A post-COVID world has driven up costs for struggling teacher salaries, school materials

Sep. 28—CHEYENNE — Wyoming school districts are still feeling the rippling effects of a post-COVID world, where pandemic supply chain issues and high rates of inflation drove up costs of energy, education materials and salaries.

A prepared external cost adjustment (ECA) report for the the Wyoming School Funding Model showed a 15% and 22% increase for energy and educational materials, respectively, along with a 4% salary increase for professional and nonprofessional labor.

Members of the Joint Education Committee, joined by members of the Joint Appropriations Committee during their Wednesday meeting, questioned why there was such an inflated cost for educational materials, when most textbooks were being replaced with e-versions on students' tablets and computers.

Lori Taylor, an economics expert who submitted the ECA report to both committees, said the spike in educational material costs was part of the "COVID hangover."

"What we're picking up here with the office materials producer price index is some of the COVID hangover with respect to supply chain issues on paper and paper goods on the various office supplies," Lori said.

Components of the Wyoming Funding Model are split between four categories: professional staff, which make up two-thirds, or 66.7%, of the model; non-professional staff, which make up 13% of the model; while educational materials and energy, the final two categories, comprise the remaining 21%.

A topic introduced at the Joint Education Committee's ECA meeting last year was the compensation of federal grants received by school districts during the pandemic. Matthew Willmarth, senior school finance analyst, told legislators the distributed federal dollars had no impact on the ECA report.

The real focus of the budget, Willmarth said, was the focus on teacher salaries, which make up the biggest portion of the budget.

Why Wyoming is asked to invest more in K-12 teachers

The exit rate of K-12 teachers in Wyoming has "jumped" since 2021, a report shows, with a startling number of teachers leaving in the middle of their careers.

Wyoming has the highest teacher exit rates in the region, with 16% of new teachers and nearly 10% of mid-career teachers leaving the profession.

With an uptick in overall exit rates, the startling number of teachers leaving after four years into their career was where legislators should keep a close eye, according to Christiana Stoddard, an economics professor with a special research interest in education economics at Montana State University.

"That rate tends to be quite low," Stoddard said. "That's a data point that's worth being concerned about because I think that does speak to larger reasons why teachers may be exiting."

Co-Chair Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said he had heard anecdotes from several teachers who indicated a desire to leave the profession due to frustrations of being in a system "that isn't working."

The highest turnover rate of teachers was recorded in 2022 at 12.2%, which is "slightly higher than in recent years."

There is also a decline in education majors among university students, data shows, as well as a decline in certification exam rates. Wyoming has the lowest teacher certification exam pass rates among all the surrounding states.

Higher salaries are strongly recommended to recruit and retain quality K-12 instructors, according to supportive data provided by the Wyoming Department of Education. Since 2010, teacher salaries have grown at a "modest" rate with a 1% annual increase.

"We can see that, for the first time since I've been doing this, we now have other states that are surpassing the average salary of Wyoming," Stoddard said, adding the exception of South Dakota.

How an inflated housing market is hurting teachers

Several school districts are struggling to pay their teachers a significant salary to retain them for long periods of time, and a high-priced housing market has shown to be part of the issue.

Jeremy Smith, a business manager from Sheridan County School District 1, said his schools were "unable to pay competitive salaries" against other labor market jobs.

"(Sheridan County) is generally considered to be a beautiful place on the planet, but housing costs are eating our lunch for our staff members," Smith said. "(Staff doesn't) have a place they can afford to live based on the current salaries we're able to pay."

These issues were echoed by Superintendent Coley Shadrick from Converse County School District 2, who emphasized the importance of salary increases to attract and retain quality staff, particularly in rural areas.

Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, asked Stoddard during her presentation whether Wyoming's housing issue had any real impact on teacher retainment.

"I know, I've heard from multiple districts in the state that they are trying to find creative ways to figure out housing for teachers, because there just simply isn't any," Provenza said.

The affordable housing issue was confirmed by Stoddard to affect teachers not only in Wyoming, but throughout the western region.

"There's no data that I have collected but I would say yes, that's definitely a problem," Stoddard said.

Now that they've heard testimony, members of the education and appropriations committees will develop their own proposals to present at the next JAC meeting Oct. 25.

Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.