After much debate, JFAC has voted 15-5 in favor of the second set of motions from a group of nine JFAC members led by Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, and Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. Cameron said there was a “significant difference” between the two competing motions, which are for the teachers division. The Thompson/Cameron motion included $11.3 million to unfreeze the two frozen years on the teacher and administrator salary grid, and $21 million for a combination of professional development and one-time bonuses to teachers based on local school districts plans. Other differences between the motions, including a different calculation of student growth and differences in the boost to the minimum teacher salary, result in a bottom-line difference of $18.8 million between the Thompson/Cameron motion for the division, and the competing motion from Sens. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, and Cliff Bayer, R-Boise.

Cameron, R-Rupert, said the proposal matches recommendations made to the Legislature and governor by the State Board of Education and recommendations made to JFAC by both the House and Senate education chairmen, including for using the $34 million that had earlier been tabbed for school improvements for one-time expenses including teacher bonuses and technology. This motion spends $21 million of that.

Bayer told the joint budget committee that workers in other state agencies aren’t getting raises next year. “There is displacement – we only have so much of a budget,” he said.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, a retired teacher, said the unfreezing of the salary grid “has a significant effect on school districts.” She said she tracked an experienced teacher’s pay through the years since the freeze, and found “a loss of some $9,000 in compensation for an individual in that position. Now, we know that some school districts have tried to make them whole by running override levies.” Ringo said, “Looking at the two motions, to me the restoring of the two steps means a great deal. That’s not really a raise. It’s just restoring them to where they were before the downturn in the economy.”

Cameron said, “I would remind the committee that the salary-based apportionment line is still some 5 to 9 percent lower than the 2009 level salary-based apportionment. We are still significantly lower than where we were in 2009 on salary-based apportionment.” That's the main funding stream the state provides to local school districts for salaries.