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Senate Education Committee approves package to boost teacher pay, equalize ESA funding and create task forces
Summary
The Senate Education Committee approved a set of recommendations to raise the minimum teacher salary by $4,000, add FTEs for special education and computer science, establish a $70 million merit teacher incentive fund, and phase in equalized ESA funding, while creating legislative task forces to study funding models and out-of-school factors.
The Senate Education Committee on an unspecified date approved a package of recommendations intended to move school funding "from adequacy to excellence," including a $4,000 raise to the minimum teacher salary, additional staffing for special education and computer science, and a plan to equalize Enhanced Student Achievement (ESA) funding across schools, the committee chair said.
The chair said the draft report proposes raising the minimum teacher base salary from $36,000 to $40,000 beginning in fiscal year 2024 (noted in the draft as 07/01/2023) and includes draft legislation to implement the increase. The package also calls for one full-time FTE for computer science teachers for grades 1–12 to meet a new graduation requirement and raises the special education teacher FTE allocation from 2.9 to 3.3 to address student needs.
Senator Stearch, who spoke to the ESA changes, said the committee adopted the APA recommendation to equalize ESA funding by tying it to foundation funding with a 12% weight and phasing the change in over four years to avoid…
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