Raises for teachers below average

BOISE – After years of rising teacher salaries, recession-driven funding cuts in the 2002-2003 school year meant below-average pay increases for Idaho teachers, a new study shows.

In the latest pay survey from the American Federation of Teachers, the state ranked 32nd nationally in average teacher pay at $39,784. The Legislature’s decision to cut base support for public schools by 2.5 percent essentially left it to local school districts to finance any raises.

That limited the increase from the 2001-2002 school year to 1.5 percent, less than half the 3.3 percent increase teachers experienced nationwide and the 12th smallest increase nationally.

It was a stark turnaround from the strides the state and local districts took to boost teacher pay during the 1990s. Ranked 47th in the spring of 1992, average teacher salaries jumped 50 percent to the spring of 2002 to a national ranking of 31.

The limited salary increase the next year dropped the state a slot.

Idaho Education Association Director Jim Shackelford worried that future funding cuts would further erode the previous gains.

“We would hope that the Legislature would make salaries a priority in the 2005 session because we are talking about an effort to both attract and retain quality teachers,” Shackelford said.

But the Legislature faces another hold-the-line budget this winter if they are going to make good on their promise to let a temporary penny sales tax increase expire in mid-2005.

State lawmakers have defended their decisions repeatedly, maintaining they did as much for education as they could considering the economic situation. They emphasized last winter’s initiative to significantly increase the minimum pay for starting teachers as evidence of their continued support for education.

The new state school aid budget puts the minimum salary at $27,500 – a $2,500 increase – and gives the local districts money to finance that pay level completely. Typically school districts have to supplement the state contributions with local property tax revenues.

“The focus on increasing the beginning teacher salary is very, very valuable,” Shackelford said. “But it has come at the expense of the experienced teachers, and we need to do both.”