This morning, on the 52^nd day of this year’s legislative session, the House Education Committee has voted to introduce one of the most significant bills of the session – the teacher career ladder measure. That clears the way for a hearing on the bill, proposed by Gov. Butch Otter.

Idaho EdNews reporter Clark Corbin reports that the bill would increase state spending on teacher pay by $125 million over five years; it comes after Idaho’s state Board of Education last year endorsed a career ladder plan to increase minimum teacher salaries to $40,000 over five years, or about 8 percent more than the plan now before the Legislature. The new 33-page bill would increase minimum teacher salaries from the current $31,750 a year to $37,000 by the end of the five-year phase-in. It would also allow more experienced teachers who meet performance benchmarks to see bigger hikes and earn up to $57,750 in state funds.

Next year, Corbin reports, the minimum salary for a starting teacher would rise to $32,200, a 1.4 percent increase. A teacher who’s at the minimum this year would see a 3.9 percent increase next year to $33,000. Corbin’s full report is online here.

Senate Tax Chairman Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, has said since the start of this year’s legislative session that he believes the state needs to boost starting teacher salaries to $40,000 and do so as quickly as possible to stop an exodus of teachers to states that pay more; he threatened to block any tax-cut bills until funding was in place for that. Asked yesterday afternoon about the latest version of the career ladder bill, Siddoway said, “I think any tax cuts are going to be long and far between – or I lose my job, one way or the other,” by voters deciding not to re-elect him.