Senate Education Chairman Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, opening debate on the career ladder teacher-pay bill, HB 296, told the Senate, “All stakeholders support this current legislation – what a day.” The bill calls for the state to spend $125.5 million more on teacher pay over the next five years. The amount the state sends to school districts for teacher pay would rise next year and each of the next five years, for all teachers, at all levels, provided that the teachers meet performance requirements. Teachers also would be eligible for additional payments for master teachers, and for “leadership” premiums; and would earn additional pay for earning additional educational degrees.

“This puts us on a trajectory to significantly raise salaries over the next several years,” Mortimer said. “Many have asked: Can we afford this? My response is: Can we afford not to? … I believe the state can and should make this investment, not only in our education professionals, but in the benefit of our economy and for the benefit of our students.”

Mortimer said Idaho schools are having trouble hiring and keeping teachers; schools are even resorting to cancelling classes and using long-term substitutes. “We have a problem,” he said.

By the end of the bill’s five-year phase-in, Idaho’s minimum teacher salary would rise from the current $31,750 to $37,000. An experienced teacher who’s now at the minimum would get 4.5 percent more in state funding next year to hit $33,200, and by the end of the five years would be up to $44,375; a master’s degree would bump that up to $47,875. The bill also calls for beefing up Idaho’s teacher evaluation system.