitment and retention for school-based administrators through salary increases. The budget includes a 6% total increase for existing principals.
• $8.2 million to expand the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program “to prepare up to 300 new principals annually.”
• $1.8 million to expand the Advanced Teaching Roles program.
• $1.7 million to increase funding for district-level recruitment bonuses in small and low-wealth counties. With the allocation included in the 2023 budget, the net allocation for this item would be $6 million.
• $1.6 million in recurring funds to expand supports for pre-service and beginning teachers in becoming fully licensed.
• The proposal also increases supplemental funding for the state’s 69 eligible low-wealth counties by 13%, or $40 million.
• $900,000 to cover the cost of National Board certification fees for 470 teachers each year, with priority to educators in high-need and low-performing schools. Board certified teachers earn a 12% supplement to their annual salary.

The proposal would also invest in many initiatives to strengthen the state’s teacher pipeline. During the 2022-23 school year, — up from 7.8% of teachers who left teaching the year before.

There is $4.7 million to expand to up to 490 new candidates in FY 2024-25. The budget would extend eligibility for the program to all institutions with approved educator preparation programs (EPPs) and to students in any licensure area.

The proposal includes an additional $4 million to expand , which focuses on supports for beginning teachers at low-performing, high-poverty schools.

Another $5 million would establish a matching grant program for “high-quality teacher preparation residency programs in high-need rural and urban districts,” to be distributed by the State Board of Education.

There is $500,000 for statewide professional development from the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). Another $300,000 would expand “teacher candidate recruitment programs and fund a study to improve recruitment strategies” to reduce teacher vacancy rates. That study will “include research and recommendations for a statewide system or entity to coordinate teacher recruitment and support.”

Other funds for public schools, students

The governor’s proposal includes funding to hire 700 additional K-3 teacher assistants (TAs) — an increase of 11% from the current budget. The increase is funded by Education Lottery receipts.

Additionally, the proposal would fund about 575 new school health personnel, which includes school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.

The budget also proposes a $2.5 billion school construction bond, which would be voted on in November 2024. That bond could fund approximately 90 new elementary and middle schools, Cooper said during the press conference.

“Over the next five years almost 1,600 schools report needing renovation and 131 new schools need to be built,” the proposal says.

The proposal also addresses several of the

First, there is $35 million to expand Read to Achieve literacy programs to middle grade students.

There is also $19 million toward DPI’s . DPI asked the General Assembly for $4.5 million to continue that work after federal Covid relief dollars run out in September.

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt also advocated last long session for universal school meals for students.

Cooper’s proposal does not include funding for universal school meals, but does include an additional $900,000 to “offset the co-pays for students eligible for reduced-price lunches in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program.”

“Research shows that receiving free lunch improves school attendances and decreases food insecurity and suspensions,” the proposal says.

The 2023 budget included $3 million to permanently eliminate the reduced-price lunch copay for North Carolina students and eliminate penalties for unpaid student meal debt. The governor’s proposal makes that $3.9 million for FY 2024-25.

The proposal also includes required state matching funds for the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children (Summer EBT). The program, also known as , “will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families to prevent child hunger during the summer months when school is out for children who rely on school meals for daily nutrition.” SUN Bucks will launch this summer.

Additionally, the proposal includes:

• $10 million to hire a Career and Postsecondary Planning Director at DPI and increase the number of school-based coordinators in sixth-12th grade.
• The elimination of the 13% funding cap for Exceptional Children (EC) students to “provide additional teachers and instructional support, instructional supplies and materials, and staff development.” The 2023 budget instructed DPI to to remove that cap and instead fund children “on the basis of the reported cost of services provided.”
• The proposal also removes the 10.6% funding gap for students with Limited English proficiency. Under the proposal, schools for whom English learners make up more than 10.6% of their ADM would receive additional funds for “classroom teachers, textbooks, staff development, and other supports needed to help these students thrive.”
• $70 million combined in the At-Risk and Disadvantaged Student Supplemental funds to “fund teachers and instructional support positions, provide intensive in-school and after school remediation, and provide professional development for teachers serving disadvantaged students.”
• $6 million to create a pilot program to give funds to high-poverty schools “that adopt a Community Schools or other evidence-based model to address out of school barriers to learning.”
• $12.8 million to the Uniform Education Reporting System (UERS) to increase statewide student reporting capacity. There is also nearly $5 million to support various cybersecurity initiatives across the state’s public schools.

The proposal also includes $400,000 to establish an equity office at DPI “to direct the recruitment and retention of a diverse educator workforce that is representative of the state’s student population.”

This comes after the UNC Board of Governor’s Committee on University Governance recently .

There is also $453,000 to fund positions to support DPI’s central financial infrastructure. Recent financial challenges and budget shortfalls among North Carolina school districts of chief financial officers and sound financial systems.

Early child care

Federal funds stabilizing child care run out at the end of June. In response, child care advocates  for a one-time $300 million allocation to avoid closures and price increases for parents.

Advocates  for the same amount last year .

The governor’s proposal includes $200 million for stabilization grants.

“Access to affordable child care for parents, businesses, and educators is one of the most immediate threats to sustaining our momentum,” the proposal’s introduction says. “Nearly one-third of North Carolina child care centers are at risk of closure and only 26% of parents can afford child care costs.”

There is also $129 million for child care subsidies to increase reimbursement rates for providers in rural and low-wealth communities, which the proposal says will “secure child care for approximately 50,000 children per year by creating a statewide rate floor starting in July 2024.”

“These funds will allow about 3,500 child care sites in over 75% of NC counties to see an increase in their subsidy rate,” the proposal says.

The proposal also includes $197 million to expand access to NC Pre-K, the state’s preschool program for eligible 4-year-olds. The program currently reaches about half of eligible 4-year-olds, or 30,000 children.

There is also $24 million to provide “wrap-around summer care and learning programs for students once they complete NC Pre-K and before they enter kindergarten.”

As EdNC has previously reported, child care teachers make some of the

The governor’s proposal would create a grant program to help child care teachers afford care for their own children. The $25 million program would provide “free or reduced cost care for the children of roughly 2,200 child care providers,” the proposal says.

There is also $26 million to provide educational attainment-based salary supplements, through expansion of the .

The budget also adds a fourth region to the . That model splits the cost of child care between participating businesses, eligible employees, and the state government.

The governor’s proposal also includes:

• $50 million toward start-up and capital grants for NC Pre-K and child care centers. There is also $10 million to expand Smart Start, which serves young children and families across the state.
• $24 million to create a pilot program “to incentivize the business community to contribute to employee dependent care flexible spending accounts.”
• $1.2 million to implement recruitment strategies and professional development for child care teachers.
• The provision of a refundable child and dependent care tax credit.

Finally, the budget allocates $100,000 to the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) to “evaluate the effectiveness of the Child Care Grant Program, which was appropriated $1.2 million in recurring funds” in the 2023 budget.

The program, which has been in place since 1993, provides grants to community college students to use for child care while they are in school. The program needs more funding and wider eligibility, local administrators of the grants

“The evaluation will assess the program’s effectiveness and propose adjustments that would support more North Carolina parents seeking community college education,” the governor’s proposal says.

Community colleges

During the press conference, Cooper said his proposal includes “significant funding for community colleges.”

There is about $28.5 million to give 5% across-the-board raises to most state-funded community college employees in FY 2024-25. Another $28.5 million goes toward the Enhanced Labor Market Adjustment Reserve, to give the system “flexibility to address specific challenges for hard-to-retain and fill roles.”

State-funded community college employees would receive the same retention bonus as state employees and educators, up to $1,500. Community college retirees would also receive the same one-time 3% supplement.

On top of the retention bonus, Cooper’s proposal includes $3.1 million to give “a 10% per course bonus for full-time and adjunct instructors who teach courses inside correctional facilities.”

“Community colleges play a key role in education for incarcerated individuals. Obtaining an associate’s degree significantly reduces recidivism rates,” the proposal says. “Currently, over 75 community college courses are offered in prisons across the state.”

This year, the NCCCS’ primary legislative request is funding for Propel NC, . The request includes a nearly $100 million price tag for FY 2024-25.

Propel NC would shift the current full-time equivalent (FTE) funding tiers to “workforce sectors,” with courses ranked and valued by statewide salary job demand data. The NCCCS says this will move the system toward a labor-market driven model of community college programs. The anticipated cost of this component of the model is approximately $68.6 million, .

The governor’s budget includes $34.3 million to implement Propel NC.

“This new funding model will help streamline degree attainment and prepare a well-trained workforce to meet the demands of the State’s growing economy,” the proposal says.

Propel NC also includes a request of $6 million to increase the enrollment increase reserve across the system. Per the system’s proposal, those nonrecurring funds would go toward a fixed per-FTE amount for any colleges that go over the enrollment threshold set by their FTE for the fiscal year.

Cooper’s proposal allocates $3 million to establish that reserve.

The governor’s proposal did not including funding for the last component of Propel NC with a price tag — $24.4 million to increase the base allocation for colleges.

The proposal did include a $25 million enrollment growth adjustment for FY 2024-25, “based on the increase in community college enrollment. Community college enrollment increased by 4.6%, or 10,435 full-time equivalent students.”

The governor’s proposal also includes a number of investments in the workforce, funding many projects through the NCCCS.

The budget proposal includes $40 million to complete construction of Central Carolina Community College’s Moore Center, which “will be used as a shared training center by Advance NC to train staff for new and expanding employers in the electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain, semiconductors, and life sciences.”

There is $4 million for the NCCCS to create a competitive grant fund for community colleges with electric vehicle workforce programs.

Finally, there is also $133,000 for ApprenticeshipNC to establish a “whole system model” of apprenticeships with the DPI and the Department of Commerce.

“We recognize (community colleges) as a core anchor to economic improvement,” Cooper said.

The budget also includes $3.25 million in nonrecurring funds to establish a rural youth apprenticeship program across five regions, to be distributed by the Department of Commerce. After two years, the funding of successful programs will depend on local funding sources.

The proposal packet says the program is modeled on “the successful Surry-Yadkin Works model developed by Surry and Yadkin counties.” That model created in 2021 to connect high school students in Surry and Yadkin counties with internship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities in local high-demand fields.

You can read the governor’s full proposal .

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

A bill requiring public schools to raise teacher pay with no promise of new state funding passed a legislative committee Wednesday in Pierre.

Nobody testified against , but several lobbyists representing the education community called it a work in progress.

“It is not a perfect bill, but a compromise that will hopefully help us attract new teachers and retain the current, experienced teachers, and bring quality education to the students in the state of South Dakota,” said Dianna Miller, a lobbyist for the Large School Group.

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The legislation would set a statewide minimum teacher salary of $45,000, beginning July 1, 2026. That minimum standard would increase each year by a percentage equal to the annual increase in state education funding approved by the Legislature and governor.

The bill would also require schools to raise their average teacher compensation — including pay and benefits — by percentages equal to annual increases in state funding. That requirement would begin with the 2025 fiscal year.

Gov. Kristi Noem, for not matching teacher pay increases with state aid increases, a 4% increase in education funding for the next state budget.

School districts that fail to meet the bill’s requirements could suffer a $500-per-teacher deduction in state education funding. But they could also request a waiver and work with the state School Finance Accountability Board to come into compliance.

Because the bill depends on future legislative decisions to increase state funding, a lobbyist for schools said it will spread the responsibility for teacher salaries beyond local school boards. Schools rely not only on state funding, but also on federal funding and local property tax revenue.

“Let’s make no mistake: This does create some shared responsibility now with the Legislature, because as we move forward, it’s going to be the responsibility of the Legislature to help fund education,” said Mitch Richter, lobbyist for the South Dakota United Schools Association.

Richter said some small, rural schools with stagnant or declining enrollment might be unable to meet the bill’s requirements. State funding for individual schools is tied to enrollment, so schools with declining enrollment may not receive the full benefit of annual increases in state aid. He said some of those rural schools might be forced to consolidate.

“We’ll have to come up with a plan for that, because those districts are going to need some help,” Richter said.

Miller said the bill could also cause difficulties for larger schools with declining enrollment, possibly causing them to use reserve funds to raise teacher pay.

According to the National Education Association, South Dakota ranks (out of 51, due to the inclusion of Washington, D.C.).

That’s despite the passage of a half-percentage-point increase in the state sales tax rate to raise teacher salaries. The legislation sent an infusion of money to schools that pushed South Dakota up a few places in national teacher pay rankings, but the state has slipped in the rankings since then. Last year, legislators and Gov. Noem from 4.5% to 4.2%.

Joe Graves, head of the state Department of Education, said this year’s bill is a continuation of the work that started in 2016. He called the bill a “rock solid step forward in ensuring enhanced compensation for our state’s teachers.”

Graves said the bill includes some provisions to help schools meet the requirements. For example, a provision that was amended into the bill Wednesday would allow school boards to roll some of their excess average compensation forward to future years.

“Districts, in other words, can exceed one year’s increase, in order to have already made progress on future increases,” Graves said.

The House Education Committee voted to send the bill to the House of Representatives. Rep. Phil Jensen, R-Rapid City, and Rep. Stephanie Sauder, R-Bryant, cast the two no votes.

Jensen referenced Rapid City school officials’ inability to win voter approval of bond financing for construction projects, which has made it difficult for the district to maintain its facilities.

“I’m afraid that this would just be disastrous for the Rapid City schools along with all the smaller schools,” Jensen said.

Sauder said the legislation would cause some schools to eliminate teaching positions and combine classrooms.

“It just doesn’t iron out the wrinkles that need to be taken care of before we move forward,” she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been altered since its original publication with language to clarify the effect of 2016 legislation on teacher pay.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on and .

Legislation boosting teacher recruitment and retention in Missouri is once again a priority of the Missouri House, with a hearing Wednesday morning on a pair of Republican-backed bills.

Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly, is sponsoring based on the findings of the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s blue ribbon commission. It is the third year he has sponsored legislation on teacher recruitment and retention.

“The problem is obvious to all of us at this point,” he told the committee. “We don’t have enough teachers for our public schools and, to some extent, for the private and parochial schools as well.”

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After three years in a Missouri school district, an average 43.3% of teachers leave, .

According to the , a teachers’ union, the state ranks 50th in average starting teacher pay and 47th in average teacher pay.

Lewis’s bill seeks to raise the base teacher pay, allow differentiated salary schedules for hard-to-staff areas and increase scholarships to recruit teachers, among other provisions.

Rep. Ann Kelley, a Republican from Lamar, asked whether support staff could be added to the bill.

“The schools cannot be successful without the support staff, and the salaries of the support staff and retention and retaining those support staff is vital,” Kelley said.

Lewis was hesitant to increase the potential fiscal impact.

“We’re gonna have a hard time getting anything across the finish line on the other side,” he said, referring to the Senate.

Last year, he filed the teacher pay-raise proposals as separate bills before the committee combined them into one bill. The House overwhelmingly on a 145-5 vote, but filibusters in the Senate could be debated in that chamber.

Rep. Willard Haley, a Republican from Eldon, is also to raise teachers’ minimum salary — though his ask is a bit different. He hopes to raise the base to $46,000 by the 2027-28 school year. Fully implemented, the bill is estimated to cost up to $17.5 million.

“I just insist that it’s time that we start paying our teachers what they deserve,” Haley said.

He said teenagers with a high-school diploma can make more working at a local factory than some teachers do.

Currently, state statute allows schools to pay teachers as little as $25,000 or $33,000 for those with a master’s degree and 10 years of experience.

The state has a grant program, which is up for renewal annually, to raise teacher base salaries to $38,000. In the current school year, 310 school districts are using the grant for a total of 4,806 teachers, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told The Independent.

Gov. Mike Parson has requested an increase to this program to raise the base to $40,000 for the next fiscal year.

Lewis doesn’t like relying on the annual appropriations for teacher salaries. He said he worries, with an upcoming gubernatorial election, the next governor may not fully fund the base-salary grant.

“I don’t think we should legislate through the budget. I think that the policy should go first and the budget should follow,” he told the committee.

Haley’s bill prescribes a fund that would match district’s contributions 70/30 to get salaries to his preferred base.

Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Columbia Democrat, said she wanted a “broader” change.

“I look at our large school districts… 52% of our districts will see no impact from state dollars towards teacher salaries,” she said. “I feel pretty confident if we ask those districts ‘Are you having a retention problem?’ They would probably all say yes.”

Rep. Dan Stacy, a Republican from Blue Springs, asked if a base-pay increase could be tied to a decrease to another part of the budget. Haley said his bill is “top priority.”

“This is such a priority item that we must handle this,” he said. “We must fulfill this funding even at a cost to some other things. But education is that important to me.”

No one testified in opposition to the legislation Wednesday.

Perry Gorrell, interim legislative liaison for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said raising the base teacher pay is the Commissioner of Education’s top priority.

“We know that the greatest impact on student achievement is having highly qualified teachers for students. These two bills helped to ensure that,” he said.

Otto Fajen, lobbyist for the Missouri branch of the National Education Association, said the teachers’ union would like lawmakers to consider small schools with under 100 kids when looking at funding.

“While not that many of our members are going to benefit directly from the increase here, it sends a message that the legislature believes that entry pay and, overall, the earnings for teachers should resemble similar professions to make it a more viable choice going forward,” Fajen said.

Steve Carroll, a lobbyist representing the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City and St. Louis Public Schools, said he woke up at nearly 4 a.m. thinking about these bills.

He felt like his anxiety was pointless because the bills “probably won’t even make it across the finish line because of what’s going on in the Senate.”

But he saw the salary of a baseball player in a news article and marveled at society’s “priorities.” He believes teachers are the ones more deserving of higher pay.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on and .

With more Missouri school districts switching to four-day weeks — including some of the largest — education leaders and state legislators are raising concerns.

Four-day weeks have been an option for Missouri schools since 2011, and now over 30% of the state’s districts have adopted this shortened week — serving around 11% of the state’s students. Many of the districts are in rural parts of the state.

Some state lawmakers, concerned with the shortened schedule, are pushing bills to reign in the practice. And on Tuesday, the State Board of Education was originally scheduled to review a study on the four-day school week, though that has been delayed due to possible inclement weather.

The study concludes that, overall, the four-day schedule had “no statistically significant effect on either academic achievement or building growth.” Academic achievement looks at one year of scores whereas building growth compares students scores over time.

Schools that adopted a four-day school week both before and after the pandemic were included in the study. Data is limited on recent adopters like the Independence School District, , but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is seeing trends.

Districts that switched before the pandemic were more likely to be rural, whereas districts embracing four-day weeks now are likely to be in towns, have multiracial populations and have more foster students, according to the report.

Jon Turner, an associate professor at Missouri State University who researches the four-day school week, was not surprised that the department found little to no effect on academic achievement.

“It is pretty consistent nationwide,” he told The Independent. “As you protect instructional hours, there is a minimal if any negative academic impact.”

The research he has studied has shown that the four-day week does not diminish academics so long as the instructional hours remain constant. Currently, state law requires 1,044 hours in school.

Legislation

Three bills have already been filed this legislative session that focus on the length of school weeks, coming from both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat, got an amendment approved in the Senate last year that would have required a local vote to authorize a four-day school week. This year, Beck has a bill that would allow towns with fewer than 30,000 residents to adopt a four-day school week by a vote of the school board, as is law now, but larger cities would have to seek voter approval.

“I’ve talked to my colleagues, and they said in the rural area, they didn’t want to have the five-day part,” Beck told The Independent. “This would still allow them to do that. But if you’re in (larger areas), you still could go four days. You just have to get the vote of the people.”

Republican Rep. Aaron McMullen and Democratic Rep. Robert Sauls — both from Independence, where the school district — filed similar bills.

McMullen is worried for the families in his city coordinating daycare and other services with an extra day off.

“My main concern is the economic impact that it has on the city,” he told The Independent. “Essentially, we’re giving less services but still charging the same amount of tax.”

Turner said that while there is not a negative academic outcome, the effect on families varies situationally. Schools providing special education are required to keep the hours of intervention specified in students’ individualized learning plan, which is a document that outlines accommodations and goals. But some students receiving these services may miss the fifth day.

“I do believe that we should get involved,” McMullen said. “But we should be able to give the ability for people to actually have the final say on it. We’re trying to empower the people that live in the school district to have the final say on whether or not they should go to four days.”

McMullen’s bill mirrors Beck’s by only requiring a public vote in larger localities.

But Beck’s and Sauls’ bills would provide incentives for districts that choose a five-day week. Districts with at least 175 school days can choose their school year’s start date, an option not available since the 2020-21 school year.

Their legislation also calls for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to pay districts with at least 169 school days a two percent bonus, calculated by the previous year’s state aid, to go toward boosting teacher salaries.

Beck said this provision gets to the heart of the issue: Recruiting and retaining teachers.

“The main reason why we have school districts going four days is not because of children learning better or any study that they’ve done,” he said. “The original thing was they couldn’t keep teachers, and this was to bring teachers in.”

When the Independence School District announced its switch, Superintendent Dale Herl said in an introductory video that the four-day week was to maintain a workforce.

The cause

Turner, who also serves on the board of the Missouri Association of Rural Education, told The Independent the four-day week is born from the educator hiring struggles Missouri districts are facing, particularly in rural areas.

“Never when I met any of those superintendents when I said, ‘Why did you do this?’ Not one said we wanted to do this. This was a part of a bigger vision,” he said. “This is a symptom of what schools are having to do to keep educators in classrooms teaching.”

In December, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told the state board that are the teacher of record for their classroom — meaning the class doesn’t have a certified teacher overseeing that student.

Turner said salaries for experienced teachers can vary greatly within a 30-mile radius, incentivizing educators to drive out of their rural town of residence and teach where they are better compensated.

To compete, the rural districts can utilize a four-day school week as an incentive for their workforce to stay.

“You’ve got wealthier, typically suburban, larger school districts that are able to out-compete in the job marketplace for your applicants, so you have this constant turnover in the small rural schools,” Turner said. “That’s what this four-day week is showing is that it is really the only arrow that rural school districts have in their quiver to fight the higher paying salaries.”

School districts on Missouri’s border face competition across state lines, Turner said. Arkansas increased its minimum teacher salary to $50,000 beginning last July.

Missouri lawmakers have proposed hikes to teacher wages , though last year.

McMullen, though he didn’t include the teacher-wage incentive in his bill, said he is in favor of increasing teacher pay.

“​​We need to allocate more money to public schools but have that actually go to teacher salaries and not to administration,” he said.

Beck hopes the legislature will discuss issues like teacher wages, like a bill that would increase the base teacher salary. He thinks there is enough interest to get the legislation through, though it may have to be an amendment to a larger bill.

“I truly have some really good bipartisan support on this bill, maybe more on the Republican side,” he said.

McMullen feels similarly, saying it is difficult to pass a standalone bill through the Senate.

“We have a very, very good chance of getting this bill and some aspects passed this year.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on and .

Head Start, the federally-funded early childhood program for children from low-income families, is Alaska’s largest early childhood program.

Head Start programs have been among the child care and early education centers clamoring for financial help in recent years as they struggle to pay staff and keep prices in the range that families can afford.

A proposal from the Biden administration would increase the pay for Head Start teachers, whose salaries have not kept pace with other industries, said Khari Garvin, director of the Office of Head Start at the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He visited Alaska last month.

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“The feedback that was shared in Alaska is consistent with what we have tended to hear from other programs across the country as well,” Garvin said. “Some of these programs have had to, unfortunately, close some classrooms because they just have not had the opportunity to hire all of the qualified staff that they needed, including teachers.”

The would raise the average Head Start teacher salary $10,000, improve benefits, and increase access to mental health supports. These changes are all responses to the early child care that has closed 1 in 5 Head Start classrooms nationwide, despite waiting lists for children to get into programs.

Once a final rule is published, Garvin said, it can be funded one of two ways: Congress can allocate the money necessary to boost staff pay for Head Start, or, if Congress doesn’t fund or fully fund the rule, individual Head Start Programs will have to work within their budgets to make the salary changes.

Mark Lackey, the Chair of the Government Affairs Committee for the National Head Start Association, runs five Head Start programs in the Mat-Su Borough. He said Congress and the state of Alaska have under-funded the Head Start program for years, so it will be hard to come up with the money to substantially raise wages.

“Maybe we’ll have kids draw dollar bills, and we’ll see if we can cash those,” he joked before underlining the serious trade-off to wage increases without funding increases. “It is possible. And the way it will be possible is that programs will have to sacrifice a lot of child slots.”

Lackey is not filling all the slots he has available for children because he doesn’t have enough staff, even though demand for child care and early childhood education is as high as ever — he has had a waiting list at his programs since before the pandemic.

He said that, like most Head Start programs nationally, he can only fill about 80% of his staff positions and most departing teachers say they leave because of the low wage. Lackey said he has hired 150 people in the last two years and is still short-staffed because most of them have left for higher wages elsewhere.

“There’s no doubt my wages need to be higher. If they want me to pay higher wages with the same amount of money, the only option I have is to serve many fewer children,” he said.

Lackey said the $10,000 boost to wages wouldn’t even get his employee salaries as high as they need to be competitive. The federal government suggests that Head Start wages should come into line with teacher wages, which are higher, by 2030. Nationally, the average Kindergarten teacher makes roughly $58,000 a year; Lackey said wages for his Head Start staff are in line with the national average annual salary of $38,000.

Most money for the Head Start program comes from the federal government. Individual programs must make a 20% contribution to be eligible for federal funding. The state of Alaska used to fully support that match for Head Start, but stopped increasing the amount of funding it contributed in 2010. Due to inflation, the state now pays roughly 11% of the match, Lackey said.

This year the state’s Legislature earmarked $5 million for an increase to Alaska’s Head Start so programs could better match federal contributions and pay staff more, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy , cutting the increase to $1.5 million.

The new proposed rule will be published to the federal register on Monday, Nov. 20 and the public will have 60 days to comment. There is no final date for the rule to be enacted.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on and .

Gov. Andy Beshear wants the legislature to fund an 11% pay raise for all Kentucky school personnel, which is the highest increase he’s backed since becoming governor.

The Democratic governor, who is seeking reelection, unveiled some of his education priorities as part of his “Education First” plan for the 2024-26 state budget Wednesday morning. He said such a pay raise was needed because of reports that ranked Kentucky 44th in the country in starting teacher salary, with an average of $38,010.

Under his proposal their pay would rise to $42,191, pushing the state’s ranking to 24. Overall teacher pay would see the state’s ranking jump from 40th to 25th, according to the NEA data. Beshear has previously asked for for all school employees.

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Beshear estimated the salary proposal, which also includes bus drivers, janitorial staff and cafeteria workers, would require a $1.1 billion investment.

“When all you do is raise the starting salary it creates compression and you lose teachers that may have three, four, five, six or seven years of experience when they’re paid almost the exact same thing as someone who is brand new,” the governor said.

Beshear’s opponent, ’s education plan, released Tuesday, called for raising new teachers’ starting base rate to $41,500, but did not include raises for current teachers. He also wanted funding for a tutoring program for students outside of school hours to improve student performance, which suffered because of virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Joined by Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman in his press conference Wednesday, Beshear also renewed a call for funding . Such a program would improve reading scores by making sure every child is ready for kindergarten and is an opportunity to screen children for learning challenges, he said.

Beshear also called on the legislature to fully fund student transportation. Bus driver shortages have created problems for school districts, and made headlines last week when were forced to close following the first day of school because of the lack of drivers.

“The General Assembly’s refused to give districts what it costs to bus our students, and they’ve refused to give a big enough salary increase to attract more bus drivers,” Beshear said. “So, if you don’t fund what it costs to bus our students, and you don’t have competitive salaries to have enough bus drivers, yes, you are going to have problems.”

Some other education proposals Beshear made are to:

• Fully fund teachers’ pensions and medical benefits and make no increases to health insurance premium increases for school employees.
• Support a student loan forgiveness program for teachers that gives a maximum of a $3,000 annual award for each year of employment as a Kentucky public school teacher.
• Provide funding for professional development
• Allocate funds to replace textbooks and other instructional materials
• Assemble staff at regional institutes

Kentucky Board of Education Chair Lu Young said at the press conference that Beshear’s plan is “boldly addressing the compensation for teachers and school employees, along with shoring up pensions, providing high quality, professional development, affordable health insurance, and childcare.” Young was appointed to the board by Beshear in 2019.

“Investing in Kentucky public schools is an investment in the future of the Commonwealth, in our workforce, but most importantly to me, it’s an investment in the future of our children and youth,” Young said.

Following Beshear’s press conference, House Education Committee Chairman James Tipton issued a statement through the Republican Party of Kentucky that said Beshear was trying to “catch-up” to Cameron and gave support to the attorney general’s plans instead.

“For years, Andy Beshear has made empty promises to teachers, parents, and students. He inflicted historic learning loss on a generation,” Tipton said. “And now he suddenly cares about education? He nor any member of his office has reached out to me to discuss any plan. Daniel Cameron has.”

When state lawmakers return to Frankfort in January, they will begin a 60-day session to pass the state’s next budget.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .

The salary boost for The Equity Project’s 90 teachers was announced as continue. In New York City, the district’s ranges from about $57-87,500.

Compared to wealthy are more common TEP’s salary nearly doubles starting pay for teachers with master’s degrees. It rivals one of the highest in California, found in the ultra wealthy – where Mountain View Los Altos teachers’ starting pay is . New teachers with master’s in Westchester County’s Scarsdale district earn . On Long Island, Syosset Central Schools pay new teachers with master’s . 

“Once it initially hit we were jumping for joy — super excited, very grateful,” said Lynette Cray, an elementary physical education teacher at The Equity Project.  

“And then we got right back into the thick of things,” Cray said. “We don’t take it for granted. We’re still just trying to be the best educators we can be and that is honestly just icing on the cake for a lot of us.”

Since making headlines in 2009 for offering all teachers $125,000, TEP had not adjusted salaries in about 15 years. At the same time, average monthly rent in Manhattan, where 1,080 students are served at three Washington Heights campuses, jumped to . 

Simultaneously, students’ academic and mental health needs mounted throughout the pandemic while the climate around teaching and education became increasingly negative.

“There couldn’t be a more appropriate time for us to re-express our commitment to the impact of great teachers,” head of school Casey Ash said. “Now more than ever, students at TEP, students everywhere need the very best, highest quality, most compassionate, most committed educators working with them.”

Though the school does receive philanthropic and independent dollars, which last year amounted to 0.7% of their annual income, teachers’ salaries and all operational costs are paid with public funding. 

To afford the higher-than-average pay, TEP minimizes central expenses and hires fewer administrators than many other schools, with 34 full time.  

“I might ask the question, how other schools cannot afford to do this? Because we are able to do so without any external funding,” Ash said. 

Last school year, 49% of TEP’s public funding went toward educator costs. Philanthropic funds were used for its alumni program and middle school facility.

With high compensation comes high expectations. Each teacher must take on a dual role to fill in gaps; are called to substitute teach for colleagues; and serve students longer than most other schools, until 4pm for middle schoolers and 3:45 for early childhood grades. 

In addition to helping children develop motor and social skills, Cray serves as social emotional learning coordinator. Outside of teaching, planning for her workshops takes at least three hours weekly. 

But for others whose dual role is family engagement or special education coordinators, the responsibilities, time and care required can increase greatly. 

Still, TEP has maintained a retention rate around national averages, 86% for the 2021-22 school year. 

Outside of financial compensation, the school offers unique benefits for teachers: a sabbatical year for those who’ve taught at least five years; more, brief vacations via a trimester system.

Ash credits the schedule as a key contributor to a sense of work-life balance and reducing summer slide or academic loss. 

“[The compensation] just opens up more possibilities for us to do the things that we need to do for ourselves to sustain being a teacher,” Cray told ����Ӱ��, like taking care of their mental health or supporting family members. 

Raising teacher quality, pay and well-being have been key goals for advocates pushing for better education for low-income and underserved students. 

TEP’s students are nearly all Black or Latino and live in poverty. Nationally, they are more likely to be taught by early-career or inexperienced teachers, including those with provisional or temporary certification, than their peers. 

But at TEP, most educators have at least five to seven years of experience, according to elementary school director Joelle Fenton. They do not hire early career educators. 

Local and statewide efforts to raise educator pay and attract higher quality educators for underserved students are underway. 

is proposing a statewide $60,000 base pay as a part of their Blueprint plan. Attempts in California have tried and failed, with to address the unequal distribution of teachers. Independent School District began offering a minimum $61,500 this school year.

While boosting salary is not a silver bullet, research suggests it can have a huge impact on student achievement, . 

Bonuses of just $10,000, designed to attract and retain experienced educators to teach in low-income Texas schools, brought average test score growth in some of the lowest performing schools close to district averages, according to a . 

When bonuses stopped, some teachers left and academic growth declined.

The average bonus for TEP teachers last school year was $18,000. Latest reveal that their fifth through eighth grade students had 37% more growth in math than their broader New York City peers, and 13% more in English language arts. 

The increased compensation has also been life-changing for teachers and their families. Cray remembers literally jumping out of her seat after hearing the news in a staff meeting before she and many others immediately called their partners. 

Having gone through a four-year fertility journey and taken time off for maternity leave, the raise means she can now start contributing to goals that felt out of reach.

“We can put it towards a home and start planning that next phase of our lives,” Cray said. “It’s not the main reason I’m here but it helps me to feel validated in what I’m doing and also helps me have a livable wage to help take care of my family.”