ST. LOUIS — The Missouri House passed a major education bill in the last week and one of the biggest highlights is an increase in minimum salaries for teachers.
The National Education Association said when it comes to teacher salaries Missouri is ranked 47th and is only about $4,000 away from being dead last in the country.
The Missouri House just passed HB497 with 145 in favor and five against.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Ed Lewis, (R)-Macon and Randolph, says under current state statute a teacher's minimum salary is only $25,000 which he hopes to increase.
Even though Governor Mike Parson put a $38,000 raise in the budget, Rep. Lewis said the state statue also needs to change.
“One of the pieces of it has minimum teacher salaries at $38,000, which we would then pay for. The state would pick up 70% of the amount that the local district needed to make sure that their teachers are on the salary schedule. The local district then would only be on the hook for 30% of that,” Lewis said.
Right now teachers with a masters degree and 10 years of experience don’t make that much more with a minimum set at $33,000. This bill would make it $44,000. Lewis said this salary change is very important for retaining teachers.
“If you're starting salary with a four-year education still puts you in that same category of needing extra assistance from the state, we were not paying them enough. And so this will get people close to where we ought to be.” Lewis said.
The Dean of the School of Education at Saint Louis University Gary Ritter said while the average St. Louis teacher salary is roughly $44,000, which is above the current and new minimum, this change could help in rural areas.
“You're going to have trouble drawing folks into the profession if you're starting salaries are in the upper 20s or early 30s. So it's nice that for some of those areas that did have those challenges, they're now starting at 38,000,” Ritter said.
Ritter said there’s still a lot of work to be done to support teachers who in return support kids every day.
“We've got to stop the narrative that you have to take a vow of poverty to become a teacher. You absolutely do not,” Ritter said.
This bill has moved onto the Missouri Senate which has not taken it up yet for debate. With only about five weeks left in the session, Lewis hopes it will pass and head to the governor’s desk so it could be in place by August.