Career ladder teacher pay bill wins unanimous support from Senate Ed
The Senate Education Committee has voted unanimously in favor of HB 296, the career ladder teacher pay bill, sending it to the full Senate for a final vote. “Particularly with the news today that Idaho has dropped to 49th in the teacher pay rankings, we need to start working immediately on moving back up the rankings, and I think this bill is a good start,” said Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene. His motion to approve the bill and send it to the Senate with a recommendation that it “do pass” was seconded by Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise.
There was no testimony, as after an hour of explanation and Q-and-A on the bill, Chairman Dean Mortimer noted that among all the stakeholder group representatives signed up to testify, none were opposing the bill. That prompted Nonini’s motion.
“It has indeed been a long road to get this bill in front of you,” Marilyn Whitney, education aide to Gov. Butch Otter, told the Senate panel. The bill would raise state funding for teacher pay in Idaho each year for the next five years, for teachers at all levels, spending an additional $125 million; it was generated by the recommendations of a stakeholders’ task force on improving education appointed by the governor.
Under the bill, by the end of the five-year phase-in, Idaho’s minimum teacher salary, now $31,750 – which a third of the state’s teachers now earn – would rise to $37,000. The bill earlier passed the House 62-8.
“We know that this is a start,” Mortimer said. “We know that there are going to be areas that we are going to continue to collaborate with and work toward to make it more workable for our education professionals.”
Mortimer also announced at the close of the meeting that the committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on the House-passed anti-bullying bill.
