The House Education Committee has not even printed the Career Ladder bill (see below), but it was rumored late Tuesday afternoon that the public hearing on the legislation will be set for Monday, March 9th. We will confirm the accuracy of this rumor on Wednesday. In the meantime—and assuming that the rumor proves true—it is important that you begin preparing immediately to have your voice heard.
What can you do?
- Contact members of the House Education Committee and the lawmakers in your legislative district to share your concerns about this proposal.
- Make plans to come to Boise to testify.
- Contact your region director or the IEA for specific information about how you can participate.
House Ed Set to Print Career Ladder Bill on Wednesday
Members of the House Education Committee will be asked to print an omnibus proposal on Wednesday that would ultimately result in a significant shift regarding how Idaho pays its teachers.
In Monday’s Hotline message, we provided a brief overview of how the most recent draft of the proposal would affect teacher certification. Today, we focus on the various pieces of the proposed ladder, including how it is funded and the how movement from one rung to another works. It is important to note that this analysis is based on the latest draft; some portions may have changed since that draft was reviewed by the committee last Friday.
For the first time, those who hold Idaho teacher certificates will be split into two classes of teachers: instructional and pupil service staff. These two classes of teachers will be treated very differently in terms of pay.
Instructional staff is defined as those individuals who are involved in the direct instruction of a student or group of students. Pupil service staff is defined as certified teachers who provide services to students but are not involved in the direct instruction of those students, including staff holding a pupil personnel services certificate.
Instructional staff members are moved to the career ladder salary allocation model. Pupil service staff remains on the current grid outlined in Idaho law.
The career ladder for instructional staff has two levels: Residency and Professional. These salary allocation levels correlate with an individual’s certification. The Residency level of the allocation model has 3 rungs. After three years of teaching, an individual holding a residency certificate may apply for a professional endorsement. If/until the residency certificate holder receives his/her endorsement, the district will receive no additional salary funding for the individual.
The Professional level of the salary allocation model starts with 10 rungs during the 2015-16 school year and the rungs are reduced to half that over the next six years, so that by the 2020-21 school year the Professional level of the model has just five rungs.
The entire model would be implemented over six (6) years. By the 2020-21 school year, the first step of the allocation model or beginning teacher’s salary would be $37,000 and the 8-step ladder (3 steps for Residency and 5 steps for Professional) would top out at $50,000. However, this is NOT necessarily how much an individual teacher in any specific rung of the ladder would make.
This portion of the Career Ladder would still be negotiated at the local level.
Additionally, districts will also receive $2,000 for each teacher who has earned at least 24 credits over a BA and $3,500 for each teacher who has earned a Masters after 2015. The district would not be credited for those teachers who currently hold these credits and degrees.
We will provide details on the Leadership Premiums and Master Teacher Premiums in Wednesday’s Hotline message.
What You Need to Know: Career Ladder Teacher Pay System
We have begun compiling all of the comments, news coverage and other important information on this legislative proposal on the IEA website. We encourage you to check it out. Also, the Idaho State Journal published an editorial urging the legislature to stop beating up on Idaho’s public schools, stop kicking the can down the road and do something now to significantly improve the education system.
