Lawmakers question report
JENNI DILLON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, December 7, 2005 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Wyoming pays its teachers enough to keep plenty of qualified professionals in the classroom, a recent economic analysis found.
But some legislators are questioning the conventional wisdom of the claim.
Consultants Larry Picus and Allan Odden, who are working to revamp the state's K-12 school funding model, on Tuesday presented a teacher salary report to the Select Committee on School Finance, the last long-awaited component to be discussed in the process of "recalibrating" the state's funding model.
The study, completed by economist Michael Wolkoff, finds that current teacher salaries in Wyoming, which averaged about $40,982 in 2004-05, are adequate because the state does not have a problem with recruitment or retention.
Wolkoff drew in part on a New York study that found most teachers end up working within a 50-mile radius of where they grew up or went to college, meaning education is a local, or at most, regional, labor market, not a national one.
A survey of teacher turnover in Wyoming in the past several years found a very small percentage of teachers moving in and out of the state, Picus added.
"There isn't a mass exodus, nor is there a mass immigration into the state," he said. "The conclusion is that salaries are appropriate."
The consultants' proposal for the new funding model would adjust salaries based on annual inflation but would not put a substantial increase into base pay.
Sen. Tex Boggs, D-Rock Springs, disagreed with the assessment, saying the state needs to put more money into salaries to attract high-quality teachers. He pointed out that the proposed funding model would put Wyoming at about second nationally for per-pupil spending, but that the salary proposal would leave the state in the 30s for teacher salary rankings.
"If salary is a product of inflation … that certainly will not put us second in the nation, not 12th, not 25th," he said.
Picus, on the other hand, said a broad-based salary bump wouldn't necessarily improve teacher quality, because with the state's declining enrollment, there are constantly fewer teaching jobs, and higher salaries would just encourage the same people to stay in their positions longer. Likewise, he said, there are no widely accepted measures of teacher quality aside from the federal definition of "highly qualified," which simply requires teachers to lead classes in subjects in which they have been trained.
Teacher salaries are likely to be a point of contention as the recalibration moves forward into the legislative session. While consultants Picus and Odden are recommending a model that would add teachers to most school districts and bump the state's overall K-12 spending to more than $1 billion in the 2006-07 school year, education groups already have raised concerns over pay proposals.
Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, said salaries need to be looked at as part of a broader compensation picture that includes health insurance and other benefits - which Wyoming provides in greater quantity than its neighboring states - as well as in terms of the whole recalibration process.
In addition, the select committee and the Joint Education Committee on Tuesday heard updates on other education programs going on in the state that could improve opportunities for students and teachers alike: The Milken Foundation's Teacher Advancement Program pilot project is scheduled to launch in a handful of school districts, providing professional development and incentive bonuses for teachers; and lawmakers also are discussing health insurance alternatives for school district employees that could lower expenses.
The committees continue their meetings on recalibration today at 8:30 a.m. in Cheyenne.