Arkansas lawmakers study teacher salaries By: Associated Press - Texarkana Gazette LITTLE ROCK—State researchers say that it would cost Arkansas taxpayers between about $2 million and nearly $7 million to increase the minimum starting teacher salary to $31,000 in public schools. The Bureau of Legislative Research released a report Monday at a joint meeting of the House and Senate Education committees, offering several options to raise the current salary for new educators, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The minimum starting salary for teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no teaching experience is about $29,200. Some schools use starting pay as an incentive to attract new teachers. The researchers say many pay more than the state-required minimum, some as high as $44,570. The report shows three options that would require an increase in the base salary for teachers with one to 15 years of experience. One option would cost the state $2.35 million if districts were given money to raise individual teacher salaries up to a minimum of $31,000, and for the additional increases for experienced teachers. If districts already paying more than the minimum were given minimal funding of $25 per teacher per year, it would raise the cost to $2.7 million each year. “I’m guessing that you probably don’t want to penalize districts for paying their teachers well, so in this option, you could either provide no additional funding to districts or you could provide a nominal amount,” said Nell Smith, administrator for policy analysis and research at the bureau. The second option the bureau considered would cost about $5.29 million each year and would provide funding to meet a median salary for teachers at the state’s 238 public school districts. The third option would cost $6.9 million. It would pay a $15 per-student funding amount per year to all districts and require it be used for teacher salaries. If the per-student varied based on the number of students in a school district, the cost would drop to $5.1 million. The committee is set to vote on an option for teacher salary increases next month. Published: 09/10/2014
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 16:50:50 +0000
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