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2001 General Session
HB 15 was sponsored by Rep. Jeff Wasserburger, R-Gillette, and would have added $73 million to the school funding formula for teacher salaries as a 15 percent external cost adjustment to the school funding formula.
The #1 issue for lawmakers during the 2001 session of the Wyoming Legislature, while our lawmakers were deciding whether and/or how to spend a growing surplus in state revenue projected at $695 million, was should a competitive wage for retaining and recruiting school staff be a high budget priority?
During the session, HB 15 was tabled in the House Appropriations Committee. As an alternative, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees decided to deal with teacher funding as amendments to HB 1/SJ 1, the "supplemental budget" bill.
As the highest profile decision in the 2001 General Session's most important bill, HB 1/SF 1, the "supplemental budget" bill, the following decisions were made on funding teacher salaries and other public education prioritiesin our state:
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Throughout the session, a very effective coalition of the Wyoming School Boards Association, Wyoming Education Association and Wyoming Association of School Administrators provided advocacy for salary increases for the public school teachers of our state. The coalition made the following case for increasing salaries for teachers and other school staff:
During the past 15 years, during times of uncertain financial times for the State of Wyoming, education has systematically been underfunded. During this period, teacher salaries in Wyoming, for example, have fallen from 6th in the nation to 41st. After applying the cost-of-living index, Wyoming falls to 47th.
The following are elements of the case that was being made by the coalition in support of increasing salaries for public school staff in Wyoming:
* In the past year, 143 teachers left jobs in Wyoming to teach for higher wages in other states.
* At the beginning of this school year, 54 positions remained unfilled because of lack of applicants.
* While Wyoming districts offer an average $22,800 to new graduates, districts in other states offer more than $30,000 with signing bonuses. We are competing with every state in the nation with a salary rank of 41st.
* Applicant numbers for Wyoming teaching positions are down 50-70 percent in the past three years. Of those applying, fewer and fewer are qualified in math, science and special education.
* Meanwhile, a growing number of teachers who are hired lack standard teaching certificates and are not fully qualified to teach in their assigned field.
* The problem includes school support staff, too. Turnover of support staff in some school districts reached 50 percent last year, as employees moved to other jobs with higher pay.
* The situation will get worse, as Wyoming faces the impending retirement of a large number of teachers and even more openings to fill. The solution
The coalition was clear throughout the session that the solution to the crisis of retaining and hiring teachers is more money in school block grants, so districts can have the resources to hire and retain good teachers and other staff.
Note: See the Wyoming Education Association's 2001 General Session Legislative Report