Montana Legislature passes $100 million bill to raise starting teacher pay

The bill’s key feature is a significant increase in state funding for districts that raise beginning teacher salaries to better align with their average teacher pay. But as proponents have routinely pointed out, HB 252 includes a slate of other provisions providing additional financial support for trades-based credentialing and dual-credit opportunities for students, and would allow districts in areas with high housing costs to raise more local money for teacher housing.

“It’s just a real strong vote in favor of our public schools and of recruitment and retention of quality staff, and ultimately for kids,” Montana School Boards Association Executive Director Lance Melton told Montana Free Press in an interview following the Senate’s action Tuesday. “This whole lift here is going to put us up the ladder in terms of the national rankings on base teacher pay, it’s going to help us get closer back to the inflation that we lost over the four-year period after and in the midst of COVID-19, and it’s just coming at the right time for school districts. They sorely need it.”

Melton credited much of the STARS Act’s success to the work of its sponsor, House Appropriations Chair Llew Jones, R-Conrad, whom Melton helped to craft the bill based on discussions last interim about the financial challenges facing K-12 schools across Montana.

by Alex Sakariassen