Kansas City Public Schools teachers will receive a 5% base salary raise after the school board approved a new collective bargaining agreement with the Kansas City Federation of Teachers, the district鈥檚 teachers union. 

Superintendent Jennifer Collier called the raise 鈥渉istoric.鈥� 

鈥淭his is the highest pay increase for KCPS teachers in recent memory and brings our starting teacher salary to a competitive $50,558 annually, maintaining our position as one of the highest-paying school districts for teachers in our region,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his reflects our commitment to attracting, retaining and supporting exceptional educators.鈥�

The board also approved 5% raises for classified and child nutrition staff even though it wasn鈥檛 their normal time to negotiate. 

Carter Taylor, an elementary teacher and legislative chair for the local union, said the raises feel like a 鈥渕assive win鈥� in the current climate of threats to school funding from the local, state and federal levels. 

鈥淚t did feel a bit like a miracle, just because it feels so difficult to ask for anything, especially knowing all the economic uncertainty, knowing all the different cuts that are being thrown our way,鈥� Taylor said. 

Like other Jackson County districts, KCPS faces , a state budget and . 

On June 10, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation for the 12 months ending in May was 4.2%. Inflation affects both schools鈥� expenses and how far teachers鈥� salaries stretch. 

Taylor said there was a sense of agreement between the union and the district that teachers needed more support. The new pay agreements affect more than 1,000 teachers and hundreds of classified and nutritional services staff members.

鈥淣obody disagreed that there needed to be more resources, and there needed to be more pay,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淚t was just a matter of actually finding a number we could agree on.鈥�

The agreement lasts until July 1, 2029, but it specifies that the union can return to negotiate salary increases annually. 

鈥淲ith the speed at which the financial situation changes, it鈥檚 going to be important that we鈥檙e there to back up our teachers and that we鈥檙e not bound by a contract that was out of date six months earlier,鈥� Taylor said. 

What鈥檚 included in the agreement 

Among other changes, the district agreed to share more information with the union, including about contractors and about noncertified staff filling certified positions. The new agreement also contains many clarifications and small changes. 

For example, it describes teachers鈥� responsibilities for remote learning days and how compensation for extra duties works in more detail. 

Under the agreement, the base salary for a teacher with only a bachelor鈥檚 degree will go up 5%, from $48,150 to a bit more than $50,558. 

鈥淚t will probably put us near, if not leading, districts in our region on the Missouri side,鈥� said Charnissa Holliday-Scott, the KCPS chief human resources officer who presented the agreement to the board. 鈥淲hen budget and finance gave us the OK that we can do it, it is very exciting for us to do.鈥�

That increase to the base also bumps up the salaries for teachers with more experience or education. 

For example, a highly educated beginning teacher could earn close to $53,000 while a very experienced teacher with only a bachelor鈥檚 degree could earn nearly $69,000. A teacher with the maximum experience and education accounted for on the chart would earn about $99,000. 

Resource teachers, librarians and counselors are included in the certified staff agreement but have separate salary schedules. They earn more but also work more days. 

According to a fiscal impact document, the salary and benefits for certified staff 鈥� such as teachers, counselors and librarians 鈥� will cost KCPS an estimated additional $5.6 million compared to the 2025-26 salary schedule. The document says KCPS had 1,138 full-time-equivalent certified staff, including more than 1,000 teachers, as of June 4. 

Overall, KCPS is projected to spend more than $110 million on certified staff salaries and benefits for the upcoming school year.

鈥淥ur teachers are the foundation of student success 鈥� as we just talked about when we saw the academic presentation 鈥� and it鈥檚 important that their compensation reflects that value, their expertise and the dedication that they bring to our classrooms,鈥� Collier said. 

She also noted that the district will be increasing certain stipends, 鈥渋ncluding those allocated for our longest-serving staff members,鈥� and that noncertified staff members will also see a 5% increase to their base pay. 

The district also anticipates spending about $53.9 million 鈥� about $2.8 million more than the previous year 鈥� on salaries and benefits for 730 classified staff members such as paraprofessionals, interpreters, school nurses, secretaries and security staff. 

Many of those positions are paid hourly, ranging from a beginning rate of $17.12 for Head Start teaching assistants with the lowest level of education to $44.57 for a lead interpreter. Other roles, including for some health professionals, are salaried. 

Finally, the district estimates it will spend about $600,000 extra on salaries and benefits to increase the base salary for child nutritional services workers by 5%. 

Pay rates for cafeteria managers will start between $21.16 per hour and $24.68 per hour depending on the size of the school.  

Teacher and board member response to pay increase

The board unanimously approved the changes, but member Jamekia Kendrix asked for future monitoring. 

鈥淧art of the goal (of the agreement) is to help to improve the staff experience and retention, and to ultimately impact student outcomes,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s we make these changes, what evidence is the administration monitoring to determine whether or not the changes that we made were successful in moving us closer towards those ends?鈥�

Holliday-Scott said the district would continue surveying staff, monitoring student achievement and tracking staff attendance. 

Board member Josh Jackaway said he was excited by the changes. 

鈥淚 do think that that鈥檚 going to have a huge impact on our ability to attract and retain the very best educators,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 going to lead to those increased results in our students.鈥�

Taylor partially attributes the gains in the agreement to teachers telling their stories. 

鈥淲e had a very clear and dedicated push this year to actually be out in the public and talking about the issues that we were dealing with,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here were a lot of community groups and members of the media who were willing鈥� to tell our stories and discuss what it鈥檚 actually like in a way that we haven鈥檛 been able to do before.鈥� 

One example was The Beacon鈥檚 story on for teachers, Taylor said. 

鈥淭he biggest takeaway people took from that, when you go into the comments on social media and look at it, was, 鈥楬ey, why don鈥檛 we just pay teachers more?鈥� 鈥� she said.聽

Threats to public education, while creating a difficult environment, have also bonded the union and district officials, Taylor said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not union versus district right now,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 us versus everything that鈥檚 coming our way. Attacks on education have not stopped. If anything, they鈥檝e gotten louder and more pervasive.鈥� 

Taylor said there is more work to be done to support teachers, but that the raises make a real difference in their lives.

In 2024, the Economic Policy Institute found that the between public school teachers and other college graduates had hit a record high. 

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 like it鈥檚 trying to make us live large, it鈥檚 more like it鈥檚 closer to breaking even,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淚 think that we still need a lot more because we were already so desperately underpaid, but this gets me closer to being able to actually get my head above water.鈥�

Courtney Buuck thought there was some kind of mistake.

When she learned that she received a $40,000 bonus payment on top of her base teacher鈥檚 salary last fall, she was in shock. Like other staff at United Schools of Indianapolis鈥� three charter schools, she was eligible for a bonus based on her year-end evaluation score.

She just didn鈥檛 think she鈥檇 come out on top.

鈥淚 am just really hard on myself as an educator,鈥� said Buuck, who teaches kindergarten at the Avondale Meadows Academy K-4 school. 鈥淎nd then once the shock wore off, I was just really proud of myself.鈥�

Buuck plans to save her bonus to help her purchase her first home.

Buuck鈥檚 bonus comes from the $12.5 million Vigilance in Teaching and Learning 鈥� or VITAL 鈥� Trust, and pledged to support performance-based bonuses for staff at the charter network for 25 years. In the first year of awards, she received nearly $16,000.

Now, another venture with essentially the same name is expanding merit bonuses to 11 more Indianapolis charter schools this year in an effort to attract and retain high-quality educators. In April, the philanthropic VITAL Foundation awarded roughly $1.3 million in its first round of grants for teacher bonuses at high-needs schools that could range from $1,000 to $10,000.

The two initiatives differ in a few respects, but both are a substantial investment in merit pay in Indianapolis, where dozens of charter schools and multiple school districts compete for educators. The federal government has promoted the concept over the years through , which the Trump .

The big question: Will it work? Research suggests that it could, if implemented in certain ways. But other studies suggest that . And there are concerns dating back years that .

VITAL Foundation head Kelly Herron understands that money alone can鈥檛 solve the educator shortage. Instead, she said, the grants are part of a broader system to retain teachers.

鈥淵ou have to create a culture in which this can work,鈥� said Herron, who studied each school鈥檚 culture prior to awarding grants through school visits, staff focus groups, and surveys. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 go into a school that already has a broken culture, and think that this is the magic wand.鈥�

Merit pay hopes to address charter hiring challenge

Roughly 15 years ago, President Barack Obama鈥檚 Race to the Top initiative .

But today, state law does not tie teacher pay directly to student performance. Instead, school districts can bargain differentiated pay based on a teacher鈥檚 evaluation. The state Teacher Appreciation Grant also gives money to up to 20% of a district or charter school鈥檚 teachers using .

Charters and district-run schools can face different challenges when it comes to hiring and keeping teachers. Starting salaries can vary based on the schools. And charters don鈥檛 have to adhere to collective bargaining.

In the hiring game, charters may have the upper hand in at least one key respect. , according to a 2025 paper from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Educational Research, or CALDER. The center analyzed teacher applications for 43 districts and charter school organizations nationwide using the Nimble application platform 鈥� a common hiring tool in Indiana.

But charter leaders can also have distinct hiring challenges that Herron, a former executive director of the United Schools of Indianapolis network, has experienced firsthand.

Some may struggle to keep up with the competitive base pay of nearby districts, she said. Others may have longer hours than traditional district-run schools or lack traditional districts鈥� name recognition.

The VITAL Trust bonuses, entering its third year, is based on a staff member鈥檚 numerical evaluation rating. The top 30% of performers receive an award that is weighted based on their score. In the program鈥檚 first two years, awards have averaged $10,000, with the top performer earning the $40,000 maximum. All staff members, not just teachers, are eligible for an award.

The new VITAL Foundation grant operates a bit differently.

Charters were awarded $3,000 per certified teaching position, and can only give bonuses to teachers designated as effective under the school鈥檚 performance system. How much each teacher receives also depends on their exact numerical evaluation score.

Schools that applied for the grants provided the foundation with their performance rubrics, which may rate teachers on academic outcomes along with other measures.

Neither the VITAL Foundation nor the VITAL Trust discloses its donors.

At Enlace Academy 鈥� which was a pilot school for the VITAL Trust that received $5,000 per certified teaching position 鈥� 40% of teacher evaluations is based on student academic outcomes. The rest is based on school-wide goals such as staff attendance and professional practice measures, such as response to feedback from teaching coaches.

Longer hours and lower pay is a challenge when it comes to recruiting teachers, said Katie Dulay, executive director of the Neighborhood Charter Network that operates Enlace.

鈥淏ut the people who do well and are at Enlace for the long haul are here because they鈥檙e amongst peers who deeply care about their community and deeply care about getting strong outcomes for kids,鈥� she said.

How can merit pay for teachers be successful?

Researchers suggest that there are two ways that merit pay could improve the existing teacher workforce.

鈥淧ay would induce people to work harder or to get invested in themselves in ways that make them better,鈥� said Dan Goldhaber, the director of CALDER who has studied teacher pay systems. 鈥淎nd it could also change the quality of the workforce by encouraging the right people to stay or come into a system.鈥�

Some research suggests that certain merit pay structures 鈥� like one-time bonuses tied to year-end test score increases 鈥� don鈥檛 work well, Goldhaber said.

And merit pay like the state鈥檚 Teacher Appreciation Grant has fostered competition rather than collaboration, said Indiana State Teachers Association President Jennifer Smith-Margraf. Some districts declined the grant because of those tensions, she said.

Ultimately, Smith-Margraf said pay for performance is not what motivates teachers.

鈥淲hat motivates them is wanting to be good at their job for their students,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd what keeps them from being focused on that is having to take care of doing two to three and four jobs instead of focusing on the one job of being an educator.鈥�

On the other hand, a found a positive effect of merit pay programs on student test scores.

Systems like those in the VITAL initiatives that distribute bonus amounts based on a teacher鈥檚 relative performance to others are more likely to have a positive impact on test scores, the analysis found. And those competitions did not appear to generate unhealthy competition.

Successful performance pay structures base teacher evaluations on factors beyond just student achievement, Goldhaber said. They also make the bonuses permanent by increasing base salary after multiple positive evaluations, for example, he said.

Matthew Springer of Basis Policy Research, an author of the meta-analysis, said it鈥檚 important to look at the 鈥渃ontinuous quality improvement of the program and its design, as well as the overall effect of what the program is having on the system as a whole.鈥�

How merit pay can change the teaching pool

At the United School of Indianapolis, administrators say they鈥檙e already noticing a difference two years into the VITAL Trust award program.

鈥淚 definitely think that the type of people that we get is becoming different,鈥� Ciara Jones, principal of the Avondale Meadows Middle School within the charter network, said of the hiring process. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the people (who) want to be recognized and have opportunity to work hard and receive something.鈥�

Teacher retention rates dropped across USI schools since the first round of the VITAL Trust awards from 2023-24 to 2024-25, according to data from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. But leaders say they expect to see retention rates fluctuate from year to year while they focus on retaining high-performing teachers.

In the first two years of awards, 98% of bonus recipients returned to a USI school the following year, the network noted.

Damien Plaza, a social studies teacher at Avondale Meadows Middle School who won the $40,000 award in its first year, said he鈥檚 seen teachers increasing their level of commitment in response to the award.

鈥淚 think for all the people who received different levels of this award, it validates the feeling of excellence as a teacher,鈥� he said. 鈥淭eachers working here have a big lift on their shoulders. The receipt of this award is just a rubber stamp of, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e going in the right direction.鈥� 鈥�

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

The routine offered a helpful reminder of why she鈥檚 stayed in the field for 26 years. 

鈥淚 look at where these babies have started. Some of them might have known two or three alphabet letters,鈥� said Jarvis, who teaches in the Chickasha district, southwest of Oklahoma City. 鈥淣ow, looking at their test scores, I’m sending six to first grade on a third grade reading level.鈥�

But when she looks at her paycheck, she doesn鈥檛 get the same satisfaction.

Her take-home pay has increased about 17% since 2018, about half the rate of inflation. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill last month raising teacher salaries by $2,000, but when Jarvis calculated the amount after taxes, it translates into less than $6 a day.

鈥淚 definitely don’t do it for the money,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut that was an eye-opener.鈥澛�

Eight years ago, she was part of a massive, nine-day teacher walkout that saw more than 30,000 educators descend on the state capitol to demand increases in education funding. Then-Gov. Mary Fallin had already signed a $6,100 raise, but teachers wanted $10,000 and increases in the education budget. They also saw raises in and .

But since that historic 鈥淩ed for Ed鈥� movement, teachers like Jarvis say the incremental progress is barely noticeable. Starting teacher pay in the state still hovers near the bottom in the country, while neighboring states have climbed in the rankings. Some districts say they鈥檒l have to come up with to extend the $2,000 increase to non-teaching staff, and teachers are likely to return next year asking for more.

鈥淲e have to have substantial increases annually to catch up,鈥� said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association and a former assistant state superintendent. He applauds lawmakers for increasing teacher pay 37% since 2018, but high numbers of teachers still either leave the field or for better pay. 鈥淲e’re all in the same race, and we started a lap behind.鈥�

Districts can pay higher salaries above the state scale, but there are limits. That鈥檚 because to avoid large gaps in funding between poor and wealthier communities, the state caps how much they can raise .

鈥淚f you’re an equity warrior, in theory, this is like the perfect funding formula,鈥� said Rebecca Sibilia, executive director of EdFund, a nonprofit focusing on school finance. But in a state that鈥檚 reluctant to increase taxes, she said, districts are often 鈥渇orced to decide between hiring more people and giving pay raises.鈥� 

To deliver the 2018 salary increase, the legislature overcame a 75% supermajority threshold to increase taxes. But now, in an election year, some lawmakers who voted for it are 鈥済etting hammered鈥� by their opponents as they seek higher office, said Hime, with the school board鈥檚 association. 

One of them is Charles McCall, the former House speaker and now a Republican candidate for governor. , Chip Keating, a challenger in the June August GOP primary, accuses McCall of passing 鈥渢he largest tax increase in Oklahoma history. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why taxes are too high.鈥�

The state needs a long-term plan for funding education, Hime said, but lawmakers鈥� hands are tied because they can鈥檛 obligate money for future years. One former legislator has been arguing that point for years. 

鈥淲e have this year-to-year budgeting and that’s got to stop,鈥� said Mark McBride, a Republican who chaired an education appropriations committee in the House. He recalled voting against a previous $2,000 pay raise prior to the walkout because he preferred to support a substantial hike over several years. Educators, he said, 鈥済ot really irritated with me.鈥�

鈥楧isrespect crept in鈥�

Pay is not the only reason teachers in Oklahoma leave the classroom. Some advocates say mandates like making struggling readers repeat third grade will force more out.

鈥淭his is going to exacerbate our teacher shortage,鈥� said Erika Wright, a community organizer for the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition. 鈥淲ho the hell wants to teach third grade now?鈥� 

When former state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister was in office, she commissioned a of thousands of teachers who were currently certified but not teaching. While pay was a factor, nearly a quarter said their views rested on 鈥渢he inability to make decisions related to instruction鈥� and 鈥渂urdensome standards and curriculum requirements.鈥� 

Rhetoric that teachers found demeaning hasn鈥檛 helped either. Former state Superintendent Janet Barresi, Hofmeister鈥檚 predecessor, once said she wouldn鈥檛 let the 鈥渆ducation establishment lose another generation of Oklahoma’s children.鈥� 

She was the first to remove an educators hall of fame display from the state Department of Education building, former Superintendent Ryan Walters repeated when he took office in 2023. He sought to from educators, publicly criticised them in videos from his car and instituted a to weed out applicants from states he deemed too liberal.

鈥淒isrespect crept in,鈥� said Bryan Duke, dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma. 鈥淛ob creep,鈥� was another factor, he said, as teaching became more complex and behavior problems escalated. 鈥淚t’s like screaming into the wind. I think many teachers felt that their voices weren’t heard.鈥�  

Lawmakers introduced this year to lower class sizes in the elementary grades, a frequent request from teachers, but it died in committee.

Some years, Jarvis, the Chickasha teacher, has had as many as 28 students in her class. This year, she had 21, but doesn鈥檛 have a classroom aide. With about eight more years until retirement, she feels more fortunate than some of her colleagues who work a second job at a nearby steakhouse because the tips are so good.

But she often puts off vacations and big-ticket purchases now that she鈥檚 paying health and car insurance for her two sons. Eight years ago, they demonstrated with her at the state capitol.聽

鈥淚 remember sitting them down and explaining why we were going,鈥� she said. Her youngest made a poster with the names of his teachers. 鈥淚t was very meaningful to see the kids there.鈥�

Danielle Minnis can demonstrate what putting students first looks like after 20 years in the classroom, bolstered by rigorous self-evaluation.

If children fall asleep during a lesson, change the pacing. If a kid with dyslexia feels humiliated reading aloud to peers, do not force them to do it. If 60% of the class passes the test, fantastic. But focus on what could have helped the 40% who struggled.

鈥淵ou start with where your students are, and you set goals. You do your lesson; you analyze your data; and then you adjust and you reflect,鈥� said Minnis, who teaches eighth-grade reading to students with disabilities at Legacy Middle School in San Antonio. 鈥淎 lot of times, teachers teach to the middle rather than looking at the outliers, because the outliers can be scary.鈥�

Minnis credits her approach to National Board Certification, often recognized as the most respected and demanding teaching certificate in the country. Roughly 鈥� less than 1% 鈥� hold the credential. The state rewards those who earn it with salary raises of up to $9,000 under a pay-for-performance program known as .

But that could change by the end of the year as state leaders question the credential鈥檚 worth.

Texas鈥� new, nearly requires the State Board for Educator Certification to evaluate whether National Board Certification aligns with state law. The state board will determine if the national certificates will continue to qualify educators for raises under the Teacher Incentive Allotment.

During legislative debates last year, a prominent Republican state senator said the national certificate did not align with Texas’ goal of rewarding teachers based on merit. Other elected officials have since argued that the National Board’s emphasis on equity conflicts with state mandates prohibiting such practices.

鈥淭here’s this thing about, 鈥榃ell, Texas knows what鈥檚 best for Texas,鈥欌�� said , D-Houston, a supporter of the national certificate. 鈥淭hat seems to be part of the problem that we’ve got, without recognizing that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.鈥�

About 620 nationally certified educators receive Teacher Incentive Allotment raises, according to the Texas Education Agency. Teachers say revoking the certification as a pathway to salary increases would show that Texas leaders do not value the highest quality of teaching 鈥� that is, those who center their practice on the most important person in education: the child.

鈥淚t literally makes you a better teacher,鈥� said Minnis, who attained the credential in 2010. 鈥淥ne of the most important things in national certification is: How does a teacher create a safe, equitable learning environment for all students?鈥�

Teachers sum up the National Board Certification process in two words: writing and reflection.

The program measures whether educators understand the content they teach, their effectiveness in evaluating what students need and their ability to keep children engaged and help them learn.

Teachers have five years to complete the certification. They demonstrate their effectiveness through a computer-based assessment of multiple-choice and free-response questions. They collect samples of students鈥� work and specify how they will help each grow. They videotape themselves during class instruction, analyzing each decision and interaction. They detail how they serve as leaders and collaborate with colleagues. They scrutinize test results, identifying patterns and adjusting instruction.

鈥淚t was harder than my master鈥檚,鈥� said Keke Powell, a second-grade teacher in the Hays school district. She earned her national certification last year. 鈥淵ou have to be able to really be elaborate and specific on what you’re trying to say. Whoever is reading your story, if they cannot paint a picture of what you’re trying to do and say, then it needs to be fixed.鈥�

During the 2025 lawmaking session, legislators boosted educator salaries based on years of experience and district size. They funded training programs and enacted a ban on uncertified teachers. And they expanded the Teacher Incentive Allotment 鈥� which serves roughly across more than 800 school districts 鈥� so more educators could qualify.

Before agreeing on a review of National Board Certification, the Texas Senate proposed phasing it out of the state鈥檚 pay-raise program. Former state Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who crafted the bill, acknowledged that teachers invested time and money in the certification.

But the certification did not align with the spirit of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, Creighton said during a February 2025 Senate floor debate. Removing it would ensure that Texas compensates teachers based only on their daily performance in the classroom, he noted.

鈥淚t’s a low percentage of teachers that are applying for that or working within that framework now,鈥� Creighton said at the time, referring to the national credential. 鈥淲e stuck with a framework that is generally merit-based across the board.鈥�

Months later, during a Texas State Board of Education discussion, some Republicans offered more concrete reasoning for their objections to the National Board: references to diversity, equity and inclusion.

鈥淎bout 10% of the training that a teacher would go to is based on DEI, gender identity and sexual orientation 鈥� and how to help transition children 鈥� which violates our state law and violates parental rights,鈥� board member Julie Pickren said during the April meeting.

Pickren pointed to a National Board document that details standards the most accomplished teachers hold themselves accountable to. The explains how such teachers cultivate learning spaces inclusive of all children and offers examples of what that could look like in practice.

Pickren read aloud an excerpt: Teachers design and implement lessons that help students develop awareness of, sensitivity to, and respect for others. For example, accomplished teachers are aware that children may begin to question their sexual identity at a young age. Teachers know that acceptance of their curiosity will make them feel safe and secure. In such instances, teachers may feature children鈥檚 literature in which diverse gender roles are portrayed.

The Houston-area Republican said focusing on equity and inclusion would confuse Texas teachers and conflict with federal and state requirements that schools avoid educating students about gender identity and sexual orientation.

But 鈥渘one of that is true,” said Peggy Brookins, president and CEO of the National Board.

Brookins clarified that the National Board does not train educators 鈥� on sex, gender or any topic 鈥� nor does it assign learning materials.

The certification is based on evidence teachers submit showing how they adapt to their students鈥� needs, she emphasized. The board evaluates how that aligns with what accomplished instructors and education experts deem best practice.

Contrary to Pickren鈥檚 concern about violating parental rights, for instance, the national standards highlight that accomplished teachers communicate frequently with parents about their children鈥檚 education.

Nevertheless, Brookins asserted that not every example written for teachers 鈥� such as the one Pickren referenced 鈥� applies or makes sense in the differing educational and political environments of each state.

鈥淲e do not engage in politics. We engage in policy,鈥� Brookins said. 鈥淎nd the policy is to help teachers go through the process of board certification, to work with states to say, 鈥楬ow do we make this happen in support of teachers becoming accomplished teachers?鈥欌��

Alayna Siemonsma, a 28-year educator who coordinates services for students with dyslexia in the Montgomery school district, considers National Board Certification 鈥渢he best professional development I’ve ever had the opportunity to be a part of.鈥�

鈥淚 would hope that people in those positions 鈥� like our lawmakers, like our State Board of Education members 鈥� would reach out to people who are nationally board certified,鈥� Siemonsma said, 鈥渁nd have conversations with them directly about what this process entails and how it has made an impact on our craft, on our teaching, on our colleagues, and, of course, on the growth of the students that we serve.鈥�

A Texas Tech University report found that Texas students taught by nationally certified teachers experienced about 3.5 months of additional learning in math and 1.5 months in reading. Low-income students, children learning English and kids scoring below grade level saw the most significant boost in test scores. The report found that students experienced an 18% reduction in the likelihood of suspension and a 10% decrease in chronic absences.

The researchers recommended that Texas continue to recognize the national certificate in the Teacher Incentive Allotment.

The National Board has long prepared teachers to support students who historically need more support, lead researcher Jacob Kirksey said in an interview.

鈥淯nderstanding that they have historically understood ways to prepare teachers to support these populations is something, again, worth considering from the state level,鈥� Kirksey said.

Lawmakers required the State Board for Educator Certification to decide by Dec. 31 whether to continue including the national certification in the allotment. The Texas Education Agency, which works closely with the board, contracted with six educators to complete the review.

Agency officials did not provide information on the reviewers when asked by The Texas Tribune.

According to a recent presentation to the state certification board, the evaluators have collective expertise on National Board Certification, can interpret Texas law and know state standards for learning materials.

If the board revokes it from the state program, teachers could still earn pay raises for their students鈥� academic growth 鈥� but only as measured by their districts鈥� standards. The board could also conduct a subsequent review of the national certification and reinstate it at any time.

Still, nationally certified teachers question why state lawmakers decided on the current path.

Dropping National Board Certification from the incentive program would mark a sharp reversal from just four years ago, when lawmakers pushed for its continued inclusion and that educators with the credential receive more money than currently allocated.

Teachers see the upcoming decision as a simple math equation: If National Board Certification equals positive student outcomes, they deserve pay raises.

鈥淚 always just take it back to, everybody should be more educated about what good teaching looks like and how all teachers can make a difference,鈥� said Minnis, the eighth-grade reading teacher. 鈥淚 would ask everybody who has a stake in this. What do you think accomplished teaching looks like? What are we looking for? What are your standards? Why do you think somebody should get TIA?鈥欌��

鈥淲hat’s going to be funny,鈥� Minnis added, 鈥渋s it鈥檚 always going to go back to, 鈥極h, like the national standards.鈥欌��

This first appeared on .

Gov. Jeff Landry was adamant Tuesday that Louisiana public school teachers would not see a pay cut in the upcoming school year, but he did not specify where he would find the tens of millions of dollars needed to avoid it.

鈥淚 think the teachers deserve certainty. They deserve stability. They deserve respect and a permanent pay raise,鈥� Landry said at a state Capitol news conference.

The governor won鈥檛 release details about where the money to restore teacher pay will come from until after the Louisiana Legislature鈥檚 lawmaking session concludes Monday. He said he first wants the final copy of the state budget, which the legislature will approve before it adjourns, before he makes that decision.

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, confirmed that one option to preserve teacher pay involves into another year of teacher pay stipends. The money would come from the funding that gets distributed to K-12 schools through a state school funding formula called the Minimum Foundation Program.

Legislators and advocates for teachers said they want more information about what would lose money in order to keep the teachers鈥� pay intact.

鈥淚 think a lot of members of the legislature would like to see a firm plan,鈥� House Democratic Caucus Chairman Kyle Green, D-Marrero, said in an interview Tuesday. 鈥淲e would like to hear from the governor about where the reductions would come from.鈥�

David Claxton, with the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and Administrators, also warned that removing money from school district operations could result in layoffs.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 a good plan unless there is money sitting around that we don鈥檛 know of,鈥� Claxton said.

Avoiding a teacher pay cut this year

For the past three years, the legislature has provided $2,000 and $1,000 stipends to K-12 teachers and school support staff, respectively. But there is no money in the current budget plan to cover those payments, which cost $198 million annually.

The governor and lawmakers were relying on voters to approve a constitutional amendment in the May 16 election that would have provided a permanent teacher salary hike to replace the stipends this year. When it , they didn鈥檛 have an immediate backup plan to replace that money.

As a result, the governor floated a entirely new plan to legislators this week that involves taking $150 million from the Minimum Foundation Program to extend the stipends for another year.

The Minimum Foundation Program allocates a total of $4 billion in state funding to public schools, but the $150 million cut would come from the $1.2 billion that goes to 鈥渘on-instructional鈥� programs. These include school administration, business services, facility acquisitions, construction and other spending outside of the classroom.

Claxton said the cuts would be difficult for small and rural school districts to absorb, particularly when costs for fuel, electricity and food for school lunches are surging.

鈥淚f they are going to remove money from the districts, that is not a good thing,鈥� he said.

Teacher advocates are cautiously optimistic, however. Larry Carter, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, said he is happy Landry and legislators have committed seriously to retaining teacher pay at its current levels, even if he wants more information about the plan.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 get a chance to really get the details,鈥� Carter said Tuesday.

As recently as last week, Henry and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, had said they weren鈥檛 able to provide another round of teacher stipends this year because of the state鈥檚 financial and legal constraints.

Legislative leaders backed off those statements after the governor returned from his trip to Greenland as a special envoy for President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, they committed to coming up with the money to restore teacher pay over the next few months.

鈥淸W]ith the Governor鈥檚 commitment expressed today to working with our members, we believe that with constitutional guidelines we can forge a path to providing properly appropriated, recurring funds to pay the teachers stipends in this coming year,鈥� Henry and House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, said in a joint statement.

Louisiana has 51,000 public school teachers and approximately 40,000 school support workers. In order to provide the stipends again, Landry and lawmakers will need to come up with almost $200 million in the state budget plan that goes into effect July 1.

Henry has said the lawmakers may only need to find $150 million if they exclude certified teachers who work as school administrators from receiving the stipend again.

Long-term plans to keep teacher pay level

On top of the short-term plan to avoid an immediate pay cut, Landry said he will work on a permanent solution to avoid them in the future.

The governor and the legislature are forming a task force to make recommendations for permanently rearranging the Minimum Foundation Program to drive more money into teacher compensation from existing funds.

鈥淭here is no way we can鈥檛 find a permanent pay raise in those dollars,鈥� Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said at the governor鈥檚 news conference.

Landry said teachers deserve to be paid more in general.

鈥淥ur classroom teachers are actually making less money today than they did in 1988 when you adjust for inflation,鈥� the governor said.

The governor and legislators will have to work closely with the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on any long-term overhaul of the Minimum Foundation Program. The state school board has more direct authority over it than the governor or lawmakers.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

Gov. Jeff Landry tied pay raises for judges, prosecutors, firefighters, elected officials and possibly thousands of other state government workers to compensation for teachers Monday when he declared 鈥渘obody in state government鈥� would get a pay raise if public school teachers don鈥檛 receive one.

It鈥檚 the first comment from the governor since voters soundly rejected five amendments to the Louisiana Constitution on Saturday, including four Landry personally campaigned to approve. Amendment 3, backed by the governor, would have given K-12 school teachers and support staff a permanent pay raise that鈥檚 mostly been covered through temporary stipends the past three years.

鈥淚n light of Amendment 3 falling short, I want to make it very clear 鈥� if our teachers don鈥檛 get a permanent raise this year, nobody in state government gets a pay raise. I mean nobody,鈥� Landry wrote .

The governor posted his statement online while visiting Greenland as a special envoy for President Donald Trump.

Louisiana lawmakers, who are in session through June 1, have been considering salary increases for judges, prosecutors, Landry鈥檚 cabinet secretaries, firefighters in the state agriculture department, election workers and statewide elected officials, including the governor.

A bill to give the governor and other statewide elected officials a pay raise also includes new allowances, housing stipends and other forms of , though it wouldn鈥檛 raise their salaries.

Thousands of state workers across every state agency are also supposed to receive small pay increases this year through routine, annual 鈥渕arket rate adjustments鈥� to their compensation. These hikes cost a total of $84.8 million for classified workers and $3.6 million for unclassified employees in the current budget proposal, according to the legislative fiscal office.

Landry鈥檚 office has not responded to requests for comment about whether his pay raise opposition applies to positions such as prosecutors, who are paid with a mix of local and state funding. It鈥檚 also unclear whether the governor鈥檚 declaration would affect routine 鈥渕arket rate adjustments鈥� thousands of state government employees are expecting.

The governor鈥檚 staff also hasn鈥檛 provided clarification about whether Landry supports the legislature finding a new way to give teachers a permanent pay increase or another temporary stipend. His X post didn鈥檛 make it clear whether he wanted lawmakers to move forward with a teacher pay cut now that Amendment 3 failed or find a way to backfill the money.

Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, has said multiple times lawmakers in this year鈥檚 budget if Amendment 3 failed.

Without the stipends, public school teachers and school support staff would see pay cuts of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, in the 2026-27 academic year.

As they ponder teacher pay, lawmakers already face a significant financial shortfall and have to make reductions to the budget plan the Louisiana House approved last month.

The state lowered its revenue projections a week and a half ago by $113 million for the current budget cycle and $104 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The drop in revenue is largely the result of personal income and corporate tax revenue coming in lower than expected after Landry and the legislators reduced the taxes in 2025, state economists said last week.

On top of making those cuts, state lawmakers would have to find $200 million in order to maintain the stipend for teachers and support staff. It would be even more expensive to give out the permanent $2,250 and $1,125 raises attached to Amendment 3.

鈥淲e would be hard pressed to find $200 million,鈥� Senate Finance Committee chairman Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, said Monday.

Democratic leaders in the legislature have already said they will fight against a pay cut for teachers.

鈥淭he stipend should be permanent at a minimum and increased at best,鈥� House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Kyle Green of Marrero said. 鈥淲e are absolutely going to be pushing for the stipend to be made permanent.鈥�

鈥淢y personal preference is we find a way to fund that,鈥� Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Gerald Boudreaux of Lafayette said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 going to have to be a whole lot of conversations.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to be Republicans or Democrats. It鈥檚 going to have to be the will of the legislature,鈥� Boudreaux said about avoiding a teacher pay cut.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who helped build the state budget plan, said he would also push back on any proposal to make the state firefighters鈥� raise contingent on a teacher raise.

Even if teachers receive a pay cut, McFarland said the firefighters鈥� raise, which would cost $5 million, should remain in the budget. Currently, state firefighters make $28,000 per year as an entry-level salary. The pay bump would increase that amount to $38,000 and is needed to attract candidates, he said.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 agree with [the governor] on that,鈥� McFarland said of tying all state raises to those of teachers.

Amendment 3, which 58% of voters statewide rejected, would have freed up money to give teachers and support staff permanent raises by dissolving three public education trust funds that help pay for early childhood education, universities and other K-12 school programs.

The fund balances would have been used to pay off employee retirement debt at K-12 school districts and universities early to make money available to cover the educators鈥� salary increases.

Henry has previously said the public鈥檚 decision to vote down the amendment indicates they aren鈥檛 interested in a pay increase for teachers.

But Amendment 3 who has angered Democratic and Black voters in recent weeks over his handling of the congressional elections.

An opposition campaign urging people to 鈥淰ote No on All鈥� five constitutional amendments as a means of protesting the governor . It likely contributed to the voters rejecting all the constitutional amendments, regardless of their content.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

David Broockman and Josh Kalla in which they tested the electoral impact of 鈥渕oving to the center鈥� on a range of issues. In theoretical terms, the main import of this paper is to establish that adopting a more moderate view improves your electoral performance only if the more moderate view is more popular.

In most instances it is, but that鈥檚 not always the case.

They find that Democrats mostly benefit from moving to the center on cultural issues (affirmative action, crime, admission of asylum seekers, girls鈥� sports) but are generally better off maintaining conventional progressive positions in areas like Social Security and health care. (Note that this is different from the populist formula of saying that Democrats will benefit from moving further left on economic issues. It鈥檚 just that a basic defense of the existing safety net is very popular.)

I , but there is one very interesting exception to the culture/economics pattern that鈥檚 worth talking about in detail: performance pay for teachers.

On this issue, they tested three positions:

• Liberal: It should be difficult to fire teachers, and their pay should primarily depend on how long they have worked as a teacher.
• Conservative: Being a teacher should be like any other job, where better teachers get paid more and worse teachers can be easily fired or get paid less.
• Centrist: It should be difficult to fire teachers, but better teachers should get paid more than worse teachers.

In contrast to the cultural issues, where moving to the center helps Democrats, this all sounds a little tedious and technical. But Broockman and Kalla find that attributing the centrist position to a Democratic candidate has a larger impact on that candidate鈥檚 vote share than moving to the center on girls鈥� sports teams, on asylum, on gender transition surgeries for minors, or on prison sentences for property crimes. The impact is bigger than embracing an 鈥渁ll of the above鈥� energy policy rather than one that is renewables-only. In fact, the only issues that had a larger impact on candidate evaluation in their survey were and racial targeting of small business loans.

That means that this wonkish technical question of teacher compensation is actually a bigger deal in the eyes of voters than a lot of inflammatory cultural issues.

Why is this shift so high-impact?

Not only is the liberal position very unpopular (it鈥檚 just as unpopular on these other topics), even the moderate position doesn鈥檛 have much support. Over 60% of voters agree with the stated conservative position.

The authors also find consistently in this experiment that voters with conservative views on a given topic appreciate it when Democrats move to the center on that issue (and vice versa for voters with liberal views when evaluating Republicans). The upshot is that there is a lot of electoral upside to offering the pretty tepid take that teacher compensation should be based on performance rather than pure seniority, even without any compromise on basic job protections.

The voters seem correct on this

It makes sense for politicians to say things that voters agree with, but you want to be careful about committing yourself to policies that will catastrophically fail if implemented.

I think it is reasonably likely that a candidate could win an election by promising price controls on groceries, and that鈥檚 especially true if they did it while maintaining broadly moderate vibes. The problem is that if a state actually imposed price controls on groceries, it would immediately suffer from severe shortages.

And when that happened, the voters would not say 鈥淎h, my bad, I didn鈥檛 think this through.鈥� Voters, sadly, are not very self-aware and they would blame the politicians who caused the shortages.

Conversely, while voters were deeply skeptical of New York City鈥檚 congestion pricing plan, once it was implemented, we saw the same political dynamic that we previously saw in Oslo, Stockholm, and London: Voters liked the reduction in traffic volume. Voter skepticism of congestion pricing seems to be driven by skepticism that it will work, but when they see that it works, they like it.

I don鈥檛 want to downplay the pure politics here, though.

Lots of people in the Democratic Party camp are spinning their wheels furiously in a quest for big exciting new ideas, often embracing proposals that make almost no sense on the merits. It turns out, though, that there is an incredibly large political upside to just saying 鈥淗ey, we should get schools to give raises only to their best teachers so we鈥檙e making sure they don鈥檛 leave the profession.鈥�

Consider all the genuine excitement that DOGE initially aroused in some quarters before crashing and burning as a total failure: Lots of people are very sincerely interested in the question of improving the performance of the public sector, and putting out plausible ideas to do this 鈥� like paying teachers based on demonstrated skill rather than pure seniority 鈥� is (in the eyes of the voters) a genuinely exciting big new idea.

On the merits, to the extent that there鈥檚 a problem here, it鈥檚 that translating the words 鈥渂etter teachers get paid more鈥� into an actual policy is a nontrivial task.

You don鈥檛 want to reward the teachers whose students do the best on year-end tests, because that鈥檚 just encouraging teachers to take on the easiest assignments in classrooms full of smart kids with no problems. You also don鈥檛 want to reward the teachers whose students like them best, because the point of school is to make kids do boring stuff like learn math. So you need an evaluation system and that鈥檚 going to be hard to get right.

The good news is that I surveyed the evidence and, while there is a wide range of program designs and a wide range of findings among researchers, nobody is finding that performance-pay programs backfire and make things worse. The entire research debate is between enthusiasts who claim large benefits and skeptics who say the benefits are small or null.

I think the existence of skeptical findings 鈥� and a general sense that the impact of all education policy changes is pretty small 鈥� has created a permission structure for Democrats to backslide from Obama-era efforts at education reform in order to avoid conflict with unions. That鈥檚 why the polling is relevant, though. The political upside to embracing the commonsense view that pure seniority-based pay doesn鈥檛 make sense is large. And it鈥檚 also just clearly the case that pure seniority-based pay doesn鈥檛 make sense!

Designing and implementing a great teacher-evaluation system is hard, but 鈥渂e at least as good as strict seniority鈥� is easy because the strict seniority system is clearly bad.

Performance-pay systems mostly work

There are a lot of studies of merit-pay systems. If you want a summary, that concludes that 鈥渢he effect of teacher merit pay on student test scores is positive and statistically significant (0.043 standard deviation).鈥� It also features the boring but important caveat that the effect 鈥渧aries by program design and study context鈥� 鈥� the details matter.

You can also look at the most negative studies. Here鈥檚 a , a program, and another in part because half of eligible teachers didn鈥檛 know it existed.

I think that for understanding the recent political history of teacher compensation in the United States, the most important paper is 鈥溾�� by Joshua Bleiberg, Eric Brunner, Erica Harbatkin, Matthew Kraft, and Matthew Springer. It studies how the Obama administration took advantage of the state/local budget crisis inflicted by the Great Recession to get money for a program they called Race to the Top, where the feds would give states grants for K-12 schools, but those grants do things like create performance-pay systems.

This did not really work.

My qualitative understanding of why is that the incentive program was almost too effective. States really wanted the money. Teachers unions wanted states to get the money. So everybody duly submitted their grant applications and said the magic words, but then in most cases they did not actually create rigorous and well-implemented evaluation systems that meaningfully changed anything.

From a narrow politics viewpoint, I would say the Obama-era effort worked great. It allowed the president to do popular position-taking in favor of performance pay. And it didn鈥檛 make schools worse, even though the implementation was pretty fuzzy. So really, if you鈥檙e running for office, you should say you鈥檙e for this whether or not you鈥檙e serious about implementation.

But to get good results, you need good implementation.

Eric Hanushek, Minh Nguyen, Ben Ost, and Steven Rivkin have , which has been in place since 2013. This system features rich evaluations that include test scores but also observations and student ratings. Notably, in addition to paying the better-performing teachers more, the system offers additional bonuses to skilled teachers who volunteer to teach in high-needs schools.

A 2013 study of D.C.P.S.鈥檚 performance-pay system 鈥� which includes provisions to make it easier to fire low-performing teachers 鈥� , with low-scoring teachers either getting better or else quitting. A 2019 followup found that , meaning that the floor for teacher quality is rising in the city.

The in India also worked really well, for an international example.

I鈥檓 a little torn here because I don鈥檛 want to overpromise.

As a D.C.P.S. parent, I can tell you that the system does not work miracles. The main thing that parents in the real world care about is peer effects and the demographic composition of their kid鈥檚 school, not sophisticated value-added measures of student performance.

What great teachers in a diverse public elementary school do is have an unusually high success rate at taking really low-performing kids up to a baseline of basic competence. From both an objective statistical viewpoint and also my eyeball experience of seeing a group of kids with mostly very high-scoring teachers, it鈥檚 clear that the actual impact of teacher quality is modest compared to innate ability and out-of-classroom stuff.

All that being said, we do have all these schools and we should try to run them well rather than poorly. The schools all have teachers, the teachers need to be paid, and we need some kind of system to determine how much teachers get paid.

The pure seniority system does not make sense. All public-sector-pay systems are rigid compared to the private sector, but teacher compensation is unusually undifferentiated 鈥� cop pay has a large seniority element but they also take exams for promotion to sergeant or earn bonus pay by qualifying as detectives.

Voters do not agree with the status quo. There are some examples of compensation systems that perform a lot better than the baseline, and at worst they make no difference. Politicians should give the voters what they want and try to do it well.

The union factor (of course)

A little while back, I was moderating a panel that included Representative Jake Auchincloss and he was doing his bit about how harmful prolonged school closures were and Democrats need to own that to regain the public鈥檚 trust. Because I like to make trouble, I tried to follow up by pressing him to say something negative about teachers鈥� unions for pushing to keep schools closed. He mostly demurred.

That annoyed me a little at the time, but in retrospect I think he was right.

Of course people in my line of business like to try to do meta-takes about root causes and push politicians to say things that will deliberately get them in trouble with their base. But what the voters want to hear are not ideas about the thing but the thing itself. One of the reasons that there鈥檚 such a strong public response to the concept of paying the best teachers more is that I bet it would never occur to 90 percent of the population that anyone would ever construe that as an anti-worker, anti-teacher, or anti-union take.

One of the is that among Democratic Party primary voters, there is extremely little support for strict seniority-based teacher pay (this is what they label as 鈥淜-12 Teacher Accountability鈥�).

That鈥檚 a huge contrast with asylum or energy or affirmative action, where there are big electoral gains to be made from moving to the center but also a price to be paid with primary voters. A Democrat who just says that teachers should be paid according to ability is appealing to swing voters and primary voters simultaneously. You know and I know that it will make teachers鈥� unions mad, but I think going out of your way to have a fight about unions distracts from the more important point that this is just an overwhelmingly popular position that is well-supported on the merits.

Just say and do the thing. Don鈥檛 be scared off by the unions. If they come at you, punch back by just restating the compelling core thesis: Teachers鈥� work is important and should be well-compensated, but that means paying to retain the people who are good at it, not just arbitrarily paying more for whoever happens to have been in the job longest.

OKLAHOMA CITY 鈥� A $2,000 teacher salary increase advancing through the Legislature has raised concerns among school district leaders of whether state funding will support its total cost.

The Oklahoma House approved the teacher pay raise, outlined in , by a vote of 92-1 on Tuesday, more than a month after . The legislation, which returns to the Senate for final review, would add $2,000 to the state-mandated minimum salaries for Oklahoma teachers and certified school employees.

Although lawmakers budgeted $100 million for the pay raise, some district leaders said their schools likely will have to pay out of pocket to cover the full expense, especially if they already pay above the minimum salary schedule for teachers.

The $100 million allocation is part of a budgeted for public education.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said the extra money should be sufficient for districts to raise their teachers鈥� salaries, regardless of whether they pay at or above state minimums.

鈥淚f districts are on the formula and pay above the minimum now with existing funding, they can pay them $2,000 more with nearly a quarter billion in new public education funding, $100 million of which is specifically dedicated for teacher pay,鈥� Hilbert said in a statement.

Districts already paying above the state minimum wouldn鈥檛 be legally obligated to provide a full $2,000 increase. But, teachers in those districts still should push for a $2,000 raise, Hilbert and other legislative leaders have said.

The extra state funding coming to Midwest City-Del City Public Schools would cover just under 80%, or $232,000 short, of the cost to increase the district鈥檚 teacher salaries by $2,000, Superintendent Rick Cobb said.

Raising a teacher鈥檚 salary by $2,000 comes at a true cost of $2,500 when factoring in added teacher retirement expenses and higher payroll taxes, he said.

Although the district already pays well above the state minimum, Cobb said 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think our teachers are going to accept us not giving them a $2,000 raise when we go into negotiations.鈥�

鈥淚 know one of your questions is going to be about whether (lawmakers are) fully funding the raise, and in our case, they鈥檙e not,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, I think that needs to be part of the conversation, too, is that our teachers are going to expect a $2,000 raise. Our teachers are making less than the cost of living increase that inflation is bringing into their lives. So, without an infusion into the salary schedule, their buying power is less and less every year.鈥�

As district leaders put together a budget for the next fiscal year, Cobb said Mid-Del schools still are going to try to make a $2,000 raise work.

鈥淚鈥檓 not sure exactly how right now, but we鈥檙e going to try,鈥� he said.

The small northeastern Oklahoma district of Peggs pays at the state minimum but completely covers teachers鈥� retirement contributions, saving each educator $3,000 to $4,000, Superintendent John Cox said. Teachers in the rural district also 鈥渨ear many hats鈥� and are compensated for fulfilling multiple roles.

Cox, also a Republican candidate running for state superintendent, said he expects Peggs would have to pay a small amount out of pocket to cover the total cost of the $2,000 raise when considering retirement and fringe benefits.

The bigger challenge, he said, is affording the rising payroll while operational expenses, like bus diesel and maintenance, also increase year over year.

The state budget doesn鈥檛 raise funding for schools鈥� operational costs, even though lawmakers are in 2027-28.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a definite balancing act,鈥� Cox said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e required to pay the teacher pay raise. Then what do you do with operational costs and what do you forgo to be able to pay those teacher pay raises? What in the maintenance area and in the operational costs do you cut to be able to make those pay raises?鈥�

State lawmakers touted the pay increase as the latest of multiple steps in improving Oklahoma teacher salary levels. The Legislature last approved teacher raises in 2018, 2019 and 2023.

Oklahoma鈥檚 current average teacher salary is fourth among all bordering states and second in the region when factoring in cost of living, . The average starting salary for teachers in the state is still ranked toward the bottom of the region, even when considering cost of living, the agency reported.

The state鈥檚 largest teacher union, the Oklahoma Education Association, said it is 鈥済rateful to lawmakers for making another investment into competitive teacher pay.鈥�

鈥淓ven if districts already pay above the minimum, we hope that they will use the funding that will be provided by the state to give all teachers the full $2,000 raise,鈥� the organization said in a statement Wednesday. 鈥淭hey deserve it.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

Florida teachers鈥� average starting salary increased between 2025 and 2026, although not enough to improve Florida鈥檚 nationwide standing, according to data from the National Education Association.

The national union鈥檚 for teacher pay put Florida鈥檚 average starting salary of $49,435 at 19th in the nation. It鈥檚 overall average teacher salary of $56,663 ranks 50th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C.

鈥淚n the past five years, my daughter has had her full roster of teachers for an entire school year only once,鈥� Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said in a news release. 鈥溾�� These incidents are a disruption to her learning and, unfortunately, they鈥檝e become the norm for far too many students across Florida.鈥�

Average teacher pay rose by 3.3% between the 2024-2025 school year and the 2025-2026 school year, according to NEA data.

Mississippi was the only state with a worse average teacher salary in the most recent NEA report.

鈥淲hen public dollars are diverted away from public schools, and teachers can鈥檛 afford to stay in the profession, it鈥檚 students who lose,鈥� Spar said. 鈥淧ublic schools have been forced to cut essential services, lay off teachers and staff, and increase class sizes, all of which put students last.鈥�

The NEA report also shows that Florida experienced among the biggest drops in public school enrollment between 2024 and 2025, more than doubling the national decrease in enrollment rate.

The FEA said the Legislature鈥檚 failure to pass a budget before the regular legislative session last year and this is 鈥渁dding to the financial instability facing our schools and the teacher and staff layoffs seen across the state.鈥�

California has the highest average teacher salary, $103,552. New York is second and Washington state is third.

In his budget recommendation , Gov. Ron DeSantis asked for聽$1.56 billion targeted for teacher pay raises, nearly 15% more toward increases than last year. The governor emphasized that the stand-alone item for teacher pay can ensure that money appropriated from Tallahassee goes to the classroom and benefits students.

The House and Senate initial budget proposals include similar dollar amounts, although lawmakers have not approved spending for the fiscal year beginning this summer.

In the , the state budget included about $1.25 billion in salary increases.

The Florida Department of Education pointed to the budget line item targeting teacher pay in response to a Phoenix request for comment on the NEA data.

Gov. Josh Stein on Monday outlined his education priorities ahead of this year鈥檚 short legislative session, including raising teacher compensation and adding additional school support personnel to meet students鈥� nonacademic needs.

鈥淚f we truly believe that kids are the future of this state, then we have to make the job of educating them more attractive,鈥� he said to a room of education leaders at nonprofit annual meeting.

Stein highlighted education items in his $1.4 billion , released earlier in March, including 5.8% average raises for teachers, funds to restore master鈥檚 pay for more than 1,000 teachers, and a 2.5% raise for principals. Beginning teachers would receive a 13% pay raise in the plan.

The state legislature starts its short session in April. It has not passed a new comprehensive budget since 2023. Stein鈥檚 proposal says it includes 鈥渃ritical funding needs that cannot wait until next fiscal year.鈥�

He said teacher pay raises are needed to raise student outcomes, pointing out that the state鈥檚 average teacher salary ranks 48th in the nation, with its per-pupil spending ranked at 47th in the nation. Those rankings from the Reason Foundation using data from 2023.

鈥淭eachers drive student success,鈥� Stein said Monday. 鈥淭hey are the No. 1 in-school factor of student achievement. We know this, but we have not passed a meaningful raise for our teachers in years.鈥�

Schools also need more support personnel, he said, like social workers, nurses, psychologists, and nurses to meet students鈥� nonacademic needs.

Stein celebrated recent wins, including the state鈥檚 highest four-year , highest on AP exams, and (CTE) courses.

He praised the state鈥檚 move to train teachers in 鈥渢he science of reading,鈥� or a body of research on how students learn to read. All pre-K to fifth grade teachers completed , a professional development program funded by revamping its long-time efforts to improve reading proficiency.

He also highlighted , the , 鈥� a teacher apprenticeship program 鈥� and passed by legislators and signed by Stein last year.

Local innovations like a Perquimans County program exposing high schoolers to hands-on teaching experience, he said, have much to teach the state.

鈥淲e have to take inspiration from and match our teachers鈥� tenacity and our principals鈥� passion,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f we believe that our kids are our future, investing in kids is the best we can do.鈥�

Stein pointed to the , which he created with  and , as an example of bipartisan partnership.

鈥淧ublic education is not a Democratic policy,鈥� Stein said. 鈥淧ublic education is not a Republican policy. It is a North Carolina policy. It affects every child in this state. There are so many areas like the cellphone ban, where we can and we must work together for the benefit of our public school kids.鈥�

Stein also urged the General Assembly to reconsider its tax policy, adding that upcoming federal cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), have changed the state鈥檚 financial pressures.

鈥淭he No. 1 item on the chopping block when cuts have to made will be our K-12 schools,鈥� Stein said. 鈥淪o your voice matters in these debates. I urge you to use it.鈥�

The Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) projected a budget gap between $2.5 and $4 billion between fiscal years 2027-28 and 2032-33 between the state鈥檚 revenues and the funding levels needed to continue its current services, adjusted for inflation and population growth. Current law has in place if revenue targets are met, including a 3.49% personal rate in 2027. The corporate rate is set to drop to 2% in 2027 and to 0% by 2030.

On Tuesday, state鈥檚 nonpartisan Consensus Forecasting Group (CFG) , showing that while there is an expected increase in the General Fund, there is a $360 million decrease in revenue expected in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27.

Stein said the loss of state revenue, along with federal funding cuts, will make the state unable to maintain its current funding levels, much less invest in new education efforts.

鈥淔ew ideas to enhance public education come with zero cost,鈥� he said, estimating a $3.5 billion funding gap in the next two years. 鈥淭ypically, they come with some cost, which is why, as a state, we must get our fiscal house in order.鈥�

He said much of the state鈥檚 overall success, like its rankings as and , is the result of education investments 鈥渙ver the course of many decades.鈥�

鈥淲e are bearing the fruit of an orchard that was planted a long time ago,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut today we risk hollowing out the institutions that have helped to create our success.鈥�

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

It鈥檚 not widely acknowledged as such, but America is experiencing a surge in anti-tax politics.

You see this of course on the right, which has always been skeptical of taxation. But we鈥檙e also starting to see a version of this on the left.

The growing progressive interest in exotic new tax-policy ideas 鈥� like Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna saying they can  鈥� shows a left that has lost faith in the idea of asking Americans to pay higher taxes in exchange for more and better public services.

And whatever you think of the Sanders/Khanna proposal, it鈥檚 important to understand that this kind of plan doesn鈥檛 scale well to small states or to cities and counties since it can be relatively easy for people to leave to avoid the taxes.

So, especially when it comes to local services, you really have to ask questions like 鈥淐an we make people feel that it鈥檚 worth paying more for this?鈥� and 鈥淐an we get more value for the money that we are already spending?鈥� Unlike with the federal government, where  in part because it was based on , local governments actually spend a huge share of their budget on direct provision of labor-intensive public services.

The most expensive of these line items is public school systems.

Education spending presents us with something of a paradox. We know from small-scale studies that marginal increases in school spending . In particular, fairly boring things like  are effective at promoting student learning, especially in low-socioeconomic-status schools.

So it seems to be the case that for a lot of schools there鈥檚 low-hanging fruit that could be addressed at least somewhat effectively with an influx of money.

On the other hand, if you look at large-scale cross-sections of American schools, it鈥檚 just not the case that higher levels of spending are strongly related to student outcomes.

The Urban Institute鈥檚  shows that the top-performing state for eighth grade reading is Massachusetts. That鈥檚 a relatively high-spending blue state, but not the highest-spending state. Number two is Louisiana. On eighth grade math, Massachusetts is number two and Louisiana is number three (Mississippi is number one).

The highest-spending system, New York, gets above-average results (I鈥檝e seen a lot of people express excessive negativity about this), but they鈥檙e not dramatically above-average in the manner of either lower-spending Massachusetts or dramatically lower-spending Mississippi and Louisiana.

Which is all just to say that even though there do appear to be useful opportunities to spend more money on schooling 鈥�  鈥� it seems like just looking at the average expenditure in high-spending systems is not very useful.

And those of us who think there are things the government should probably spend more money on ought to confront the reality that in many states the government is already spending a lot of money, some of it on things that are not very useful.

Teachers don鈥檛 move to higher-paying states

The question of how you design a high-functioning school system is complicated, and it鈥檚 clear that money isn鈥檛 the only thing that matters. For example, one factor that has gotten a lot of attention recently, and that I believe is a dominant factor in explaining why Mississippi and Louisiana in particular have started doing so well, is curriculum.

A restaurant can buy quality ingredients and hire decent cooks and have everyone work hard, and the food is still going to be bad if the chef鈥檚 recipes are no good.

But even when you get high-level agreement on something like curriculum, you can run into implementation problems. When I spoke recently with two people who worked in state government in Louisiana on setting up the current curriculum framework (which has had good results), they told me that a lot of their teachers had been taught in education school that the concept of centralized curriculum was bad. So, even with a strong curriculum in place at the state level, it still took work to get to a broad agreement to actually teach the curriculum.

So there鈥檚 obviously a lot happening that isn鈥檛 directly related to spending, but I do think it鈥檚 worth focusing on the more tedious technical question of how school systems are paying their staff, especially the teachers, who account for the lion鈥檚 share of the money and the work.

New York is number one in overall  and . So how come teaching talent isn鈥檛 fleeing Mississippi and Louisiana for New York, where average teacher salaries are 70 percent higher?

There are, of course, many reasons someone may not want to move across the country, but we鈥檙e also seeing the hidden cost of bad housing policy. Due to the much higher cost of living in New York, the real value of a middle-class salary is quite a bit lower there.

We know that there鈥檚 a lot of domestic migration out of the coastal states, and that it鈥檚 primarily not rich people fleeing taxes but . But this ends up inflating the cost of providing frontline public services, which leads to higher tax burdens, which itself further inflates the cost of living.

Another issue, though, is that teachers just don鈥檛 move state-to-state very much.

A  on Washington/Oregon border counties found that 鈥渢eachers along the state border were almost three times more likely to make a within-state move of 75 miles or more than to make any cross-state move.鈥�

They attribute the lack of interstate teacher mobility to two things: one is that mid-career teachers tend to lose a lot of pension value,聽and the other is that teacher licensing and certification is handled at the state level in a way that discourages mobility. Policy toward interstate transfers of teaching certifications differs from state-to-state. But New York in particular is a聽聽鈥� it鈥檚 one of only three聽states that has not聽聽the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification interstate agreement.

So while you might think that one point of paying teachers unusually well would be to make your state an unusually attractive place for teachers to move, New York undercuts that with high cost of living and also has regulatory policies that specifically discourage out-of-state teachers from coming in.

Rewarding veterans, not attracting new talent

The issue behind the issue is that the highest-paying states are the ones with strong collective-bargaining frameworks for public sector workers: The National Education Association says  have salaries that are 24 percent higher on average. And when labor unions negotiate compensation packages, they prioritize the interests of their existing members. That鈥檚 different from the mindset of an employer who decides to unilaterally increase compensation specifically for the purposes of recruiting new talent. An employer who is eager to attract new talent would, for example, put money into hiring bonuses, but a union is never going to demand that around a bargaining table.

That鈥檚 how states end up raising compensation without reducing barriers to entry.

It鈥檚 also why compensation in the more generous states is heavily backloaded. So while New York pays 70 percent higher teacher salaries than Louisiana on average, its entry-level salaries are only . That doesn鈥檛 come close to compensating for the higher cost of living. If you ask where 鈥渢eacher鈥� counts as a decent-paying job for someone just starting out, Mississippi and Louisiana look good and New York looks terrible, despite there being much higher average salaries in New York.

I don鈥檛 want to overstate the significance of this. Massachusetts, as noted previously, has very good school performance despite a New York-esque compensation scheme.

My guess is that other things like curriculum are moving the needle on outcomes, so I think we should look at it the other way around: What is the case for spending a lot of money on teacher salaries if not to make it easier to hire teachers? Plowing tons of money into backloaded compensation systems while making it hard for people to laterally transfer in is not a good way of achieving any of our education goals.

Of course, if you assume that people are perfectly rational maximizers of income across the life cycle, it鈥檚 possible that people considering entry-level teaching jobs care a lot about the fact that a teacher with 23 years of experience will earn dramatically more in New York than in Mississippi.

But in the real world, people are imperfect in thinking that far ahead. And they are extremely imperfect about assessing the long-term value of things like unusually generous pension and health insurance plans. Veteran members who are closer to retirement and have more health care needs place a lot of value on these benefits, so unions can end up bargaining for things that cost the state a lot of money but have very little juice in terms of teacher recruitment.

Pensions in particular also intersect with housing and growth policy in a nasty way.

If your community is experiencing rapid population growth, then you can spread pension costs accrued in the past across a relatively large number of present-day taxpayers. But if your community has low population growth, then the retiree hangover is a much larger burden in per capita terms. The economic impact is even worse if those retirees take their pension incomes to Sunbelt states, leading to New Yorkers鈥� tax dollars supporting the economy in Florida.

Governing is hard

I鈥檝e been thinking a lot lately about how structural roles in the political system can be at least as important as factional affiliation.

When Zohran Mamdani was in the state legislature, he voted for a law that created an unfunded mandate for New York City to reduce class size in its public schools. The comptroller鈥檚 office thinks this  and more than $1 billion per year in subsequent years. Not coincidentally, now-Mayor Mamdani .

It鈥檚 easy for even relatively moderate state legislators to vote for policies that push up school costs, and it鈥檚 hard in practice for even very progressive mayors to raise taxes.

Matt Mahan is running in California鈥檚 crowded gubernatorial election, arguing that  before raising taxes to fund new initiatives.

I think that鈥檚 a courageous and correct moderate/reformist platform. But even a politician who has a totally different factional identity and set of priorities should consider this. If you have a new spending idea that you truly believe in on the merits 鈥� whether it鈥檚 free buses or child care subsidies 鈥� then it shouldn鈥檛 be all that hard to identify something the state is already spending money on that is not as good or important.

Not just as an exercise in sloganeering but as a way to actually get things done.

Even if you assume there are zero political or substantive problems with raising huge sums of revenue from new special taxes on billionaires, residents of high-tax places will reasonably ask 鈥淲hy not use the money to cut my taxes?鈥�

The explanation for increasing net revenue 鈥� as opposed to just making the base more progressive 鈥� has to be that the money already allocated is being well-spent.

Unfortunately, state budgets are quite complicated, so I can鈥檛 just write down three bullet points for cutting waste. But if you start looking under the hood of major budget categories like teacher compensation, you start seeing problems pretty quickly. I get why taking this on is nobody鈥檚 idea of a good time, but with the public increasingly cranky about taxes I don鈥檛 think there are any easy options available.

The revealed that of the 16 states that require districts to offer paid parental leave, only two 鈥� Arkansas and Delaware 鈥� give teachers their full wages up to 12 weeks. Six other states offer partial pay for up to three months.

Access to paid leave decreases postpartum depression and boosts the likelihood that employees will return to their jobs after having a child, according to the study. Multiple national medical organizations a minimum of 12 weeks of paid time off for new parents.

The number of large school districts offering paid parental leave has in the last three years, from 27 to 64. About 40 are located in states that don鈥檛 require the benefit. While this shows district-level progress, the lack of state mandates allows schools to refuse to take action, said Heather Peske, NCTQ president.

鈥淲hat we know is that leaving it up to districts leaves too much to chance, and it leaves too many teachers high and dry,鈥� she said. 

A 2024 by RAND Corp. found that 32% of teachers have access to paid parental leave, compared with 46% of similar working adults. Of those who received the benefit, 46% of teachers thought it was an adequate amount, compared with 78% of other adults.

The new report highlighted Arkansas as a , saying it鈥檚 a prime example of why states need to enact paid leave requirements. An optional program created in 2023 allowed the state and districts to evenly split the cost of substitutes who covered for teachers who were absent for up to 12 weeks. But only 10% of districts participated. 

Last year, lawmakers changed it to a mandatory, state-funded benefit that covered the full cost of long-term substitutes. The study said results of the new program are still unknown because it only took effect in August.

Washington state offers teachers the most time off: 12 to 16 weeks that can be extended to 18 in cases where pregnancy or birth complications arise. But the state offers only partial pay.

Maryland has a cap of $1,000 per week during parental leave, while Minnesota鈥檚 program covers between 55% and 90% of teachers’ salaries, depending on income level. In 2019, New Jersey increased its for eligible workers 鈥� including teachers 鈥� from 66% to 85% of their average wage. That change resulted in a 70% hike in program participation.

Seven states and the District of Columbia provide educators with full pay, but for a shorter amount of time, like six or eight weeks.

In , lawmakers debated in 2018 whether paid parental leave was the best use of limited state dollars, according to the study. Following months of advocacy, Delaware eventually created the nation鈥檚 first paid parental leave program for teachers, which NCTQ considers to be a model policy. It offered 12 weeks off, funded by an employee payroll contribution of less than 1%, and the state reimbursed districts for the cost of long-term substitutes. About 3% of teachers used the paid leave benefit in 2024.

鈥淚f states reimburse districts the cost of long-term substitutes, districts need only maintain normal operating costs by paying teachers鈥� salaries as usual,鈥� the study said. 鈥淭his policy ensures that educators receive their full pay during leave, while having minimal impact on the state鈥檚 overall budget.鈥�

NCTQ also recommends that states extend paid parental leave to all teachers who become parents, including fathers and educators who foster or adopt children. About one-third of states that provide paid leave offer reduced benefits for non-birthing parents or none at all. 

鈥淩esearch shows that when both parents have access to paid leave, families grow stronger, children are healthier and women experience greater career outcomes,鈥� Peske said. 鈥淓nsuring leave benefits for all parents helps attract and retain talented teachers in the classroom.鈥�

But theory is not always reality. In the case of teachers, research the best way to get better is to actually practice teaching, especially with and mentors, not to sit in a classroom to earn an advanced degree. 

Unfortunately, a flawed theory of teacher development has been baked into a range of state- and district-level policies that encourage or even require teachers to get ever-higher levels of external training. And, instead of working to better understand how to help teachers improve on the job, policymakers continue to rely on credentials to do that work. 

That starts with state control of who gets into the profession, with some states demanding that teachers earn master鈥檚 degrees to get or stay in. In California, for example, educators can鈥檛 remain in the classroom beyond an initial five-year grace period unless they earn a master鈥檚 or become certified. 

Once prospective teachers are licensed by their respective states, most districts use educators’ academic credentials to decide how much money they will earn. Salary schedules typically offer higher pay to teachers with more academic credits, on the theory that extra training should make educators better. 

And, to help teachers pay for all those additional courses, many states, districts and even the federal government have stepped in. 

 As a result, more teachers have master鈥檚 degrees than ever before, even though the profession today has than it did in the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2020-21, of all public school teachers had a master鈥檚 degree or higher. That makes teachers overall than biochemists, zoologists, mathematicians and statisticians. 

But suggests that relying so heavily on teacher credentialing is misguided. Other than a few potential in high school math and science, teachers with master鈥檚 degrees are no better than those without them. A from the Institute of Education Sciences found there was 鈥渘o statistically significant relationship between student test scores and the content of the teacher鈥檚 training, including the number of required hours of math pedagogy, reading/language arts pedagogy or fieldwork.鈥� 

But teachers with a master’s are no worse, in general, than those without, either. So what鈥檚 the harm in pushing teachers to pursue more and more higher education credits? 

The most damage is done to teachers themselves. Despite all the government subsidies, the Learning Policy Institute found that 60% of teachers have to to pay for those advanced degrees. Among those who took out loans and completed a master鈥檚 in 2020, the average balance owed was $38,230.

In other words, teachers are taking out large loans to earn academic credentials that won鈥檛 help them do their jobs better. That鈥檚 not a good trade. 

The individual harm to prospective teachers should be enough for policymakers to pay attention. But paying for credentials also costs a lot of money, and those precious resources could be put to better use. According to from the National Council on Teacher Quality, 15 states require districts to offer additional pay for master鈥檚 degrees. Those states 鈥� Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia 鈥� tend to be concentrated in the Bible Belt or upper Midwest. 

But the practice is widespread. NCTQ found that 135 of 148 large districts offered higher pay for master鈥檚 degrees. The average premium in 2025 for beginning teachers with a master’s was $3,581 a year. For teachers with 25 years of experience, it ran to $9,315. This adds up to millions of dollars that districts are investing to reward teachers with higher degrees. 

Seattle, for example, pays beginning teachers with a master鈥檚 degree almost $13,000 more than those with just a bachelor’s. In Miami, teachers with 10 years of experience make $20,446 more if they have a master鈥檚 degree. In Montgomery County, Maryland, a teacher with 25 years of experience makes almost $40,000 more with a master鈥檚. 

As these examples suggest, master鈥檚 degrees do pay off handsomely for some individuals. But that鈥檚 not the norm for most teachers. Last year, an analysis for the found that master鈥檚 degrees in education have low to negative returns on investment, in contrast to master鈥檚 degrees in science, engineering and nursing, which offered much greater returns. 

There are better alternatives. States have been ramping up that don鈥檛 require much of a front-end investment on the parts of teacher candidates. And a Texas program shows that states can pay teachers more without making the higher salary contingent on a master鈥檚 degree. Team-based staffing models demonstrate how schools can reward effectiveness rather than resumes.

But in most parts of the country, state and district policies continue to rely on teacher credentials. That harms educators, who take on debt and never earn much of a return on their investment. And it鈥檚 a poor use of taxpayer resources, which go toward a credentialing system that ultimately doesn鈥檛 help teachers get better at working with students. 

Our conclusion: Targeting bonuses to educators in high-needs areas 鈥� beyond the additional pay for seniority and advanced degrees that most teachers enjoy 鈥� would help equalize access to high-quality educators, rectify per-pupil spending inequities between schools with high proportions of low-income students and their more advantaged peers, alleviate shortages in specialty areas such as STEM and special education, and reduce teacher turnover at high-poverty schools.

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Yet despite the and , bonus pay for teachers in specializations like STEM, special education and bilingual education, and for those working in high-poverty schools, is still shockingly uncommon. on 148 collective bargaining agreements in large districts shows that fewer than 1 in 6 (15%) offered any differentiated pay for teachers working in schools with large proportions of low-income students. Even where extra pay for other shortage areas (e.g., special education) ostensibly exists, the financial incentives are usually nominal and often require activation by school boards or other entities through processes that lack transparency and accountability to parents and taxpayers, which, in turn, renders them ineffective.

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So why isn’t more being done to build a better system that provides equal access to high-quality teachers and fairer per-pupil spending?

Unions are the most formidable barrier to bonus pay in high-need schools and specializations. In a 2022 piece for The New York Times, Thomas Toch of Future Ed : 鈥淔or their part, teachers unions, influential voices on state and local staffing policy, tend to back expensive strategies that benefit every teacher rather than concentrate resources where there鈥檚 clear need. An American Federation of Teachers shortage task force in July recommended higher across-the-board pay, smaller classes and a reduction in the use of student achievement to measure school and teacher performance.鈥�

Similarly, researchers at the Brookings Institution in 2017: 鈥淏oth state policies and teachers unions have blocked differentiating teacher compensation for things like teaching in high-demand subjects or in high-need school settings, but this type of price discrimination would be an expedient way to address many of the persistent teacher vacancies districts increasingly face.”

Union leaders often opine that any from standard salary schedules and that bonus pay could be divisive among the teachers who receive it and those who do not.聽

We don鈥檛 see anything necessarily nefarious or malicious in this stance. It may have some grounding in practical realities and could be an easy way to please most members without ruffling too many feathers. However, the stance of union leaders seems at odds with that of their rank-and-file teachers, 92% of whom, in a 2023 survey by E4E, said they for working in hard-to-staff schools. The popularity of this idea was sustained in , when teachers selected 鈥淥pportunities for higher pay for working in a hard-to-staff school or subject area鈥� as one of the strategies most likely to attract talented and diverse candidates to the teaching profession 鈥� and teachers of color chose it as the No. 1 strategy.

That opposition also reveals a fascinating contrast with standard practices in nursing 鈥� a profession for which, like education, the American Federation of Teachers provides widespread representation in collective bargaining.

Though nursing shares similar demographics and educational requirements with teaching, the union鈥檚 approach to compensation in these two professions is worlds apart. Our of six matched AFT teacher and nursing contracts in Manchester, Connecticut; Cincinnati Ohio, and New Brunswick, New Jersey, shows that while bonus pay is rare, restricted and meager in teaching, it is widespread, accessible and far more generous in nursing.

When it came to hard-to-fill roles in nursing 鈥� such as weekend and overnight shifts 鈥斅� the we examined provided substantial supplemental pay to attract nurses to these less popular time slots. Nurses in Manchester, for example, receive a shift premium of $5.25 per hour (18% above base rate) for evening shifts and $7 per hour (24% above base rate) for working nights and weekends.

In contrast, the teacher agreements we studied had no incentives whatsoever for teaching in high-poverty schools. Some were there, in theory, but upon closer inspection, they were reduced to zero in practice by the failure to actually implement them.

For example, while the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers contract gives the superintendent authority to declare shortage-based needs, the funding is restricted behind multiple layers of bureaucratic processes. When contacted, Cincinnati Public Schools officials informed us that the superintendent hasn鈥檛 authorized this policy since at least 2022.

The situation was somewhat better for teachers in specializations in which there are shortages, such as special education, bilingual education and STEM. However, where teachers might, if they are lucky, get a maximum differential of 5% of their base salary for one of these positions, nurses’ contracts commonly include bonuses of 15% or more for hard-to-staff assignments. Research shows that bonuses 7.5% above base salary are the to influence choice of assignments, with increasing efficacy above that level.

We don鈥檛 consider our study to be the final word. We examined only six contracts in three geographic areas. And in both professions, there are ways to provide bonus pay outside collective bargaining agreements.

Districts could offer differentiated pay as annual bonuses outside of contracts (though negotiation through a memorandum of understanding or the like might still be required) or by giving school leaders, such as principals, autonomy over hiring (instead of assignments based on bumping and seniority) and weighting funding based on student needs rather than teacher seniority in order for school administrators to set salaries and staffing assignments according to their school鈥檚 specific needs.

At the state level, funding could be offered to districts or schools through grants tailored to address shortages in high-poverty and rural schools and specializations, such as Illinois’ Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Program and Texas’ Teacher Incentive Allotment.聽

More research is clearly needed.

Nonetheless, we think our findings weaken the argument that bonus pay is somehow inherently anti-union or unmanageably divisive. This is also a situation where we feel that the adults need to give a little to do what鈥檚 best for children, especially students in the highest-need classrooms that continue to suffer from shortages of experienced and qualified teachers that diminish young people’s opportunities. It is time to pay added bonuses to get the best teachers where children need them most.

New data shows that while has climbed in recent years, Hoosier educators still earn less than peers in neighboring states 鈥� a gap union leaders and some legislators say threatens teacher retention and classroom success.

Members of the Interim Study Committee on Fiscal Policy spent much of their final meeting on Friday examining teacher and administrator salaries, student-to-teacher ratios, and other education funding trends. 

The statewide median teacher salary was $60,100 as of the 2025 fiscal year, compared with $98,193 for school administrators and $114,825 for corporation administrators, according to a presentation prepared by the Legislative Services Agency.

The mean salary across Indiana was $63,424 for teachers; $99,556 for school administrators; and $116,731 for corporation administrators.

Though average salaries rose about 4% from 2024 to 2025, LSA staff told the committee that when adjusted for inflation, median wages for teachers and administrators have actually declined since 2020.

Suburban districts continue to pay the most, while teachers in rural and small-town schools saw the smallest wage growth, according to the LSA analysis.

Public schools spent roughly $824 million on teacher and administrator benefits in 2024, nearly 80% of it for health insurance.

鈥榃e simply have to raise teacher pay鈥�

Joel Hand, representing both the American Federation of Teachers Indiana and the Indiana School Social Workers Association, told the committee that Indiana 鈥渟till lags far behind our other Midwestern states.鈥�

He pointed to Wisconsin, for example, where teacher salaries averaged $65,196 for the 2023-24 school year. Ohio, meanwhile, reported average teacher pay at $72,644.

鈥淚f we want to keep those students who are getting degrees in education from leaving to go to Illinois or Ohio or Wisconsin or Michigan, we simply have to raise teacher pay,鈥� Hand said.

He emphasized that Indiana currently ranks 39th in the nation for average teacher salary, citing data from the National Education Association. 

鈥淚f we want to address teacher retention 鈥� we have to raise teacher pay across the board,鈥� Hand told lawmakers.

Gail Zeheralis, with the Indiana State Teachers Association, echoed those concerns. She reminded the committee that the 2019 Governor鈥檚 Teacher Compensation Commission had set a goal of a $60,000 average teacher salary.

鈥淎 $40,000 salary in 2019 equates to roughly $50,000 today, and a $60,000 average in 2019 equates to about $76,000 in today鈥檚 dollars,鈥� she said. 鈥淚ndiana must continue increasing state funding.鈥�

LSA staff told lawmakers that statewide, student-to-teacher ratios have declined 鈥� from 17.6-to-1 in 2019 to 15.6-to-1 in 2025 鈥� while the student-to-administrator ratio dropped from 208-to-1 to 196.9-to-1 over the same period. 

The trend, said LSA Assistant Director Austin Spears, mirrors national patterns but is 鈥渞eally driven by an increase in the count of teachers鈥� rather than student enrollment growth. 

Still, Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, noted the roughly 1,300 open, unfilled teaching positions on the Indiana Department of Education鈥檚 website.

But other committee members questioned whether funding decisions at the local level steer too few dollars directly to classrooms. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating up here 鈥� that we want to take care of teachers as best we can, because we think that helps us educate kids better,鈥� said Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville. 鈥淏ut dollars going into the school system from this body don鈥檛 seem to always make it into the classroom or teachers鈥� pockets.鈥�

Hand responded that 鈥渢he erosion of collective bargaining for teachers at the local level鈥� has weakened educators鈥� ability to advocate for fair pay and working conditions.

Hand additionally called attention to Indiana鈥檚 severe shortage of school social workers, which he and others flagged as a 鈥渃ritical鈥� issue in the midst of growing mental health needs across the state鈥檚 schools.

The latest data from the state and national school social worker associations showed that Indiana has a student-to-social worker ratio of 1,829 to 1 鈥� massively above the recommended ratio of 250 to 1.

鈥淲ith the enormous crisis we have in Indiana 鈥� and really throughout the country 鈥� with mental health in our schools, this is a ratio that I would strongly challenge you as members of the General Assembly to work on,鈥� Hand said.

School social workers are different from school counselors and are primarily focused on students鈥� lives outside of the classroom and on helping deal with issues outside of school that interfere with academic progress. 

Hand said that despite holding master鈥檚 degrees and being specially-certified, school social workers are typically not considered to be teachers and many are not on teacher contracts. 

He urged legislators to include social workers in the state鈥檚 definition of 鈥渢eacher鈥� for funding purposes, arguing that change will make it easier for school social workers to get hired or be qualified for raises.

Possible legislative solutions

Lawmakers and education advocates pointed to 鈥� approved earlier this year 鈥� as a starting point for potential reform, but said additional changes are needed to make teacher pay competitive.

That law from $40,000 to $45,000 beginning June 30, and increased the share of state tuition support that school districts must spend on teacher compensation from 62% to 65%.

It also created a statewide Teacher Recruitment Program to help fund training and placement in high-need schools, while requiring annual reports on expanding affordable health plan options for educators.

Several lawmakers on the committee signaled interest in going further. 

Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, suggested offering weighted funding or incentive pay for shortage areas such as special education and STEM fields 鈥� 鈥渁 market-based approach,鈥� he said, that would help schools recruit for the hardest-to-fill roles.

Baldwin continued to push for greater transparency in local spending to ensure that 鈥渄ollars reach classrooms and teachers,鈥� rather than being absorbed by administrative growth.

Qaddoura additionally proposed a deeper analysis of district administrative structures to distinguish between small charter schools and large corporations when comparing salary ratios, noting that such distinctions 鈥渨ould give us a clearer picture of where our dollars are actually going.鈥�

Other ideas discussed included restoring stronger collective bargaining rights for teachers and giving districts more flexibility to redirect certain capital project funds 鈥� like those used for athletic facilities 鈥� toward salaries. 

鈥淲e just need to somehow loosen up that money for teachers over another astro-turf football field,鈥� said Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle.

No formal recommendations were adopted, but lawmakers said the findings will guide education discussions in the 2026 legislative session. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the data,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淣ow we need to figure out what levers we can pull.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.

They racked up credit card debt, borrowed money from relatives, and ate frozen dinners.

Now, after , the Education Department has begun sending payments to soon-to-be-teachers who were counting on the money to cover living expenses over the summer while they trained to enter the city鈥檚 public schools.

Members of the NYC Teaching Fellows expected to be paid up to $4,500 in installments during the summer program, which quickly trains career changers and recent college graduates to fill hard-to-staff positions in the city鈥檚 public schools. Nearly 1,000 people participated this year, about double the number compared with last year, as the city races to comply with a state class size mandate that will require than usual every year.

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Education officials initially indicated that participants would be paid periodically during the seven-week program to help offset living expenses, according to a recording of a webinar obtained by Chalkbeat. But when the program wound down during the last week of July, the payments still hadn鈥檛 arrived.

Several fellows complained about the delays, and the Education Department responded with vague messages that did little to clarify the timeline. City officials eventually told fellows they would begin issuing checks on Aug 1., meaning participants would not receive them until after they completed their training.

鈥淭hey just kept saying, 鈥楨xpect an update,鈥欌�� said Kimba Williams, a 44-year-old former case manager for a foster care agency who participated in the program this summer. 鈥淭hey waited until the whole program was over.鈥�

, the Teaching Fellows program has long been a key pipeline for attracting educators into high-need schools and is also designed to help diversify the teaching force. About were hired through the program, which offers a faster track into city classrooms that skirts the traditional certification process.

Williams, who is slated to teach at a Bronx middle school this fall, joined the fellows program because he wanted to be a positive role model for Black boys. Research students of color have better outcomes when they are in classrooms with teachers who look like them.

As the weeks ticked by without any sign of a paycheck, he maxed out his credit cards, took on $2,500 in debt, and canceled a trip to visit his daughter in North Carolina because he couldn鈥檛 afford the travel. He was expecting a stipend of about $3,700.

鈥淚t makes it hard to live a normal life,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淎t times you may not know where your next meal is coming from and that鈥檚 not fair to put anyone through.鈥�

The training experience 鈥� which involves learning how to devise lessons, manage classrooms, and teach summer school students under close supervision 鈥� was positive except for the lack of payment, Williams said.

A check finally arrived on Aug. 11, more than a week after the program ended. Williams plans to use some of the money to drive his daughter to college.

City officials eventually blamed the delays on a 鈥渢ransition to a new payment structure that was required for us to remain in compliance with tax regulations,鈥� according to an email some teaching fellows received at the end of July.

鈥淲hile the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality has been working tirelessly to issue this payment as soon as possible, we deeply apologize for the delay caused by this transition and appreciate your patience and understanding,鈥� the message continued.

After this story was published, Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull wrote in an email that 鈥渁ll payments have been issued鈥� and noted that the city would 鈥渜uickly identify and resolve any outstanding issues to ensure every Fellow is paid in full.鈥�

Some fellows, however, said they are still waiting to be paid.

One participant, who previously worked as an accountant, said he borrowed $6,500 from relatives to pay for rent and groceries this summer. The delays have strained some of those relationships.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e asking, 鈥榃hen are you going to be able to pay?鈥欌�� said the fellow, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 tell them because I haven鈥檛 received it.鈥�

City officials warned fellows in a late July message that lost checks could take months to reissue.

Some experts that starting a new career in debt could mean they wind up leaving the public school system sooner, as teachers often make less than peers with similar experience and credentials. The former accountant said the experience has made him second guess his decision to change careers.

鈥淧eople are not going to want to stay in a profession if you鈥檙e not going to be treated with respect,鈥� he said.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Advocates are hopeful that change is coming: This June, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law , a historic $8.5 billion piece of legislation devoted to increasing education funding across the state, with a particular focus on teacher training and retention. It includes almost $190 million specifically devoted to teacher preparation and certification programs, as well as $4 billion for teacher and staff pay raises to keep high-quality teachers in the classroom. 

鈥淚 don’t think about this being your kind of traditional state policy, which tends to do a lot of patchwork reforms,鈥� said Jacob Kirksey, associate professor at the College of Education at Texas Tech University. 鈥淭his really tackled the teacher pipeline from its inception.鈥�

The teacher pipeline issue 鈥渨as a Texas-sized problem,鈥� he added, 鈥渁nd this [bill] is a Texas-sized solution.鈥�

Before this legislative session, Texas lawmakers hadn鈥檛 raised schools鈥� base funding or passed a comprehensive education finance package , leading to what some called a dire situation. Last year, the K-12 school system was ranked overall and 44th for reading scores.

The certification crisis became a major focus of the bill once lawmakers 鈥渟tarted to recognize that the [resulting] learning loss was a statistic that you couldn鈥檛 turn away from,鈥� Kirksey said.

In response, House Bill 2 will also limit some components of a which allowed the vast majority of Texas districts to hire fully uncertified teachers, experts told 社区黑料. Initially designed with a goal of opening educator pathways for industry folks to teach career and technical education courses, consequences of the bill really exploded post-pandemic, when schools were struggling to hire teachers, according to Kirksey.

Ultimately, over schools statewide applied for and received Districts of Innovation designation, allowing scores of them to hire uncertified teachers. By the , the share of all new public school teachers in Texas who are uncertified reached 56%. That share has increased significantly over the last decade, worrying advocates, experts and district leaders across the state. The previous year, when just under half of new teachers were uncertified, almost had no prior experience working in Texas public schools. 

That lack of preparation has real impact, both for the teachers themselves and the students they serve: 64% of uncertified teachers leave the classroom after just five years 鈥� compared to about a third of traditionally certified teachers, according to the  

鈥淚t was really creating a revolving door of teachers that sort of became a self-fulfilling prophecy,鈥�  said Ryan Franklin, managing director of policy and advocacy at Philanthropy Advocates and former associate commissioner for educator leadership and quality at the Texas Education Agency.

Students with new, uncertified teachers lose about in reading and three months in math each year, comparable to and compounding the learning loss kids experienced during the pandemic, Kirksey鈥檚 research found.

The new legislation gradually mandates that all core subject teachers are fully certified by the 2027-28 school year, with an option for schools to apply for an extension until the 2029-30 school year. It also provides incentives for teachers who are currently in the classroom to seek out certification quickly with a $1,000 bonus.

In addition, the bill looks to promote high-quality training programs since 鈥渁ll preparation is not created equally,鈥� Franklin said. 

A ‘chance at sustainable growth‘

While the scale of House Bill 2 is unprecedented in Texas, the desire to introduce innovative and high-quality pathways to teaching isn鈥檛 new.

Clifton Tanabe, the dean of the College of Education at The University of Texas El Paso, has been working on this for quite some time. Six years ago, he introduced a residency program to his university to train teachers differently, so they were not just certified but truly prepared to enter some of the most difficult-to-staff urban and rural classrooms.

Residencies are a year-long, intensive form of training that pairs pre-service educators with a mentor teacher and single school site, allowing them to be fully immersed in a classroom environment and learn through doing. Teaching responsibilities often ramp up for the residents throughout the year, allowing them to 鈥済et their hands dirty,鈥� as one researcher put it, with training wheels. 

Although essentially full-time jobs, they are often unpaid and done while the resident is simultaneously attending their own classes and paying tuition, making them historically inaccessible to a predominantly low-income student body like Tanabe鈥檚. So, he started 鈥減ounding the pavement, asking for money,鈥� and ultimately, in 2018, was able to launch a pilot program that offered all residents a yearly stipend.

Despite the program鈥檚 success, it wasn鈥檛 sustainable. Without COVID funding, Tanabe wouldn鈥檛 have the necessary money to keep paying residents. Already, this year, he鈥檚 had to cut back yearly stipends from $20,000 to around $14,000.

That changed this June with House Bill 2, which Tanabe called 鈥渕assive鈥� for his program and the students they serve.

鈥淚t鈥檚 what we think about as our chance at sustainable growth for this model,鈥� he added.

The legislation will use a to get money into schools, ranging from an expansion of the a merit-based pay program, to the creation of a Teacher Retention Allotment, which will provide significant raises to core subject educators who have been in the classroom for more than three years. Teachers in smaller districts will get even bigger bumps. 

In addition, the sweeping bill expands career and technical education, introduces special education reforms and increases funding to charter schools. 

On the preparation side, the state will pay the cost of training teaching candidates, up to 40 in residency programs or 80 traditional student teachers in each district. Districts will receive up to $39,500 a year for each teacher resident and $21,500 for each student teacher. Along with the additional funds comes tightened requirements for program content 鈥� including mandatory reading and math academies and a ban on any critical race theory-related curriculum. 

Historically, around 20% of certified Texas teachers were prepared fully online, asynchronously, meaning they accessed the materials on their own schedule and without real-time live instruction, according to Kirksey鈥檚 research. Candidates could get a temporary certification in a matter of weeks and immediately enter the classroom. 

鈥淭hat just shows you the incentive structure that was happening,鈥� Kirksey said. 

鈥淲hat [the new funding] does is it allows them to choose quality and not have the same kind of economic loss that they would have,鈥� he added.

Wes Corzine, superintendent of Huckabay Independent School District, a small, rural district south of Fort Worth, said because of the bill, he鈥檚 able to give raises up to $8,000 a year to his more experienced teachers. While he鈥檚 excited about the increase in pay and the funding for his district鈥檚 residency program, he did push back on one element of the legislation, noting he wished there was a bit more flexibility in how districts could spend some of the money.

Tricia Cave, a lobbyist at the Association of Texas Professional Educators, also argued that the Teacher Retention Allotment funds only support raises for core content classroom teachers, excluding scores of other school-based staff like librarians, counselors and school nurses. Still, she is optimistic about the changes this bill can bring.

For the residency at El Paso, and others like it, the money can鈥檛 come soon enough. This year, Tanabe has 200 residents working in schools across seven urban and rural districts that are particularly challenging to staff. The vast majority of the student teachers receive federal Pell grants, and about a third come from families making less than $20,000 a year. 

鈥淚t’s a student population that’s tenacious, looking for opportunities, working hard and if you give them a realistic program, with the kinds of supports that a residency model with a stipend has, we can succeed at a very high level,鈥� he said.

In the first six years of the program, they鈥檝e already seen promising results and a high percentage of residents are ultimately offered full-time teaching roles at their school sites. Last year, leaders in one district that Tanabe鈥檚 program partners with told him the residency program had solved their teacher vacancy problem. This is particularly significant in rural districts, where in the uncertified teachers were hired at a rate four times higher than the rest of the state.聽

And, because of their intensive training, these teachers 鈥渟tart day-one ready,鈥� and remain in the classroom 鈥渂ecause they’re not crying in the parking lot after week one, saying this was the worst decision of their lives. They know how to teach from the get-go,鈥� Tanabe said.聽

Corzine echoed this point, noting that whenever his district has an opening, they make an effort to hire a resident, 鈥渂ecause you鈥檙e really hiring a second-year teacher 鈥� It creates this huge talent pipeline. It鈥檚 a yearlong job interview.鈥�

Experts across the field are hopeful that these across-the-board investments will ultimately have a substantial positive impact on schools, teachers and their students. 

鈥淚 think we know with the teacher education pieces, this is about the long game,鈥� said Franklin, the Philanthropy Advocates managing director, 鈥渁nd this is about long-term, sustainable ways to ensure that our students have the teachers they deserve, and that the teaching profession is an attractive profession to the end.鈥�

This is not a new finding, but Texas is actually doing something about it, by providing millions of dollars in school funding explicitly tied to teacher quality. The way Texas is doing it stands in contrast to past efforts and could be a model for other state and national policymakers.

During the Obama administration, state, district and federal leaders all seized on research on the importance of great teachers. One at the time found that high-quality educators can boost college outcomes and early-career earnings and even reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy.

But many of those policy efforts focused on the nuts and bolts of evaluating teacher quality, rather than using the results to drive personnel decisions. They became a top-down exercise in measurement and bureaucracy rather than a human capital tool. Predictably, that effort largely , and it kicked off a against federal education policy writ large and around teacher policy.

But over the last few years, Texas has slowly built a new approach that could be a path forward. The state is offering carrots, not sticks, as a way to get districts to behave differently. And it鈥檚 working. Not only is Texas offering its best teachers a lot more money, those educators are in the classroom in greater numbers.

It鈥檚 called the program. To qualify, districts submit their evaluation systems for state approval and explain how they will identify and a certain percentage of their teachers as outstanding, based on student growth 鈥� which may or may not include test scores 鈥� and classroom observations. The state then awards those districts extra money for each designated teacher.

Districts must use a validated observation rubric and evaluate educators at least annually. Under state , a 鈥淢aster鈥� teacher would perform at about the 95^th percentile, an 鈥淓xemplary鈥� teacher between the 80th and 95^th percentiles and a 鈥淩ecognized鈥� teacher at the 67^th percentile or above.

After the state verifies a district鈥檚 evaluation process, it starts sending out . Each Recognized teacher earns at least $3,000 for his or her school, with higher amounts for Exemplary and Master teachers. Extra funding is awarded if the teacher works in a high-need or rural school. For example, a Master teacher in such a school could bring in an extra $32,000 a year. 

Critically, the money doesn鈥檛 flow to teachers directly, and districts have some flexibility in how they spend the funds. They can pass on the full amount to the designated teachers, or divide it among those teachers and other support staff at the same school. A district can also reserve up to 10% of the money to pay for professional development and other activities related to the designation system.

Once teachers earn a , they keep it for at least five years. If they change schools or districts, the money follows them. This gives them additional power. But, because the designations are worth more in higher-poverty schools, districts have an incentive to try to keep their designated teachers in their classrooms.

In addition to providing higher pay, this process is also a way for the state to acknowledge and thank great teachers. The state provides letters for districts to send to their designated teachers to notify them of both how much they earned for their school and how much extra they personally will receive.

Since its inception in 2018-19, Texas legislators have expanded the program and tinkered with its design. passed this year raised the dollar amounts for each designation, allowed districts to incorporate principals in the future and created a new category of 鈥淎cknowledged鈥� educators, those at the 50^th percentile or above. The number of districts has also swelled, from 33 at the start to 597 last year 鈥� about half of all districts statewide. Importantly, the extra money seems to be helping to keep teachers in the classroom. Last year, 19% of all non-designated teachers their districts, compared with just 10% of the designated teachers.

Other states and federal policymakers could learn from the Texas approach. Rather than getting bogged down in the details of evaluation systems, it offers carrots to districts that are able to create systems that can meaningfully differentiate among their teachers. And, by putting real money behind it, the state is providing incentives for its best educators to work in the hardest-to-staff schools. Through its allotment program, Texas is raising the pay of its best teachers by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each year, and sending a powerful signal that it values their work and wants them to continue teaching.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Arkansas Department of Education announced Tuesday that 4,200 educators qualified for bonuses under the Learns Merit Teacher Incentive Fund Program, which launched in 2023 as part of a major education reform bill. Roughly 3,000 educators received checks during the program鈥檚 first year.

鈥淚t’s neat to see how surprised [teachers] are, because they think that everybody’s working just as hard as they are, and that all the students are learning as much as their students,鈥� said Jacob Oliva, Arkansas’ secretary of education. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a special moment to really celebrate some of the best of the best.鈥�

This year鈥檚 from the state is meant to incentivize, recruit and retain high-performing educators while reducing staff shortages, according to the department. But the state鈥檚 largest teachers union says too many educators are left out of the running for the annual salary boost.

To be eligible, educators have to meet a complex , including having three years of experience and either spending 70% of their time in the classroom or working as a librarian or school counselor.

Classroom teachers have to demonstrate growth in their students鈥� state test results and be ranked as effective or higher in the Arkansas Teacher Excellence and Support System, based on district of factors like quality of instruction, classroom environment and student engagement.

Educators who don鈥檛 have student state assessment data 鈥� such as those specializing in subjects not tested, like fine arts 鈥� have to be rated highly effective. 

Finally, qualifying teachers must rank in the top 25% of student growth scores, based on a three-year average of English language arts, math or science state tests; teach in a critical shortage area; or mentor college students to become teachers.

Bonus amounts depend on which criteria educators meet. A teacher can receive $9,000 for ranking in the top 1% in student growth, while a counselor could receive $1,500 for working in a geographic shortage area. Bonuses can reach $10,000.

But April Reisma, president of the Arkansas Education Association, said many high-performing teachers are left out. 

鈥淚’m a special education teacher. One time in my life I’ve had a student that hit ‘exceeding’ on that test,鈥� she said. 鈥淚’ve been a great teacher, and I’ve consistently got [highly effective] on my test evaluations, but I may or may not get that bonus, depending on whether or not my kids had a great day. It’s all based on a test at the end of the year for that growth. The results of one test are not an accurate indicator of how a student is performing.鈥�

The that created the merit pay program also eliminated bonuses for national board certified teachers, a recognition that educators can receive after meeting rigorous standards. Reisma said certified teachers used to receive annual bonuses of $10,000, but those dwindled to $2,500 by the end of last year.

Lawmakers and state officials have said the bonus program鈥檚 many qualifications were intended to reward, retain and recruit educators who have a significant impact, such as producing outstanding student growth, teaching in short-staffed schools and mentoring future teachers.

鈥淭he program is designed to target those specific things, and from my perspective, has done a good job of providing significant additional compensation in those areas, and is likely to improve recruitment and retention across all three of those areas,鈥� said Josh McGee, a professor with the University of Arkansas Office for Education Policy. The university is partnering with the state to implement the program.

The effectiveness of performance-based pay has varied over the years, with lacking in impact and producing positive results.

While Arkansas鈥� program is state-funded, the federal government has awarded to school districts for nearly two decades. , , and , have implemented performance pay programs over the years with mixed results.

Federal funding for teacher incentives was with the Trump administration鈥檚 efforts to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The university will conduct research on the Arkansas program’s effectiveness in the coming years. McGee said an initial analysis will most likely take place in the fall, but an overall study won’t happen for a few years.

When Angela Dominguez took the helm of Donna Independent School District in Texas in 2021, she thought the district鈥檚 original decision to use most of its federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief (ESSER) money to pay for existing fourth- and fifth-grade teacher positions was short-sighted.

鈥淚 was like, 鈥楧id you guys think that we were going to just do without fourth and fifth grade after ESSER?鈥欌�� she recalled.

Dominguez had a longer term vision for the remaining rounds of pandemic emergency funding: Hire teaching assistants for early elementary classrooms to help the district鈥檚 youngest learners, who were struggling with math and reading as a result of uneven exposure to school during remote learning.

鈥淢y belief about these types of funds is [they] come around one time, and the investment needed to be in things that were tangible, that would be lasting for our students, our staff and our community,鈥� said Dominguez, who created a committee to ensure ESSER investments aligned with these goals.

Congress rolled out to states between 2020 and 2022 to help school districts address academic and social-emotional hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. 

Districts generally had flexibility in how they used the money to support pandemic-related recovery on all fronts, from getting students back to in-person learning to supporting student academic and social-emotional recovery. 

Districts used ESSER funds in myriad ways and with varying outcomes. EdSurge talked to three districts 鈥� in Donna, Texas, Fulton County, Georgia and Guilford Country, North Carolina 鈥� that are seeing gains despite the emergency funds鈥� expiration. They made educated, data-driven bets on how to best support their students and teachers by investing in educational infrastructure and support systems, from high-dosage tutoring to teacher coaching and professional development on new, streamlined literacy and math curricula. 

Their data show their bets are paying off. What鈥檚 more, these districts have found ways to sustain these improvements despite .

Sasha Pudelski, who directs advocacy efforts for AASA, the school superintendents association, which did  about their pandemic emergency fund spending, said the approach these three districts took resonates with the survey findings and fulfilled what she called the government鈥檚 鈥渉olistic vision鈥� of funding long-term student needs.

Superintendents saw ESSER 鈥渘ot just as an opportunity to meet the urgent and immediate needs of their students, but also as a chance to invest in systemic, long-term improvements that would make a lasting impact on students and educators,鈥� she said. 

Not all districts have been able to maintain their pandemic emergency-funded initiatives and programs.

鈥淭here are high-poverty communities that have lower property tax bases and lower commercial property revenues and declining populations and higher student community needs,鈥� Pudelski said, that prevent them from reallocating resources now that ESSER is over. Those districts 鈥渄isproportionately felt the impact of the expiration of the funds.鈥�

In-Class Assistants

Under Dominguez鈥� leadership, Donna, Texas, refocused its ESSER spending to support its youngest learners. Pre-pandemic assessment scores showed that more than 90 percent of third graders were not reading at grade level and 95 percent were below grade level in math. So the district used relief funds to recruit, hire and train classroom assistants for concentrated reading and math instruction in pre-kindergarten through grade 2.

That decision paid off: In two years, from 2021 to 2023, tests showed third graders reading at grade level jumped from 9 percent to 31 percent, and those achieving math proficiency went from just 5 percent to 27 percent. Dominguez called the results 鈥渞emarkable.鈥� 

These gains prompted the district to prioritize the program in its annual budget. Dominguez said Donna is using a combination of state and other federal funds to retain the assistants.

鈥淭hat investment really did get us a lot of traction around students getting to some [level of] recovery,鈥� she added. 

Focus on Literacy

Playing the long game also drove Fulton County, Georgia, schools鈥� ESSER spending strategy. But it was tempting to direct all the emergency funds toward immediate needs, according to Fulton鈥檚 chief academic officer Brannon Gaskins. 

鈥淭here were two schools of thought around using the ESSER funds,鈥� Gaskins recalled. 鈥淗ow do we reopen schools as soon as possible? And what is the long-term plan for those funds?鈥�

Dedicating most of its ESSER funds to supporting students鈥� literacy development made the most sense to the district鈥檚 leaders, Gaskins said. Recognizing the high probability of student learning declines as a result of remote learning, Fulton used the money to accelerate pre-pandemic plans to reorganize literacy instruction around scientific reading principles. 

鈥淲e knew there was a way to use these funds in an innovative way that would really impact us five, 10 years after the pandemic,鈥� Gaskins said. 

As part of a three-year plan to help students recover from pandemic-related learning setbacks, Fulton created Every Child Reads. The initiative included training district leaders, principals, early elementary teachers and staff on the science of reading, installing a dedicated literacy coach in every elementary school, setting up high-dosage tutoring and replacing dozens of disparate reading programs across the district with high-quality instructional materials. 

Similar to Donna, Texas, Fulton dedicated a district finance director to oversee ESSER spending, which Gaskins said helped the district spend its funds efficiently. 

Later, the district evaluated Every Child Reads and found that  鈥� a feat state assessments confirmed. The findings persuaded Fulton to eliminate or scale back programs that weren鈥檛 working or no longer needed, such as small-group tutors and high-dosage tutoring, and supplement or expand programs that showed results, such as a dedicated literacy coach in every school. 

鈥淎lthough our budgets are tight, our superintendent said we will deprioritize other things in our budget to make sure we have the literacy coaches that we need,鈥� Gaskins said. 

He added that enhancing teachers鈥� literacy instruction 鈥渨ill have generational effects.鈥�

鈥淲hen you think about a brand-new teacher or a novice teacher five years in鈥nd they still have 25 more cohorts of students to teach [over their career], that has a huge impact on generations of students,鈥� Gaskins said.

High-Dosage Tutoring

Even before the pandemic, education leaders in Guilford County, North Carolina, were concerned about middle grade math proficiency. That concern, coupled with an outpouring of community support for and research on the power of high-dosage tutoring, drove the district鈥檚 ESSER concentration, said chief academic officer Jusmar Maness.

The difference in Guilford鈥檚 program compared to other districts鈥� high-dosage tutoring, she added, is that it was 鈥渉ome grown.鈥� The district established a department to oversee the program and recruited and trained tutors from the local universities it already partnered with for other programs. 

鈥淲e knew the investment needed to be at the student level,鈥� Maness said. 鈥淏ut we also needed to build capacity within our district to be able to continue this work.鈥�

At its peak, Guilford鈥檚 tutoring program supported more than 17,000 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The district also introduced coaching and professional development aligned to new, high-quality math instructional materials to enhance teachers鈥� math instruction. 

鈥淓xpanded teacher capacity has been critical,鈥� Maness said. 鈥淭hese efforts were designed to ensure that every single one of our teachers had the support and tools they needed to engage students in that grade-level content and accelerate learning.鈥�

By scaling the program quickly and broadly and building teachers鈥� instructional capacity in math, Guilford helped its fourth-grade studentsby the 2023 school year. These students also recovered much faster .

Maness said the addition of tutors during the school day also deepened students鈥� feelings of connectedness in school. 

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 only have the teacher, but they also have a tutor [who] is another trusted adult that they have a relationship with,鈥� she said.

Maness added that the tutoring program and teacher development were unequivocally the right investments for their pandemic emergency funds, which the district exhausted.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that there鈥檚 something we would have changed,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e were able to really reach so many students and provide them what they needed.鈥�

Focusing its ESSER funds on a program fueled by community support has meant that, with some modifications, Guilford has been able to sustain its tutoring program through local philanthropy after ESSER dried up. The district now provides high-dosage tutoring in literacy for kindergarten to grade 3 and math for grades 6 to 8, and supports high school students through out-of-school learning hubs.

鈥淲e had support from universities. We have support from the community. It鈥檚 thanks to those relationship and philanthropic partners we鈥檝e been able to continue the work beyond ESSER,鈥� Maness said, adding that the district continues to advocate for state and federal funding. 

Uncertain Future

But districts across the country are also bracing for other federal cuts after President Donald Trump鈥檚 .

鈥淲e would just not even be able to function if we lost federal funding,鈥� Dominguez in Donna, Texas, said. 鈥淲e would have to lay off staff across the board.鈥�

She added that state-level priorities in Texas have shifted, making budgets tighter. Her district is rounding out this school year $8 million short.

鈥淭he state is not any better right now than the federal [funding]. School vouchers just passed, and money for public ed has been kind of held hostage,鈥� Dominguez said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate to have a very healthy fund balance, but we can鈥檛 keep dipping into savings forever and expect it to stay that way.鈥�

Maness in Guilford hopes policymakers keep in mind the need for continued investment in public schools.

鈥淲e want the people that are making the decisions on funding to understand how critical investments like these are for our students,鈥� she said.

In short, teachers face, 鈥渁 widening gap between income and housing affordability,鈥� according to . 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines 鈥渁ffordable鈥� as 鈥減aying no more than 30% of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.鈥� NCTQ had looked at a select sample of 69 large urban districts and found 18 where beginning teacher salaries met the definition for 鈥渦naffordable鈥� as of 2019.

By 2024, that number had risen to 39, or about half the sample. In 10 of those districts, the rent for a one-bedroom apartment cost 40% of a beginning teacher鈥檚 salary. In Boston, for example, it would eat up nearly 43%. 

Bowser notes that the picture today is even grimmer when looking at a teacher鈥檚 prospects for purchasing a home. Using some (ambitious) estimates about how much an educator could save toward a down payment on a mortgage and comparing it with local real estate prices, Bowser finds that teachers would struggle to purchase a home in 54 out of 56 sample districts.

These are extreme numbers. But who or what is to blame? And what can be done? 

One potential solution starts with a simple premise. If teachers can鈥檛 find affordable housing, school districts could partner with developers to build apartments and become landlords to their own employees. This has been a particular focus in , where state Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond and a coalition of legislators and developers are encouraging districts to repurpose empty buildings and unused land to address housing needs.

That may seem like a good idea at first blush, but have been plagued by delays and rules that prevent 鈥渓ow-income鈥� housing subsidies from going to people who are not truly low-income. In other words, teachers often to qualify for extra financial assistance.

The idea that districts can solve teacher housing issues is also complicated by the fact that educators are far from the only group of workers who struggle to make ends meet in high-cost urban areas. Indeed, recent studies have found that high housing costs have led to and for people to climb the economic ladder. If police officers, social workers, janitors and cleaners, bus drivers, food service workers and many other types of low- and moderate-income employees are all being priced out of many American cities, there鈥檚 only so much a school board can do. In that case, the 鈥渢eacher鈥� housing problem is largely a generic, community-wide affordability problem that will be solved only by housing units.

But even if individual school boards cannot solve this big, societal trend, education policymakers are not helping. In fact, their choices have made the housing affordability problem worse. How? By not turning rising revenues into higher salaries, they鈥檝e chosen to prioritize a larger education workforce over a better-paid one. In turn, that makes it harder for teachers and other school employees to afford housing in the places where they work.  

As I noted in a recent project for 社区黑料, school spending is keeping up with or even outpacing inflation in many parts of the country, but those investments are not translating into higher compensation for district employees. If those salaries had merely kept up with total education spending, they would be 34% higher. At the national level, that would have worked out to a $22,000 raise for the average school employee. 

In Portland, Oregon, for example, NCTQ鈥檚 Bowser that it would take 41% of a beginning teacher鈥檚 salary to rent a one-bedroom apartment. But that鈥檚 not for lack of investments in the district. As we found in our report, Portland鈥檚 revenues rose 54% from 2002 to 2022 in inflation-adjusted, per-pupil terms. (That is, the district revenues increased much faster than inflation.) And yet, the average salary paid to Portland school employees fell by 8%. Portland, like many parts of the country, did not turn budget increases into salary gains for its workers. 

These trends have continued in recent years. While Portland housing prices surged over the last five years, the district lost 10% of its student enrollment. At the same time, it added the equivalent of 445 full-time employees to its (an 8% increase). In other words, instead of leaning into the housing problem and trying to pay its existing workers higher salaries, the Portland school district actually made the city鈥檚 housing problems just a bit worse by hiring more, lower-paid workers.
I don鈥檛 want to just pick on Portland here. As we showed in our project last month, 90% of districts are making these types of choices. But they effectively mean that school district leaders in some of the biggest, most expensive places to live are making budgetary decisions that add to the housing difficulties in their communities.

At the time, Castro鈥檚 salary was less than $20,000. Two decades later, after earning both her bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in sociology and urban studies and working as a special education and a language paraprofessional, she is earning $55,000 鈥� still far below what most people would need to earn to afford to live in New York. To help her make ends meet, Castro lived with her parents early on in her career. 

But the main reason she has stuck with it? The impact she has had on the kids.  

鈥淲e are there with the students every period, so we see the challenges the students go through and their success,鈥� Castro said. 鈥淭o me, it’s amazing to see, especially when I’m [working with] an autistic child who, for the first time, is learning how to read and learning how to write their name.鈥�

Castro now advocates for other classroom support staff as the president of the paraprofessional chapter of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. The city is currently struggling with a shortage of more than 1,550 paraprofessionals. Hoping to attract and retain more people to the profession, the union is stepping outside of its traditional collective bargaining practices to that would of at least $10,000 for the city鈥檚 paraprofessionals.

Paraprofessionals are usually hourly workers who assist students and teachers with classroom work, supervision and instructing small groups. Roughly 75% of paras don鈥檛 have a bachelor鈥檚 degree, according to a . Average pay for paraprofessionals in 2024 was $35,240, according to the .  

Across the U.S., unions are seeking to boost paraprofessional pay, which remains so low that workers are struggling to get by in many states, according to an from the National Education Association.

A found that more than half of paraprofessionals worked other jobs on weekdays after classes ended and 75% said they had a problem making a living wage.

The NEA said that while paraprofessional pay has improved, 鈥渢here is still a lot of work to be done.鈥�

In April, paraprofessionals in Boston landed raises ranging from 23% to 31% over three years Most will see a pay increase of nearly $8,000 by the end of the , according to the Boston Teachers Union. 

Allentown School District in Pennsylvania accepted a contract last fall that will give its paraprofessionals . Pittsburgh Public Schools awarded its paras in December.

In addition, California lawmakers are that would increase pay for both teachers and staffers, including paraprofessionals, by 50% over the next 10 years. 

鈥淚鈥檝e received strong support from teachers and [other school] employees who are struggling to live in the communities that they work in,鈥� said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, who authored the bill.

Dannel Montesano is one of them. She left her paraprofessional job earlier this year to become an office clerk at Liberty Ranch High School in Galt, California. The new job paid just $1 more per hour. It was the only way she could get a raise.

鈥淥ur starting paraprofessional pay is $18.63 an hour. This school year, we’ve had a hard time filling all of the positions because when you can go work at McDonald’s for over $20 an hour 鈥� and not have as much responsibility working one-on-one with students 鈥�- the draw isn’t there,鈥� she said.

In New York City, paraprofessionals earn between $31,787 to $52,847 a year, according to the UFT. The city鈥檚 current system of collective bargaining ensures all job titles receive the same percentage wage increase. But those increases have a varying impact depending on an employee鈥檚 base pay. The union said in a that a 3% pay raise could mean roughly a $900 increase for a paraprofessional but a $6,000 bump for a principal. 

More than 1,600 union members rallied in front of City Hall in April to advocate for the paraprofessional pay bill, which would create a separate “” that would exist outside of collective bargaining. Each year, the city鈥檚 general fund would provide full-time paraprofessionals with a check of at least $10,000.

鈥淲e have paraprofessionals who are struggling,鈥� Castro said. 鈥淚 received an email from a paraprofessional who’s living in a shelter with a child. It broke my heart to receive this email. We have to make a difference. We have to ensure that the bill is passed in City Hall, because it would change so many lives.鈥�

Updated May 21, 2025

School spending is up. So why aren鈥檛 teacher salaries? 

For example, from 2002 to 2022, per-pupil spending in the Los Angeles Unified School District rose 108%. That鈥檚 in real terms, after accounting for inflation. 

But that money didn鈥檛 lead to higher pay. In fact, the average salary earned by district employees rose just 5%. 

These trends are not unique to Los Angeles and are, in fact, playing out in most schools and districts across the country. 

We set out to document the disconnect between rising school spending and stagnant salary levels. 

Nationally, average teacher salaries have been remarkably flat for a very long time. In inflation-adjusted terms, they鈥檝e been around $70,000 for decades.  

Meanwhile, pay for other college-educated workers has risen steadily, leaving teachers behind. For example, an analysis last year found the average nurse made less than the average teacher in the 1970s, but nursing pay has since then while teacher salaries have not. Compensation for other professionals, including accountants, engineers, college professors, doctors, health technicians, managers, officials, proprietors, lawyers, judges and scientists, has pulled even farther ahead.

The most obvious explanation for stagnant teacher salaries would be if total education spending were flat. But that鈥檚 not it, because America is investing more in schools. 

The graph below compares the growth in school spending versus employee salaries for the last two decades. Both figures are adjusted for inflation. But, while spending rose 31% per student, the average salary paid to district employees fell by 2.5%. 

If district salaries had merely kept up with total education spending, they would have been 34% higher. That would have worked out to nearly a $22,000 raise for the average employee. 

I鈥檓 not the first person to document this. Last year, the libertarian Reason Foundation published looking at state-level trends. It found that inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending had risen across the country and in every state except North Carolina. And yet, there was not a single state where teacher salaries kept up with the pace of overall spending. 

In my home state of , per-pupil school spending rose by 15% from 2002 to 2020 while teacher salaries fell by 4%. In , spending rose 36% while teacher salaries increased by just 8%. In , school spending skyrocketed a whopping 70% while average teacher salaries rose by a more modest 16%. In , school spending rose by 16% while teacher salaries crept up just 1%. Again, these figures are all adjusted for inflation. 

What about individual school districts? I worked with Eamonn Fitzmaurice, 社区黑料鈥檚 art and technology director, to look at local trends. 

Unfortunately, there鈥檚 no national database of average teacher salaries by district, but we got pretty close. The NCES Common Core of Data collects the total salary expenditures per district and the total number of staff employed. By dividing these figures, we calculated an average salary across all employees in the district. These are not 鈥渢eacher鈥� salaries, but we think they鈥檙e a reasonable approximation. Particularly large changes in the growth of school spending versus employee salaries could be due to a variety of factors, including rapid increases in revenues or decreases in student enrollments, governance changes or data input errors.

We looked at revenue and salary expenditures from 2001-02 to 2021-22, the last year for which the data were available. We adjusted everything for inflation and took out districts with fewer than 500 students or missing data. That left 8,877 districts that educate about 90% of students nationwide. Use the interface below to see how per-student revenue and salary trends are changing in your community.  

INTERACTIVE

School District Revenue vs Salary Change 2002-2022

For some districts, about 10% of our sample, salaries rose at a rate commensurate with district revenue increases. Washington state districts were disproportionately represented on this list, thanks in part to in state funding explicitly tied to teacher salaries. 

But that means 90% of districts did not raise salaries in proportion to their revenue increases. This disconnect may help explain why some teachers feel their salaries aren't keeping up with their expenses. 

Take housing costs, for example. Imagine someone living on a teacher鈥檚 salary in Santa Monica, California, where housing costs are some of the nation's highest. While policymakers have delivered on the budget side, and the total amount of money allocated to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has mirrored in housing prices, that money isn鈥檛 translating into higher salaries. The district average actually fell by 19% over the last two decades, making it more and more difficult for employees to live in the city in which they work. 

These trends are playing out across the country. In Billings, Montana, per-student revenue rose 51% while average salaries declined 32%. In Philadelphia, revenue per-student climbed by 155% while average salaries fell by 8%. In Buffalo, New York, revenue rose 114% while salaries fell 14%. In Jefferson County, Kentucky, revenue per-student climbed 62% while salaries rose a more modest 12%. 

Where is the money going? The answers vary state by state and district by district, but the national trends provide at least some answers. 

The biggest factor is the number and type of staff. Schools employ a lot more people than they used to, meaning they have to divide their budgets across more workers. While enrollment rose 4% from 2002 to 2022, the number of full-time equivalent rose three times as fast, led by particularly large increases in instructional coordinators, classroom aides and district administrative staff. 

But these figures actually mask another trend. According to Census Bureau , schools employed about 200,000 fewer part-time workers in 2022 than they had in 2002. (Part of that was due to COVID.) Meanwhile, schools added 540,000 full-time workers. This shift carries real costs because two half-time employees don鈥檛 earn as much as one full-time employee, and part-time workers also don鈥檛 qualify for benefits like health insurance or retirement. 

And the cost of those benefits has risen rapidly. Since 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has broken out the components of the costs for a school district to a teacher. In 2004, base salaries and wages represented 74% of a teacher鈥檚 total compensation package, the rest being a combination of health care benefits, retirement plans and Social Security contributions. Over time, total teacher compensation has grown faster than inflation, even though the salary component has not. Instead, benefits costs, especially , have increased rapidly, eating up a larger and larger share of district budgets. 

These changes have been slow and gradual over many years, but they have all played a role in stagnant salaries. State, district and school leaders should dig into these trends if they want to boost take-home pay in their communities.

Clarification: This story has been updated to note that particularly large changes in growth of school spending versus employee salaries could be due to a number of factors. In addition, we noted that salary calculations do not include additional compensation such as retirement or health benefit contributions.聽

The phrase 鈥渟ay the hard part out loud鈥� has had a moment in the national spotlight recently. And within West Virginia, you鈥檒l hear it repeatedly when you talk to education professionals in the Eastern Panhandle about teacher pay.

Something else you鈥檒l hear with regularity is the word 鈥渃risis.鈥�

Michelle Barnhart, a social studies teacher at Martinsburg鈥檚 South Middle School in Berkeley County, has seen the teacher shortage turn from a growing problem into something much more serious.

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鈥淲hen I started teaching in 2017, you had to be actively working on your degree to even be considered for a position. Now, they鈥檙e putting people with associate degrees 鈥� or no degree at all 鈥� into classrooms as full-time teachers,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey aren鈥檛 supposed to, but they have no choice.鈥�

The state, added Barnhart, is ignoring the problem.

鈥淐harleston doesn鈥檛 see it, or chooses not to. People downstate don鈥檛 understand that many of the adults in these kids鈥� classrooms up here aren鈥檛 actually teachers 鈥� because the teachers have gone elsewhere for better pay.鈥�

Imagine, she said, if hospitals started hiring people with no medical background to be doctors. 鈥淛ust pulling people off the street, handing them a clipboard, and saying, 鈥楬ere, practice medicine.鈥� That鈥檚 what鈥檚 happening here in education.鈥�

Barnhart said that many of her colleagues and fellow educators feel powerless at the end of the day.

鈥淭he cost of living in the panhandle is nowhere near the rest of West Virginia, but teachers, state workers 鈥� anyone whose salary is coded into law 鈥� get the same base pay. If you live elsewhere, that鈥檚 not a big deal. But if you move here, you suddenly realize this is a crisis.鈥�

Parents, she said, are often unaware of just how bad the situation has become.

鈥淭hey鈥檒l see the bus driver shortage on the news and get outraged about routes being cut. But they don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 happening inside the classrooms. They don鈥檛 see how many positions go unfilled all year, or how often classes are just split up when a teacher calls out 鈥� overcrowding the ones that are already at their limit.鈥�

Even for those who stay, Barnhart said, burnout is inevitable.

鈥淵ou have algebra teachers covering trigonometry. English teachers covering history. Some days, they still can鈥檛 find someone to cover,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen that happens, learning just stops.鈥�

Andrew Fincham, a health and physical education teacher at Martinsburg High School in Berkeley County, has seen the pattern repeat itself year after year.

鈥淚t鈥檚 only getting worse,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd with the population growth in the panhandle, we鈥檙e running out of room. Classrooms are overflowing, and we鈥檙e sticking kids in trailers to make it work 鈥� but the turnover rate with teachers is staggering.鈥�

Currently, Berkeley County鈥檚 student population alone 鈥� 聽鈥� exceeds the of 26 entire counties in West Virginia. As of the start of the current school year in August 2024, Berkeley County had permanent substitutes hired.

鈥淲e鈥檙e losing an alarming number of teachers every year throughout the county 鈥� whether it鈥檚 retirement or leaving for more money,鈥� Fincham said. 鈥淎nd the impact on students is undeniable 鈥� all schools, all grade levels.鈥�

Fincham doesn鈥檛 see the 鈥渞evolving door鈥� getting any better without major policy changes.

鈥淎ll the nearby states 鈥� Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania 鈥� adjust salaries based on cost of living. West Virginia doesn鈥檛. It鈥檚 easy to see where this is headed. If the state doesn鈥檛 start thinking about this in a new way, in five years, it鈥檒l be catastrophic.鈥�

The impact on retention, added Barnhart, can鈥檛 be overstated.

鈥淏erkeley and Jefferson counties, especially, have become steppingstones. Teachers come here, get a few years of experience, and then leave for better pay 鈥� often nearby.鈥�

For Barnhart, the predicament is both personal and professional. 鈥淚 have kids in this school system; I see it as a parent and as an educator,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating because I don鈥檛 want to leave, but at some point, I might not have a choice.鈥�

Considering almost all those choices are within 30 minutes or less, Barnhart admitted it鈥檚 hard to ignore the disparity.

鈥淚f I left for Frederick County Schools [Virginia], I鈥檇 make over $6,400 more per year,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n Washington County [Maryland], over $11,500 more. And Loudoun County [Northern Virginia], almost $25,000 more.鈥�

The numbers don鈥檛 lie

At the end of the day, however, this isn鈥檛 a new conversation for people like Barnhart, Fincham, and thousands of others within the region. In recent decades, West Virginia鈥檚 education landscape has been punctuated by significant teacher strikes, notably in and 2018 鈥� both primarily driven by concerns over inadequate compensation and escalating health care costs.

The , in particular, saw approximately 20,000 educators and school personnel shutting down schools across all 55 counties, culminating in a 5% pay raise for all state workers.

And yet, in 2025 鈥� as in most years previous 鈥� West Virginia sits either nationally or perilously close to dead last on just about any average teacher salary list you come across 鈥� jostling for position between Florida, South Dakota and Missouri year after year. Be that as it may, according to the most recent data available from the National Education Association, the estimated national average annual salary for teachers 鈥� while West Virginia shuffles in at .

That said, the Eastern Panhandle鈥檚 three core counties 鈥� Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan 鈥� are the fastest-growing in the state, and closest to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, making them highly susceptible to issues like cost-of-living disparities and teacher-pay inequities.

According to the most recent data from the West Virginia Department of Education, the in Berkeley County lands at $55,412; the average for Jefferson County comes in at $54,153; and Morgan County sits at $55,624.

Compare that to West Virginia鈥檚 poorest county, McDowell, where the average teacher salary is . However, the average home value in McDowell County hovers with the median home sale price standing at approximately $41,000. Accordingly, almost all cost-of-living data is lower or significantly lower in . To that end, $53,296 goes a long way there, as it does in numerous other counties in West Virginia that boast similar cost-of-living data.

By contrast, average home values in Berkeley County climb into the . In Jefferson County, it鈥檚 even higher, with values . In Morgan County, values can . The cost of living within these three counties is commensurate with those values. But the average teacher salary within the Eastern Panhandle comes in at $55,063 鈥� not even $2,000 more annually than West Virginia鈥檚 poorest county.

Talk to anyone close to this issue, and they will tell you in no uncertain terms 鈥� it鈥檚 becoming all but impossible to work as a teacher or education service worker in the Eastern Panhandle and pay the bills. And when extra money does arrive, it鈥檚 in the form of a statewide raise 鈥� without consideration for locality pay 鈥� which keeps that allotment relatively small in proportion to the ever-widening economic gap between the Eastern Panhandle and the rest of the state.

Bargaining power

鈥淚t鈥檚 economics 101,鈥� said John Deskins, director of West Virginia University鈥檚 Bureau of Business and Economic Research. 鈥淚f salaries remain the same across the state, schools in more competitive job markets like the Eastern Panhandle will struggle to attract and retain teachers. It鈥檚 a matter of supply and demand 鈥� higher costs and a stronger labor market require higher pay.鈥�

Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Ryan Saxe, formerly superintendent in Cabell County, echoed the sentiment 鈥� and admitted to not fully grasping the depth of the problem until taking his current job.

鈥淚n my previous county, we competed with Ohio and Kentucky for teachers, but the disparity wasn鈥檛 nearly as severe as what we see here with Maryland and Virginia,鈥� he said.

Saxe doesn鈥檛 believe West Virginia needs to match those salaries dollar for dollar, 鈥溾�� but we must close the gap,鈥� he said. 鈥淩ight now, we have around 200 permanent substitute positions because we can鈥檛 fill them with certified staff. That depletes our substitute pool and leaves us constantly reposting vacancies for high-need areas.鈥�

Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, believes part of the issue is Charleston鈥檚 reluctance to even acknowledge cost-of-living disparities.

鈥淭he federal government has already done the research to determine appropriate salary increases for employees based on regional economic conditions,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 similar approach for public employees in high-cost areas in our state makes sense.鈥�

But the push for locality pay has failed repeatedly, she said, primarily due to opposition from lawmakers outside the Eastern Panhandle.

鈥淭he Senate has passed similar measures three times, only for them to fail in the House,鈥� Rucker said, 鈥淭he last time, we were 14 votes short. That鈥檚 a big gap.鈥�

The resistance comes from a long-standing belief in uniform pay across all 55 counties, said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association.

鈥淏ut that resistance mindset ignores an economic reality,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淎 few years ago, an attempt to secure locality pay for state police was soundly defeated. The challenge is that while it would benefit a few counties, the majority wouldn鈥檛 see any advantage 鈥� so their delegates aren鈥檛 inclined to support it.鈥�

Instead of direct locality pay, some legislators are exploring alternatives, like reducing the 鈥渓ocal share,鈥� which would allow high-growth counties to keep more of their tax revenue to fund education salaries.

鈥淚f that money is earmarked for salaries and benefits, it could be a real solution,鈥� Lee said.

As Lee indicated, the shortage isn鈥檛 limited to teachers 鈥� state police, social workers and other public employees face the same problem in high-cost areas.

Former West Virginia delegate John Doyle has been advocating for locality pay for over 30 years, first proposing a housing allowance in the early 2000s as a way to soften opposition.

鈥淭he state would provide a housing allowance based on cost-of-living data,鈥� he said. 鈥淓very county would be ranked from 1 to 55, with the median county serving as the baseline. Any county ranked above the median would receive some level of housing allowance 鈥� smaller for those just above, larger for the highest-cost counties.鈥�

He recalled that when cost-of-living data was first released to legislators, some were stunned by the housing prices in the Eastern Panhandle. 鈥淭hey assumed we all lived in large homes. I had to explain that I lived in a 1,000-square-foot FHA rancher, and it was worth almost double the state average.鈥�

Doyle also warned against the idea that raising salaries in border counties would simply cause a ripple effect of teacher migration.

鈥淪alaries don鈥檛 need to match Maryland and Virginia 鈥� just get close enough. If the gap is $20,000, they鈥檒l leave. If it鈥檚 $10,000 or less, they might stay.鈥�

But the state has spent decades failing to act. Doyle pointed out that in 1990, West Virginia was ranked 26th in teacher pay after a major statewide raise under former Gov. Gaston Caperton. By the late 1990s, Maryland and Virginia had surged past it once again.

鈥淓very few years, the issue reaches a boiling point, like the 2018 teacher strike, which resulted in a 5% statewide raise 鈥� but failed to address the Eastern Panhandle鈥檚 unique economic challenges,鈥� he underscored.

With legislative momentum reliably sluggish, greater political action might be required, said Rucker 鈥� who also chairs the Government Organization Committee.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have enough qualified teachers, we are failing to meet our constitutional obligation to provide an efficient education system. A class action lawsuit could force the state鈥檚 hand,鈥� she said.

On the economic side, Deskins sees another consequence of inaction: economic decline.

鈥淚f schools decline due to this crisis, the region becomes far less appealing. People don鈥檛 want to move to areas with struggling schools, which would ultimately slow economic growth,鈥� Deskins said.

Essentially, explained Deskins, West Virginia鈥檚 fastest-growing region 鈥� the only part of the state successfully attracting new residents 鈥� is being left to fend for itself.

鈥淔rom a broad economic-development perspective, we鈥檙e making one of the state鈥檚 most promising regions less attractive 鈥� ultimately working against ourselves,鈥� Deskins said.

The political fight will only continue, and will hopefully play a prominent role in the current legislative session, said Doyle 鈥� who believes the Eastern Panhandle finally has strength in numbers.

鈥淭he Eastern Panhandle now has more than 10% of the legislature,鈥� Doyle said. 鈥淭hat gives our delegation real bargaining power. If they unify and make this a non-negotiable priority, they can trade support on other bills to get it passed.鈥�

Rucker agreed.

鈥淭he delegates from this region have better strength in numbers, and are working hard to educate their colleagues and emphasize that this benefits the entire state, not just the Panhandle,鈥� she said.

Nonetheless, Lee remains skeptical.

鈥淚n my experience, when the legislature makes something a priority, they find the money for it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f this becomes a priority, a solution will follow. But that remains to be seen.鈥�

Doyle, however, was more blunt: 鈥淎t the heart of it all is the fact that the state doesn鈥檛 want to give money to teachers because they want to be able to give a giant tax break to corporations.鈥�

Repeated requests for comment from State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt went unanswered.

The cost of inaction

Imagine a moment in the near future in the Eastern Panhandle 鈥� likely Berkeley or Jefferson Counties 鈥� when a brand-new high school opens with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with such occasions. And on day one, as the doors open and the students pour through them en route to homeroom and the new year ahead, not a single certified teacher is there to greet them. Rather, every room, and every subject, is being covered by a substitute.

Sounds crazy? Many education professionals in the Eastern Panhandle are calling it something else: inevitable.

鈥淚 can easily see that happening 鈥� we鈥檙e drowning,鈥� said Jana Woofter, a chemistry and physical science teacher at Spring Mills High School in Martinsburg. Woofter also serves as president of the Berkeley County Education Association.

鈥淏ills are often triple what they are in other parts of the state,鈥� she said. 鈥淗ousing costs are through the roof. Berkeley County tries to help with a housing allowance, but Jefferson and Morgan counties don鈥檛 have those same benefits. Even with the assistance, my members are struggling 鈥� especially with PEIA [West Virginia鈥檚 Public Employees Insurance Agency] .鈥�

The struggle isn鈥檛 just with the state. Clay Anders, a physical education teacher at C.W. Shipley Elementary in Jefferson County鈥檚 Harpers Ferry, is frustrated that even as property values have doubled, teachers haven鈥檛 seen a county-based raise in over a decade.

鈥淭he local levy passed again, and there鈥檚 millions in additional revenue coming in 鈥斅燽ut none of it has gone to us in quite a while,鈥� he said. 鈥淢eanwhile, the board office has added new positions and given themselves raises every year.鈥�

As of Nov. 6, 2024, the passed with ease 鈥� totaling $25,427,656. According to Jefferson County Schools, the bulk of the levy 鈥� $19,376,035 鈥� will go to 鈥渟alary assistance for teachers and service personnel.鈥�

At the same time, Anders pointed out, extra-pay options that once existed for Jefferson County educators have disappeared.

鈥淭he county cut a program that allowed teachers to earn up to 3,000 extra dollars per year. That was real money that made a difference. But then they phased it down to $1,500, and now it鈥檚 gone completely.鈥�

The level of participation in that program told him everything he needed to know.

鈥淣early 98% of eligible teachers took part in it,鈥� Anders said. 鈥淭hat should tell you how much we need the money.鈥�

He believes that if the county won鈥檛 act, teachers may have to take matters into their own hands.

鈥淢aryland and Virginia have county-based unions that fight for local pay,鈥� Anders said. 鈥淲est Virginia doesn鈥檛. We only have state-level unions, and they aren鈥檛 fighting county battles.鈥�

Additionally, Anders and a group of teachers are preparing a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover exactly where the money is going.

鈥淭he board claims there鈥檚 no money for teacher raises, yet they鈥檙e increasing salaries at the top. If every million dollars in new revenue could mean an $800 to $900 raise per teacher, then where is that money going?鈥�

The answer, at least in Berkeley County, according to Board of Education member Damon Wright, is complicated.

鈥淢ost of our budget already goes to salaries,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淎nd we鈥檝e denied requests for new administrative positions to keep costs down. But we continue to have growth needs 鈥� especially when it comes to mental health services for students, which require more funding.

鈥淭hat said, every time we dip into reserves, we run the risk of the state stepping in and questioning our financial management. We鈥檝e increased the housing allowance, and we鈥檒l keep looking for ways to supplement pay, but we can鈥檛 solve this alone.鈥�

The challenges only get more complex, he said, when Charleston refuses to act.

鈥淭he state doesn鈥檛 believe in cost-of-living adjustments. They think if we raise salaries in high-cost areas like the panhandle, teachers from rural counties will flood the region. But that鈥檚 not realistic. Most teachers in McDowell and similar counties are among the highest-paid professionals in their communities. Here, teachers need roommates just to afford rent.鈥�

Michelle Pereschuk, a special education teacher at South Middle School, called the system broken and confessed that teachers are running out of reasons to stay 鈥� including herself.

鈥淚鈥檝e been at the tipping point for years,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was born and raised in Berkeley County. My kids are in the school system. I want to stay 鈥� but I can鈥檛 afford it much longer.鈥�

Like many in the county, Pereschuk鈥檚 mortgage swallows her paycheck. She once considered a position in nearby Washington County, Maryland, that would have paid her $11,000 more in the first year and up to $17,000 more over time. She ultimately stayed due to personal reasons, but the pull to leave grows stronger every day.

鈥淲inchester City Schools and Frederick County, [both in Virginia], are 20 minutes from my house. Maryland and Virginia also allow out-of-state teachers to send their kids to school there. For the first three years, you pay a small tuition fee, then your kids attend for free. If I move, I could take my youngest with me and give him a better-funded education while making a lot more money.鈥�

Such decisions aren鈥檛 just being measured in Pereschuk鈥檚 household, she assured, but rather, in many homes across the region.

鈥淥ff the top of my head, I can name at least 10 people in my school alone who are seriously considering leaving,鈥� she said.

Woofter, who works multiple jobs to make ends meet, added that, even for those who choose to stay, survival requires sacrifices.

鈥淚 run the science fair for my school and the county, coordinate academic competitions, tutor, sell tickets at events 鈥� anything to make extra money. If I moved across the border, I wouldn鈥檛 have to do all that. But I stay because I love it here.鈥�

As for rising insurance costs, Wright said, whatever raises the state offers at this point are quickly wiped out by PEIA increases.

鈥淭he misconception is that a raise actually means more money,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛. When insurance premiums jump 40%, and co-pays triple, as they鈥檙e set to do, it鈥檚 actually a pay cut. Later this summer, when those PEIA increases hit, I think we鈥檒l see a mass exodus 鈥� not just teachers, but public employees across the board.鈥�

Without action, warned Woofter, the situation will only deteriorate. She鈥檚 already seeing it play out at her own school.

鈥淪pring Mills High School opened in 2013. In just over a decade, fewer than 20 original staff members remain. That kind of turnover is devastating.鈥�

Moreover, Wright said, Charleston鈥檚 inaction is feeding into another, larger movement 鈥� the privatization of education.

鈥淩ather than addressing the crisis in public schools, the state is using the decline as an excuse to push private schools, charter schools and voucher programs,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he problem is, 25% of Berkeley County鈥檚 students have special needs, and public schools are required to serve them 鈥� private schools are not.鈥�

West Virginia doesn鈥檛 fully fund those services so counties cover the gap.

鈥淚f lawmakers shift funding away from public schools to private options, that burden grows,鈥� Wright said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e letting the system fail so they can justify alternatives.鈥�

At the end of the day, he said the community is the last line of defense.

鈥淲e鈥檙e already in crisis mode 鈥� whether the state chooses to address it or not. The public needs to understand just how bad this is getting. And the only way any of this changes is if the public demands it 鈥� loudly. If people in the panhandle make enough noise, Charleston can鈥檛 ignore it forever.鈥�

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