Silver Valley superintendents weigh in on potential teacher raises

When the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 1 during a special session last September, school districts and their administrators across the state were relieved the legislators were putting an emphasis on funding schools.

The $1 billion dollar tax cut and education spending bill included $330 million for annual transfer from the state’s sales tax collection into a K-12 public school fund.

In mid-March, the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved a $378.6 million increase in state general fund spending for public schools, meeting the earlier $330 million commitment and providing guidance for how the funds would be spent. That includes $145 million that goes directly to school districts and charter schools for teacher raises, potentially $6,359 per teacher.

Gov. Brad Little would like to see entry-level teacher salaries increase to $47,477 annually, part of the driving force behind the raises. However, salaries and pay are negotiated and handled at the local level.

At the local level, educators in the Silver Valley have historically lamented their inability to pay teachers enough to retain them, often losing teachers to larger districts like nearby Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland.

Wallace School District superintendent Todd Howard explained how the increased funding will help bump up that entry-level pay as opposed to just providing certified staff, mainly teachers, with a raise.

“The increase of $6,359 is part of the state’s funding formula called the career ladder,” Howard said. “The career ladder is set up to provide districts funding for their certified staff (teachers). There are specific guidelines in the career ladder legislation that provides specific funding for staff based on their career ladder placement, education and qualifications. The legislation also sets specific minimum pay levels for teachers.”

However, Howard also said that any increase in funds is tied directly to each district’s full-time equivalent in relation to its students' average daily attendance.

For example, according to Howard, the Wallace School District employs 44 certified staff, but the district’s FTE is somewhere between 28 and 30. This means funding will not be received for those 14-16 ‘additional’ staff members.

“The actual teacher raise will be dependent on the cost to the district to increase the salary to the new state minimum, the cost of other state required minimum numbers, and what is left from the new funds,” Howard said. “It is very unlikely that every teacher in the district will see an increase of $6,359.”

While that might sound discouraging, local districts are welcoming the increase. Mullan School District superintendent Les Wells was candid about the need to pay his teacher more.

“The teaching profession is just that, a profession,” Wells said. “Most people have to attend a four-year college to get a teaching degree. When they come out they are faced with debt and they look for where they can afford to live. When they look at Idaho salaries compared to some of our neighboring states we lose great teachers to other states.”

For comparison, the average entry-level teacher salary for a public school teacher in Washington State is over $45,000.

The biggest question for communities is whether or not this funding will remain available from the state and not fall to the districts to figure out in the future.

The bill passed in September stated the $330 million would be allocated annually, but there are some, including Kellogg School District superintendent Lance Pearson, who want to see it before they believe it.

“The state has gone on record indicating these raises will be permanently funded by the state. However, the state of Idaho does not meet its Constitutional obligation to ‘establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools’ because all of our state-allocated school monies inadequately fund our schools,” Pearson said. “This requires us to run local levies in order to meet our requirements — This increase in teacher salaries could adversely affect districts and their levies because so many districts have teachers that are funded through levy monies.”

However, Pearson did say, at least in the Kellogg School District, teachers should see a pay increase for the 2023-24 school year.