Luna: ‘We are paying teachers differently’

State schools Superintendent Tom Luna is calling for tapping the $29 million that Gov. Butch Otter proposes depositing into the Public Education Stabilization Fund to instead go to back-filling the cuts in teacher salary funds mandated by the Students Come First laws. “While I believe it is important to fund PESF now and in the future, I think it is more important to put funding into salary-based apportionment first,” he told lawmakers.

He said if lawmakers follow his recommendation and also move forward with the reform law’s performance bonus pay system, overall teacher pay would rise by 5 percent next year. “Under this plan, we estimate at least 85% of teachers will earn a bonus,” Luna said. “Not only are we moving toward paying our teachers more this year, but we are paying them differently, we are paying them better. This moves us away from the one-size fits all approach to paying teachers statewide.” He said, “When it comes to pay-for-performance, we may not agree on every aspect of this plan, but the fact is every penny will go to Idaho educators.”