Teacher pay hike proposal shelved

Gov. Mike Parson has been hyping an increase to public teacher pay, but the proposal hasn't been embraced in the state legislature.

The proposal would raise teacher base salary pay from $25,000 to $38,000 and would be the state's first salary increase for teachers in 16 years. State government would fund 70% of the dollars required for the pay increase.

On Monday, Rep. Cody Smith, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he removed the governor's request to increase teacher salary from next year's budget due to worries about the long-term effects the increase would cause to the state's budget.

According to the Missouri National Education Association, "the state of Missouri requires school districts to pay a minimum teacher's salary of $25,000 for a beginning teacher and a minimum salary of $33,000 for a full-time teacher with a master's degree with at least 10 years of public teaching experience." As Parson has noted, Missouri ranks 50th in new teacher salary, with the average amount for a teacher's yearly income being $32,970. Parson's proposal would raise the minimum required salary for new teachers to $38,000.

The last time Missouri teacher's got a minimum pay increase was in 2006. In January 2021, Paul Katnick, assistant commissioner for the Office of Educator Quality with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, proposed a plan to increase Missouri base salary from $25,000 to $32,000, but the proposal didn't come to pass because the COVID-19.

Casey Cook, school board member in Cape Girardeau public schools, said the proposal would not affect Cape Girardeau teacher's salary because the school district already pays their teachers close to $38,000 for incoming staff.

"I think the district has done a really good job of being able to manage the budget and compensate the teachers and to ensure that we are giving them a livable wage and good opportunity to make a living, and do something they are called to do for a profession," Cook said. "For the area, I think we are right at the top for teacher pay."

A related issue Cape and other school districts are experiencing is a shortage of substitute teachers available to fill in when full-time teachers are unavailable to be in the classroom.

"As people have been out on quarantines or those type of things, it's really just been trying to staff the schools with subs for teachers being out," Cook said. "We are open for applications and continually getting people who want to get into the district who want to work. So, we have been very blessed that we have had those opportunities coming in."