Missouri confronts bad teacher pay, shortages

Nov. 19—Among rural school districts, Mid-Buchanan R-V may be one of the lucky ones.

Missouri as a whole has borne the burden of being one of the worst states in the union in terms of pay for a junior teacher. This situation is improving, and the Missouri Blue Ribbon Commission for Teacher Recruitment and Retention has new ideas finalized on Oct. 18 to help that along. Locally, a climate of growth at Mid-Buchanan funds salaries above the norm for a rural district, but even so, it still is receiving nominal assistance from the state. Most educators in rural Missouri have no such fortune.

More than 8,000 Show Me State full-time educators did not make at least $38,000 in salary last year. The national average is well above that. Even entry-level teachers make $42,000 on average.

This is considered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be a factor in the more than 6,000 teaching vacancies that exist throughout Missouri. About 66,645 people work as K-12 educators statewide, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Small-dollar aid, for now

When Show Me State leaders resolved earlier this year to, at long last, require school districts to pay at least $38,000 per year, Mid-Buchanan, which has about 875 students enrolled, determined it would only need help meeting this mark with five of its staffers.

The lowest-paid Mid-Buch teacher was previously making $37,500. The district applied to DESE for a $490 award that — combined with $210 of local taxpayer money — met all salary obligations. Ultimately, the increase caused a total financial hit of $6,000 to $7,000, against a budget of about $4 million.

Though that impact is hardly more than one tenth of 1% of the budget's value, it may not always be that way.

"Smaller districts have the question each year of, 'What is going to break the bank?'" Superintendent Jay Albright said. "My biggest fear is that we're going to struggle, as a state, to fund the money for teacher pay. (Mid-Buchanan is) growing. We have the capacity to pay more. We may not always have that capacity."

Indeed, the special funding to help meet the $38,000 mark goes away after this fiscal year ends on June 30, 2023. The Missouri Legislature has the option to extend that when it convenes on Jan. 4 in Jefferson City, but there is no requirement to do so.

Compressing salaries

This leaves at least two essential challenges. First, $38,000 likely is not where the state minimum will end up. On Oct. 18, the Blue Ribbon Commission recommended that lawmakers make the $38,000 minimum subject to annual review and an increase if factors such as inflation make it necessary. Second, there is the "compression factor."

For public school districts, teacher salaries are awarded on a schedule. It would be unusual to negotiate for salary; pay is chiefly based on credentials earned (such as a master's degree) and years of experience. Some teachers have worked for years to get to $38,000 in salary. Now, in some districts, entry-level people will make that from the start.

"As soon as you raise the baseline, the compression happens across the board," said Mark Walker, a Springfield, Missouri, business executive, in his comments while presenting the commission's findings to the Missouri State Board of Education. "And so for the Missouri teachers who are above that minimum, how do we deal with that compression? ... It probably has one of the largest impacts in the system."

Albright said compression can affect many educators.

"This has caused a lot of ill feelings out in the education world," he said. "Some people have been doing this for 20 years, and then all of the sudden, the new hire is making the same you are. A lot of people are worried about the compression factor."

Cindy O'Laughlin, R-Shelbina, chair of the Missouri Legislature's Joint Committee on Education, referenced this problem's capacity to generate more demand for spending, after money is spent on salaries.

"I don't think much thought has been given to the fact that once you raise the money for the people at the bottom, people above want more," she said. "One problem leads to another."

Raising awareness

Danielle Beers, a fourth-grade teacher who works at Mid-Buchanan Elementary, decided early on after graduating Bishop LeBlond High School that she would obtain a graduate degree. It is common for new teachers to do this, in part because it means higher starting pay.

But, this could be seen as asking Missouri teachers to invest more time, more money, more energy in earning their way to financial stability. Most of them, Beers said, would prefer to just focus on serving their kids.

"The impact that we're having on kids should be recognized because of the dedication that we have for our job," Beers said. "And, I think a lot of teachers are burning out because it's not being recognized."

Bob Wollenman of St. Joseph, another member of the Blue Ribbon Commission, said the path forward begins with informing the public about the need for further investment.

"I truly believe there is a true lack of knowledge, even at the legislative level," he said. "Certainly, at the parental level, at the grandparent level. In all walks of life, there is a lack of knowledge of what are the dilemmas that education's facing today."

April Campbell, principal of Mid-Buchanan Elementary School, fears the state will come to a situation where it just won't produce enough people willing to go into education. Statewide, career stress is high, the credentials and certifications that must be earned can be daunting and the financial reward falls short of needs.

"Education is a great opportunity, but we are losing great teachers to the field because they do have to sometimes work more than one job because our salary is low," she said. "No one should have to have a side job to make classroom work financially feasible."

To try to address such issues, the commission invited four lawmakers to serve as members, including O'Laughlin. She endorses the commission's recommendations on pay but said she has striven to emphasize her belief that higher pay alone will not solve Missouri's educator scarcity.

"While I believe that we do need to pay teachers more, I think the culture and environment within the school is also a big impediment to recruiting and retaining teachers. And I made that point while I was on the commission," she said.

How to spend, or save more

Everything seems to be up in the air, she added, on deciding the best path forward. Rural districts will need more money to pay teachers more. But the costs of education also can be addressed, and the working experience for teachers can be improved.

"I personally feel we were better off when kids worked with paper and pencil, read books and spent a whole lot less time connected to the internet, or using a tablet," O'Laughlin said. "I feel that we have transitioned to mostly tablet use throughout the day in school. Kids are so connected to their devices that they can't look you in the eye, they can't communicate clearly. That over-reliance creates a problem for teachers, and yet we turn around and buy every student a tablet."

O'Laughlin's counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, pointed to how when the legislature has money available to spend, the preference has been to return it to the taxpayer. Most recently, lawmakers cut the income tax for most residents to 4.95%, down from a 2018 level of 6%. The first $1,000 of earned income is now not taxable on a state level.

"The legislature has passed tax cut bills four times in the last eight years," Arthur said. "So there is a commitment to a low tax rate in Missouri, but it's also important that we need to make public investments in public goods."

The state has been running a tremendous financial surplus, nearly $5 billion. Lawmakers could be tempted to cut taxes further in January. Spending on public services should be the priority, Arthur said.

"It is a good fiscal environment to make some of these important long-term investments," she said. "Strong, quality public schools are a cornerstone of American democracy. And it means that we have safer communities, we have stronger communities."

Wollenman, the owner of the Deluxe Truck Stop, said he favors tax cuts as much as any business owner. But their impact can be limited since many Missourians pay no income tax at all.

"The thing that I look at there is, if we cut taxes for a billion dollars, that billion dollars is going to primarily go back to those that are paying taxes in the state," he said. "Where, if that money had been kept and gone into the school system, every taxpayer in the state would have benefited."

Marcus Clem can be reached at marcus.clem@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowClem