January 11, 2023 • 29 mins
In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Idaho Gov. Brad Little's recommendation to bring starting teacher salaries into the top 10 among all states — an extraordinary commitment to public education and the future of the state.
Our panel discusses Gov. Little's recommended pay raise for both certified educators and classified school employees and the positive impact such an investment will have on learning outcomes for students.
Joining the conversation are key members of IEA's Lobby Team:
Associate Executive Director Matt Compton
Political Director Chris Parri
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Journee (00:11):
Welcome to education, podcast, a weekly
discussion about what'shappening at the Idaho
legislature around publiceducation and the policy
priorities of ies members, IEAmembers or public school
educators from all over thestate. They're Idaho's most
important education experts, andthey use their influence to
fight for a free quality andequitable public education for
(00:32):
every student in the state. I'mMike journee, communications
director at the IEA and I'll beyour host for this episode of
hotline. Today, our panel willdiscuss exciting and ambitious
education policy proposals fromGovernor Brad Little's state of
the state addressed on Monday,including vaulting Idaho
starting educator salaries intothe top 10 among all states.
(00:53):
joining me for today'sconversation are members of IRAs
lobby team, Associate ExecutiveDirector Matt Compton and
political director, Chris Perry.
Hi, guys, thanks again forjoining me. And, you know, it
was a really exciting day forpublic education. Yesterday,
Governor little made educatorpay the centerpiece of a State
of the State address. And, infact, the the quote that all the
(01:16):
media picked up on and used andI'm going to use it here too, is
we're not backing down fromeducation. We're doubling down.
So Chris Perry, do a quickrundown and talk a little bit
about governor's that Governorlittle proposal proposals on
educator pay.
Chris Parri (01:33):
Yep, it's pretty exciting. So he allocated of the
$330 million that were that wereappropriated K through 12
schools during the Septemberspecial session last year. 145
million will go towards raisesfor teachers all along the
career ladder. And that amountsto around $6,359 per cell, or
(01:57):
per per educator, which is a bigbump, pretty significant. And,
you know, related to that,obviously, we have that that the
ranking that he's trying totackle as well, we're currently
41st in the country, forbeginning teacher pay. And he
wants to leapfrog 30 states andbring us up into the top 10 up
(02:18):
there with like Connecticut andsome of these other places I
really like recognition of, youknow, we need more educators.
And not only that, but we alsoknow that we're exporting
educators out of the state thatare, you know, graduating from
Idaho universities, this is aninvestment in keeping them here,
growing our educators here,keeping them here, making sure
they can start a life here. It'spretty, pretty radical to
(02:41):
awesome. It's pretty great.
Matt Compton (02:42):
This is interesting in in 2015, when the
career ladder was originallyintroduced, the first rung on on
that career ladder was $30,000.
That was going to be thestarting teacher salary. And
that was what the recommendationin 2015 was. That mean that it
would have taken several yearsfor us to even get to the
$30,000 rung for a startingteacher salary. It wasn't until
(03:03):
2018 When Governor littlebrought in he had a second or he
had his okay if Task Force,which is our kids Idaho's
future, which was looking atmany of the education issues,
where he made the recommendationfor starting teacher salary to
be $40,000 as a starting teachersalary. With this proposal, he's
bumping that all the way to$47,477 for a starting teacher
(03:28):
salary. That's fantastic.
Mike Journee (03:33):
And it wasn't just certified teachers that he
recommended pay raises for righthe put together a package of 97
point 4 million and for betterpay for classified education
employees to that's that'sthat's huge. It's a big deal for
our for our members because ofof the important role that these
folks play in the smooth runningof our schools, right, Chris?
Chris Parri (03:54):
Yes, huge. They're like the mortar that holds the
school together in a lot ofways, right. And the fewer
classified folks you have in theclassroom, the more hats that
the educator wears, as well. Andyou know, with the hemorrhage
that we've had of classifiedstaff from the state, because
people can make, you know, justas much or more working at Panda
Express or Chipotle orsomething. You know, these jobs
(04:16):
are tough. And this is arecognition that these are tough
jobs. And we need to keeptalented people in those jobs to
support our teachers. If it's,you know, paraprofessionals or
cafeteria workers, bus drivers,those folks, they make the
school run and the smootherschool runs, the better it is
for educators and betters forstudents.
Matt Compton (04:34):
And it was just in December when the office
performance evaluation came outwith a report on classified
employees, indicating that thestate would need to allocate $80
million of additional resourcesjust to bring us up to a
reasonable pace. So that wouldbe that the state was actually
meeting its financialobligations over what districts
were paying. And so with the$97.4 million that is being
(04:58):
suggested by the governor, hehas gone beyond to what the
office of performance evaluationhas recommended
Chris Parri (05:03):
overshooting I mean, that could that could show
up in even higher pay, hopefullyfor classified staff or benefits
or other ways to reallyincentivize them sticking around
and helping out.
Mike Journee (05:13):
Yeah, that's fantastic. And, you know,
Governor little says theseinvestments will lift Idaho
starting teacher pay into thetop 10 states. So listen to this
clip real quick about from hisspeech and tell us what you
think about it.
Unknown (05:27):
Great teachers can motivate and change the
trajectory of a student's life.
That's why my plan boostsstarting teacher pay yet again,
finally targeting Idaho in thetop 10. State for starting
teacher pay. When I started thisjob, four years ago, I was 41st
in the country for startingteacher pay. In four short
years, we will have catapultedstarting teacher pay in Idaho,
(05:51):
from the bottom 10 to the top10.
We're also going to grow thesalaries of all teachers,
including the most experiencedones, to ensure students have
(06:11):
classrooms, the classroomsupport they need. What does
this mean for the averageteacher? It means a $6,300 pay
raise. When we show teachers, wesupport them, we're showing
families their child educationis our priority.
Mike Journee (06:31):
No matter, Matt, that that speaks directly to
what you're just talking about.
And the lifting of the hard workthat Governor Liddell has done.
He does a lot of credit forbringing this proposal forward
and for the work that he's doneon public education, especially
in the current politicalclimate,
Matt Compton (06:47):
but he's heard from members over the last
handful of years, andparticularly through the
pandemic, about the diresituation of attracting and
retaining highly qualifiededucators. Now, the state is in
a financial position where wecan use some of our surplus.
We're seeing record growth inour economy. He recognizes that
this is a once in a lifetimeopportunity to make historic
(07:09):
investments and teacher pay. Andhe did it.
Chris Parri (07:12):
Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. I'm glad the the
mics picked up the whoo hoo thatI yelled from my office multiple
blocks away during that speech,pretty, pretty incredible. Just
recommendations overall, it wasgreat to hear.
Mike Journee (07:27):
Yeah, so now going into the session, the top policy
priorities for AAA members wassecuring better pay for all
educators, certified teachersand classified education
professionals. And the governorcame right out of the gate with
the with those start the sessionand Matt comp. And I think our
members gonna really like this alot,
Matt Compton (07:46):
I certainly hope so we have our Lobby Day coming
up in a handful of days plusmembers who are going to be
joining us at the Capitolthrough the legislative session.
And they'll be sharing theirstories with lawmakers to ensure
that the governor's proposalactually is what makes it into a
final budget at the end of thesession, because we do know that
there's still a tremendousamount of work that needs to be
(08:06):
done. Legislators have to nowembrace this vision, appreciate
what he has put forward. Andthen, you know, execute on it.
And it's going to require theIEA and the voices of our
members engaging withpolicymakers to ensure that this
happens,
Mike Journee (08:23):
right. And this isn't just about better pay for
teachers, this is really aboutbetter outcomes in the
classroom. Right? This is reallywhat this is all about. And I
think two crises that that we'refacing in Idaho public
education, and actually acrossthis country right now, really
point to that educator, jobvacancies, and then also the
student behavioral health andwellness crisis that we're
facing. You guys talk a littlebit about how these proposals
(08:46):
address those would you
Matt Compton (08:47):
this gives us a great opportunity to address
class size right off the bat, ifwe're able to hire additional
educators plus have more adultsin the room with classified
employees, then you addressbehavioral issues, and you make
class sizes smaller that rightoff the bat will help improve
the outcomes for educators forstudents, because there'll be
(09:09):
less behavioral issues andteachers will have a significant
more one on one time with everyone of their students.
Chris Parri (09:16):
Right. And I mean, a part of this proposal was
well, you know, thediscretionary funding and the
the cost of these, theinvestments in salaries and
classified staff pay, kind ofsupplant will open districts up
to being able to hire moreprofessional behavioral
interventionists and other folkswho can step up into those more
specialized kind of incidentsthat you need, you need really
(09:39):
to address so that you can cutdown on learning loss because we
know when there's a behavioralissue in a classroom, sometimes
it can shut down the entireclassroom. And rather than
putting that on the shoulders ofeducators and administrators,
hopefully this opens updistricts to be able to address
those needs directly.
Mike Journee (09:55):
So having state dedicated funding for salaries
for certified teachers and forclass testified educators, gives
them more room in their budgetto deal with other things that
some of the things are a crisislevel as well. Facilities and
other things come to mind as asas, as I'm speaking about that.
So there's a lot of a lot ofroom there. So
Matt Compton (10:16):
where discretionary money would have
been used to repair an age vacsystem or roof or something like
that, but had to get reappropriated so that they can
make payroll can now actually beused for those kind of facility
improvements that districts havebeen putting off year over year.
Mike Journee (10:33):
Since we're talking about facilities, I just
kind of jumped forward a littlebit about that. And, you know,
he, the need for facilityspending, and building security
funding was something that wehighlighted coming into the
session, our members were sayingthis is a very important thing
to them. And the governor madesome recommendations for that we
didn't really didn't reallyspeak directly to the one direct
(10:54):
thing you talked about withschool facility security, and he
put $20 million toward that.
There's also mentioned the 52point 4 million in discretionary
funding that we're putting inthe budget, in the governor's
putting in his budget, I guess,for for school districts to draw
upon, for whatever needs me. Theonly other thing I think that
even comes close to talkingabout facilities spending is the
(11:15):
it money that he suggested andthat's that's $30 million, even
if every dollar of that $100million that I just listed off,
is still just a drop in thebucket from what we understand
to be the needs of facility forfacilities and other maintenance
things that that happened needto happen across state right,
Chris?
Chris Parri (11:33):
Yeah. So you know, part of why I'm so excited about
this proposal and the way it'sstructured, with its ongoing
investments year over year, this330 million will go towards
better salaries, better pay indiscretionary funding. And some
of the other things the thereason I like this structure
versus dedicating all 330million even to facilities is
(11:55):
that the facilities gap is sobig, and it is a one time kind
of capital investment. Granted,you know, you have maintenance
that goes on all the time, butwe have a backlog of close to a
billion dollars, if not morethan that. For our facilities,
that would be much betteraddressed via one time funding,
(12:15):
particularly out of ourpotentially out of our massive
budget surplus, which I think isstill $1.5 billion, or
something. And, you know, we getfederal funds and other kinds of
things that we can we can use toimprove our facility. So this
ongoing money though, beingdedicated to keeping great
teachers in the classroom, greatclassified staff in the
(12:35):
classroom, I think it's reallysmart to structure it this way.
Matt Compton (12:38):
And districts have been using supplemental levies
to help shore up payroll costsover the last decade. So if this
creates less of a reliance onthose supplemental levies they
become because they'reoperational at this point. If
districts don't have to runlevies, that means that property
taxes go down. And that mean,that means that there's probably
(12:58):
a higher willingness from thevoting public, to vote for a
bond to build more schools thataddresses things like, you know,
new buildings, or repairs to oldbuildings. I think that this,
that there's the this sets up anopportunity for some pretty
significant property tax reliefas well,
Chris Parri (13:17):
you can get better state funding to your schools
and in exchange be less relianton property taxes at the local
level, because we know,districts across the state are
voting every year to taxthemselves because of the lack
of state funding that's goinginto their building.
Matt Compton (13:31):
And it's been the interest of lawmakers for a
handful of years to lowerproperty taxes. So they still
have the billion and a halfdollars that if if they choose
to, could put towards adedicated fund for for building
new schools making repairs. Andthat too, would decrease. First,
it would decrease the cost ofproperty taxes on an already
(13:51):
overburdened tax population. Andat the same time, it's probably
a job creator, which would spursome economic growth in Idaho
because of you ensuring thatIdaho wins. We're working in
construction and whatever, youknow, that has exponential
cascading effects for theeconomy.
Mike Journee (14:10):
Well, the Governor did talk about a few other
things besides teacher pay, inhis in his speech and his
recommendations, and one of themwas $27.9 million for health
insurance benefits foreducators. On top of on top of
the work that was done last yeararound educator health benefits,
Matt, is that is that going tois that going to get us to where
(14:30):
we need to be on health benefitsfor educators?
Matt Compton (14:32):
Well, I think the additional money for
discretionary and the moneythat's freed up and
discretionary will give moredistricts an opportunity to take
a look at the state health careplan and determine if that's the
direction that they want tomove. They have one more year to
take an evaluate to take a lookto determine is that you know,
in a price comparison, is thatadvantageous for them to move
over there? And that cost besupplemented by the state. So
(14:56):
negotiations this year are goingto be very interesting and I
think that districts are nolonger gonna be hot, held
between like a rock and a hardspot. But they will have like
two gems that they havepresented in front of them as
opportunities to take hold of.
Chris Parri (15:08):
Yeah. One question mark, I think related to the
health insurance stuff is thatwe still have that existing $80
million gap. And this, I think,is this is on top of the
investments. So we're hopingthat we can find the $80 million
elsewhere, the legislature cancan fix that, that gap to make
sure every person in a schoolhas the has great benefits.
Mike Journee (15:33):
So now, one thing that the governor didn't
mention, in the speech wasafters. And, but he did go out
of his way to outline how muchschool choice exists in Idaho,
especially in the public schoolsphere. And so I just want to I
just want to play this clip foryou.
Unknown (15:54):
We're also third in the nation for education freedom
measures and includes spending,school choice, transparency and
regulations, whether it's yourtraditional public school,
public charter schools, publicmagnet schools, private schools,
online academy, academies arehomeschooling, hundreds of
(16:19):
schooling options are availableto Idaho families.
Mike Journee (16:23):
Now, that was quite a laundry list of school
choice. We talked about themoniker school choice in
previous episodes of this andwhat that means. It's often it's
often couched in terms of whatwe call vouchers with taking
public dollars away from publicschool classrooms for the
benefit of private schools. Andso as I was curious, he didn't
talk about vouchers. But it'skind of the secret that
(16:46):
everybody knows that we aregoing to have some voucher
legislation coming forward. Ithink it's almost certain,
especially given hisrecommendations around salaries,
that there's going to be a bigpush to get vouchers, if nothing
else is a trade off for approvalof, of those salaries. So so it
was was Was he talking aboutthat here? Do you think,
Matt Compton (17:07):
you know, he also started this speech talking
about, you know, the investmentsin education as being a moral
obligation. And he also citedthe Idaho Constitution as a, as
a foundation for theseinvestments, it would be very
difficult to talk about thatmoral obligation and the
constitutional requirement, andat the same time talk about
funding a second unnecessarysystem of of schools, that being
(17:32):
the private schools. And we'vesaid in the past, that the IEA
would be more than happy to havea conversation about funding
private schools, when we meet atleast the low watermark, if not
the mid watermark for funding ormeeting or adequate needs for,
you know, traditional publicschools.
Chris Parri (17:50):
Yeah, we're not close to that right now. And the
idea that we want to cut up asmall pie and divvy and make,
you know, get divvied up evenmore is just wild to me. I'm
glad you didn't say elephant inthe room in the speech that
vouchers work because I wouldhave to come out swinging on
behalf of elephants, but thelike it. I think that the
(18:12):
governor is trying to kind ofretake the word school choice
and bring it out of that publicto public dollars to private
school tuition kind ofconversation, because he's
right. I mean, the the heritagefoundation of all places, even
with Idaho, lacking a voucherprogram ranked us number three
in the country for education,Freedom School Choice, all those
(18:33):
different euphemisms that aretypically, like you said,
dedicated to vouchers. So he islaying out a landscape where we
have school choice, but it's avery Idaho specific version of
it that meets the needs of ruralcommunities and, and is in the
context of a chronicallyunderfunded public education
system.
Matt Compton (18:53):
And he's learning what we have known for a long
time is that while there may bea growing chorus of anti public
school voices in the Idaholegislature, that Idaho wins
across the board in overwhelmingmajorities 95%, want to see
continued investments in publiceducation, that being if it's in
teacher salaries, are ensuringthat rural schools have all the
(19:14):
resources they need for studentsto be successful, that that that
loud minority at the legislatureis not who he is trying to
serve. He's serving everydayIdahoans.
Chris Parri (19:26):
And I view this as also as a call to folks to
basically back this up back thisup back this idea of the school
choice does not need to be asiphoning it can be a
collaborative process. And tobring in the people he is
talking to voters, we did thepolling they we know voters are
on his side on this, our side onthis. So yeah, I think to Matt's
(19:49):
point earlier, like we're goingto need educators lobbying and
pushing this through to maintainthis velocity and to retake the
conversation around schoolchoice,
Matt Compton (19:57):
and he's he's recognized over the last handful
of years starting in Thepandemic and even into now that
that students do have needs thattheir traditional public schools
may not be able to meet. Now, ifwe were to fully fund schools,
that would probably no longer bethe choice. But when you have
the imperative, empoweringparents grant that was
introduced, during the pandemic,he recognized that families were
(20:19):
needing additional resources tomeet the needs of that hybrid
situation. And then it wascontinued last year. And then
this year, he makes this anongoing program, because he does
recognize that families may needadditional auxiliary resources
for their students, for theirkids, so that they're as
(20:40):
successful as possible. And Ithink that the empowering
parents grant services thatfantastic and also because it
identifies the the lowest incomefamilies in Idaho as the highest
priority for receiving thesegrants, and then ratchets up as
the as the grant, you know, ifthere's additional availability
(21:02):
that other Idahoans can applyfor it, as well.
Chris Parri (21:06):
And the thing that like, that I really like about
the parent parents grant is theuniversality of it, it
recognizes that every family inIdaho has an interest in their
child's education, whetherthey're a private school,
parent, public school, parent,homeschool, whatever, and they
can all access these funds. Soevery every parent can provide
(21:26):
good books and Internet andcomputers and and all of that
stuff that that folks are usingthis for. And isn't just
cordoned off to a very specificgroup of people. You know, or,
you know, excluding broadswaths, swaths of parents, it's,
it really isn't investment inevery home for every parent,
(21:46):
every child, unlike a lot of thevouchers programs you see across
the country.
Mike Journee (21:53):
And he recommended we make it permanent, that
another that $30 million go intoit.
Matt Compton (21:58):
This is this is a $30 million ongoing budgetary
line item. So that goes intoperpetuity. So parents can count
on applying for these grantsyear over year.
Mike Journee (22:09):
Now, having said all that, about the empowering
parents grant last year, when itwas being negotiated. Voucher
advocates did ask the initialdraft of the bill included
tuition, which, which in ourdefinition is tuition going to
go to a private school any toany tuition to wherever the the
(22:30):
recipient wants to put thosedollars, that that would be an
accepted expense that could gotoward this that was negotiated
out of the bill? Do you guysthink we're going to see that
come back as part of thisdiscussion around the empowering
parents grant this year, and iskind of where we're going to see
(22:50):
at least one voucher effort,
Chris Parri (22:53):
I think they're going to try and attack vouchers
will attack the public educationsystem with a with a voucher
proposals from kind of allcorners and kind of see what
sticks. I think that part of thereason we were able to negotiate
the voucher part out ofempowering parents in the first
place, not easily it took a lotof work. But I think the reason
that they still kind of crossedthe line, even without the
(23:14):
voucher piece is because the themoney would be eaten up so
quickly by vouchers, or bytuition, within this pot of
money that it was it wouldalmost not serve anybody. And
last year, there was $50 millionthat was in the pot of money
instead of 30 million. And Ithink that you know, that's
that's part of the argument thisyear about not allowing tuition
(23:35):
to be able to pulled from thisbecause you want this this
funding to end up in a homewith, you know, with a kid
learning with their parents, youdon't want it to end up in the
coffers of some, you know, youwant you want the empowering
parents grants, monies to be inIdaho homes. Not in not on a
(23:55):
profit spreadsheet or something.
Matt Compton (23:57):
If what we've seen in Utah is any indication, when
the governor there indicatedthat he wanted to see additional
$6,000 Go towards everyeducator, his Republican led
legislature immediately insistedon the adoption of some kind of
voucher program. So I would notbe surprised if right out of the
gate that the Idaho legislaturetried to pin something or attach
(24:21):
something to his proposal forincreased funds for for
teachers. I don't know howthat's going to play out. But I
understand. You know, I believethat educators and parents will
come out hard to ensure thatthere's a distinct separation
between the raises that theseeducators deserve versus the
need to fund a voucher scheme.
Mike Journee (24:44):
So Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is traditionally
the Idaho Education Association,lobby day and that's when we
bring dozens of lawmakers totown, I'm sorry, dozens of
educators to town to talk tolawmakers about what's going on.
I want to tell their story aboutwhat happens in their classrooms
on a day to day basis to helpinfluence education policy. And
(25:06):
so that's happening this comingMonday. It's really the most
important day for education,advocacy, all session really,
you know, and, and we're goingto spend some time on our next
episode talking about what'swhat happens, we'll talk towards
the members and and, and includethat in this podcast and have a
conversation about that. But,Chris, can you give us a quick
rundown of what our members aregoing to be doing on Monday?
Chris Parri (25:29):
So yeah, well, on Sunday, actually, the night
before, they're going to have adinner and a training here in
Boise. And we're gonna havegreat speakers there as well
from the legislature, includingrepresentative Giuliana Moto,
who is the chair of HouseEducation. And Governor Brad
little himself will be there toto answer questions about about
(25:50):
his proposal and, and put somewind in our sails as we go into
the legislature the next day. Soon Monday, we will be meeting in
the State Capitol building. Andfrom there, we'll kind of give a
little bit of a touch and makesure everyone has meetings and
logistics are all taken care ofand then let educators loose in
(26:10):
the building and start meetingwith with lawmakers. So
Matt Compton (26:14):
one of the one of the reasons I think that this
has been so successful year overyear, is that while Chris and I
are exceptional at our job,extremely talented, we're very
talented. It's true. When youhave the actual practitioners in
in the building, talking andsharing their stories and their
Why are there classroomexperiences with policymakers
that connects so much cleanerand so much more authentic than
(26:39):
what we can what we can share.
And so not only on on this lobbyday, but throughout the
legislative session, we will beleveraging the voices of Idaho's
professional educators, and toensure that this legislative
session is as successful as itought to be as laid out by the
state of the state.
Chris Parri (26:58):
Yeah, Matt and I are kind of like the bumpers
that you'll set up at a bowlingalley or something. But the
educator will be tossing theball down there to knock those
pins over. This is a strangemetaphor. But you know, I didn't
that.
Mike Journee (27:11):
That was a good one. But the you know, their
stories make a difference.
Lawmakers hear it, and it helpsinfluence policy and it makes
policy better. And that's whatwe're after with this
Matt Compton (27:23):
right as people attack education or educators.
And they're doing that from afaror from a keyboard. When you
have an actual teacher in youroffice sharing a real story
about why they got into theprofession. And they're talking
about their students and sharingsome of the difficulties they're
having. It's really hard todisregard that as and chalk it
(27:49):
up to you know, what we'rehearing in the culture wars
these days.
Mike Journee (27:52):
And I'll say they've they, those are
participating this year. They'vepicked the excellent time
exciting time to be part of ourefforts at the Statehouse. It's
going to be an interesting year.
Yes. Well, thanks, guys. It'sbeen a great conversation. And I
look forward to to what's gonnahappen with these amazing
recommendations that Governorlittle came forward. It's very
(28:14):
exciting, and it's somethingthat both of you should be proud
of, because you played a role inhelping make this happen over
time and as well as our members.
Their their influences is asIdaho's most important education
experts is is is legit, and thenthey band together. Good things
(28:34):
happen.
Chris Parri (28:35):
That's extremely true. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Thank you.
Mike Journee (28:42):
Thank you for listening to Idaho education
Association's hotline podcast.
Thanks as well to our guest,Matt Compton and Chris Perry.
Please watch for future updates,but new episodes on IE social
media channels or sign up foremail updates on our website at
Idaho eaa.org. I'm Mike journee.
And as always, I hope you joinme in thanking Idaho's public
school educators for everythingthey do for our State students,
(29:05):
families and public schools.
Welcome to education, podcast, a weekly
discussion about what'shappening at the Idaho
legislature around publiceducation and the policy
priorities of ies members, IEAmembers or public school
educators from all over thestate. They're Idaho's most
important education experts, andthey use their influence to
fight for a free quality andequitable public education for
(00:32):
every student in the state. I'mMike journee, communications
director at the IEA and I'll beyour host for this episode of
hotline. Today, our panel willdiscuss exciting and ambitious
education policy proposals fromGovernor Brad Little's state of
the state addressed on Monday,including vaulting Idaho
starting educator salaries intothe top 10 among all states.
(00:53):
joining me for today'sconversation are members of IRAs
lobby team, Associate ExecutiveDirector Matt Compton and
political director, Chris Perry.
Hi, guys, thanks again forjoining me. And, you know, it
was a really exciting day forpublic education. Yesterday,
Governor little made educatorpay the centerpiece of a State
of the State address. And, infact, the the quote that all the
(01:16):
media picked up on and used andI'm going to use it here too, is
we're not backing down fromeducation. We're doubling down.
So Chris Perry, do a quickrundown and talk a little bit
about governor's that Governorlittle proposal proposals on
educator pay.
Chris Parri (01:33):
Yep, it's pretty exciting. So he allocated of the
$330 million that were that wereappropriated K through 12
schools during the Septemberspecial session last year. 145
million will go towards raisesfor teachers all along the
career ladder. And that amountsto around $6,359 per cell, or
(01:57):
per per educator, which is a bigbump, pretty significant. And,
you know, related to that,obviously, we have that that the
ranking that he's trying totackle as well, we're currently
41st in the country, forbeginning teacher pay. And he
wants to leapfrog 30 states andbring us up into the top 10 up
(02:18):
there with like Connecticut andsome of these other places I
really like recognition of, youknow, we need more educators.
And not only that, but we alsoknow that we're exporting
educators out of the state thatare, you know, graduating from
Idaho universities, this is aninvestment in keeping them here,
growing our educators here,keeping them here, making sure
they can start a life here. It'spretty, pretty radical to
(02:41):
awesome. It's pretty great.
Matt Compton (02:42):
This is interesting in in 2015, when the
career ladder was originallyintroduced, the first rung on on
that career ladder was $30,000.
That was going to be thestarting teacher salary. And
that was what the recommendationin 2015 was. That mean that it
would have taken several yearsfor us to even get to the
$30,000 rung for a startingteacher salary. It wasn't until
(03:03):
2018 When Governor littlebrought in he had a second or he
had his okay if Task Force,which is our kids Idaho's
future, which was looking atmany of the education issues,
where he made the recommendationfor starting teacher salary to
be $40,000 as a starting teachersalary. With this proposal, he's
bumping that all the way to$47,477 for a starting teacher
(03:28):
salary. That's fantastic.
Mike Journee (03:33):
And it wasn't just certified teachers that he
recommended pay raises for righthe put together a package of 97
point 4 million and for betterpay for classified education
employees to that's that'sthat's huge. It's a big deal for
our for our members because ofof the important role that these
folks play in the smooth runningof our schools, right, Chris?
Chris Parri (03:54):
Yes, huge. They're like the mortar that holds the
school together in a lot ofways, right. And the fewer
classified folks you have in theclassroom, the more hats that
the educator wears, as well. Andyou know, with the hemorrhage
that we've had of classifiedstaff from the state, because
people can make, you know, justas much or more working at Panda
Express or Chipotle orsomething. You know, these jobs
(04:16):
are tough. And this is arecognition that these are tough
jobs. And we need to keeptalented people in those jobs to
support our teachers. If it's,you know, paraprofessionals or
cafeteria workers, bus drivers,those folks, they make the
school run and the smootherschool runs, the better it is
for educators and betters forstudents.
Matt Compton (04:34):
And it was just in December when the office
performance evaluation came outwith a report on classified
employees, indicating that thestate would need to allocate $80
million of additional resourcesjust to bring us up to a
reasonable pace. So that wouldbe that the state was actually
meeting its financialobligations over what districts
were paying. And so with the$97.4 million that is being
(04:58):
suggested by the governor, hehas gone beyond to what the
office of performance evaluationhas recommended
Chris Parri (05:03):
overshooting I mean, that could that could show
up in even higher pay, hopefullyfor classified staff or benefits
or other ways to reallyincentivize them sticking around
and helping out.
Mike Journee (05:13):
Yeah, that's fantastic. And, you know,
Governor little says theseinvestments will lift Idaho
starting teacher pay into thetop 10 states. So listen to this
clip real quick about from hisspeech and tell us what you
think about it.
Unknown (05:27):
Great teachers can motivate and change the
trajectory of a student's life.
That's why my plan boostsstarting teacher pay yet again,
finally targeting Idaho in thetop 10. State for starting
teacher pay. When I started thisjob, four years ago, I was 41st
in the country for startingteacher pay. In four short
years, we will have catapultedstarting teacher pay in Idaho,
(05:51):
from the bottom 10 to the top10.
We're also going to grow thesalaries of all teachers,
including the most experiencedones, to ensure students have
(06:11):
classrooms, the classroomsupport they need. What does
this mean for the averageteacher? It means a $6,300 pay
raise. When we show teachers, wesupport them, we're showing
families their child educationis our priority.
Mike Journee (06:31):
No matter, Matt, that that speaks directly to
what you're just talking about.
And the lifting of the hard workthat Governor Liddell has done.
He does a lot of credit forbringing this proposal forward
and for the work that he's doneon public education, especially
in the current politicalclimate,
Matt Compton (06:47):
but he's heard from members over the last
handful of years, andparticularly through the
pandemic, about the diresituation of attracting and
retaining highly qualifiededucators. Now, the state is in
a financial position where wecan use some of our surplus.
We're seeing record growth inour economy. He recognizes that
this is a once in a lifetimeopportunity to make historic
(07:09):
investments and teacher pay. Andhe did it.
Chris Parri (07:12):
Yeah, it's pretty remarkable. I'm glad the the
mics picked up the whoo hoo thatI yelled from my office multiple
blocks away during that speech,pretty, pretty incredible. Just
recommendations overall, it wasgreat to hear.
Mike Journee (07:27):
Yeah, so now going into the session, the top policy
priorities for AAA members wassecuring better pay for all
educators, certified teachersand classified education
professionals. And the governorcame right out of the gate with
the with those start the sessionand Matt comp. And I think our
members gonna really like this alot,
Matt Compton (07:46):
I certainly hope so we have our Lobby Day coming
up in a handful of days plusmembers who are going to be
joining us at the Capitolthrough the legislative session.
And they'll be sharing theirstories with lawmakers to ensure
that the governor's proposalactually is what makes it into a
final budget at the end of thesession, because we do know that
there's still a tremendousamount of work that needs to be
(08:06):
done. Legislators have to nowembrace this vision, appreciate
what he has put forward. Andthen, you know, execute on it.
And it's going to require theIEA and the voices of our
members engaging withpolicymakers to ensure that this
happens,
Mike Journee (08:23):
right. And this isn't just about better pay for
teachers, this is really aboutbetter outcomes in the
classroom. Right? This is reallywhat this is all about. And I
think two crises that that we'refacing in Idaho public
education, and actually acrossthis country right now, really
point to that educator, jobvacancies, and then also the
student behavioral health andwellness crisis that we're
facing. You guys talk a littlebit about how these proposals
(08:46):
address those would you
Matt Compton (08:47):
this gives us a great opportunity to address
class size right off the bat, ifwe're able to hire additional
educators plus have more adultsin the room with classified
employees, then you addressbehavioral issues, and you make
class sizes smaller that rightoff the bat will help improve
the outcomes for educators forstudents, because there'll be
(09:09):
less behavioral issues andteachers will have a significant
more one on one time with everyone of their students.
Chris Parri (09:16):
Right. And I mean, a part of this proposal was
well, you know, thediscretionary funding and the
the cost of these, theinvestments in salaries and
classified staff pay, kind ofsupplant will open districts up
to being able to hire moreprofessional behavioral
interventionists and other folkswho can step up into those more
specialized kind of incidentsthat you need, you need really
(09:39):
to address so that you can cutdown on learning loss because we
know when there's a behavioralissue in a classroom, sometimes
it can shut down the entireclassroom. And rather than
putting that on the shoulders ofeducators and administrators,
hopefully this opens updistricts to be able to address
those needs directly.
Mike Journee (09:55):
So having state dedicated funding for salaries
for certified teachers and forclass testified educators, gives
them more room in their budgetto deal with other things that
some of the things are a crisislevel as well. Facilities and
other things come to mind as asas, as I'm speaking about that.
So there's a lot of a lot ofroom there. So
Matt Compton (10:16):
where discretionary money would have
been used to repair an age vacsystem or roof or something like
that, but had to get reappropriated so that they can
make payroll can now actually beused for those kind of facility
improvements that districts havebeen putting off year over year.
Mike Journee (10:33):
Since we're talking about facilities, I just
kind of jumped forward a littlebit about that. And, you know,
he, the need for facilityspending, and building security
funding was something that wehighlighted coming into the
session, our members were sayingthis is a very important thing
to them. And the governor madesome recommendations for that we
didn't really didn't reallyspeak directly to the one direct
(10:54):
thing you talked about withschool facility security, and he
put $20 million toward that.
There's also mentioned the 52point 4 million in discretionary
funding that we're putting inthe budget, in the governor's
putting in his budget, I guess,for for school districts to draw
upon, for whatever needs me. Theonly other thing I think that
even comes close to talkingabout facilities spending is the
(11:15):
it money that he suggested andthat's that's $30 million, even
if every dollar of that $100million that I just listed off,
is still just a drop in thebucket from what we understand
to be the needs of facility forfacilities and other maintenance
things that that happened needto happen across state right,
Chris?
Chris Parri (11:33):
Yeah. So you know, part of why I'm so excited about
this proposal and the way it'sstructured, with its ongoing
investments year over year, this330 million will go towards
better salaries, better pay indiscretionary funding. And some
of the other things the thereason I like this structure
versus dedicating all 330million even to facilities is
(11:55):
that the facilities gap is sobig, and it is a one time kind
of capital investment. Granted,you know, you have maintenance
that goes on all the time, butwe have a backlog of close to a
billion dollars, if not morethan that. For our facilities,
that would be much betteraddressed via one time funding,
(12:15):
particularly out of ourpotentially out of our massive
budget surplus, which I think isstill $1.5 billion, or
something. And, you know, we getfederal funds and other kinds of
things that we can we can use toimprove our facility. So this
ongoing money though, beingdedicated to keeping great
teachers in the classroom, greatclassified staff in the
(12:35):
classroom, I think it's reallysmart to structure it this way.
Matt Compton (12:38):
And districts have been using supplemental levies
to help shore up payroll costsover the last decade. So if this
creates less of a reliance onthose supplemental levies they
become because they'reoperational at this point. If
districts don't have to runlevies, that means that property
taxes go down. And that mean,that means that there's probably
(12:58):
a higher willingness from thevoting public, to vote for a
bond to build more schools thataddresses things like, you know,
new buildings, or repairs to oldbuildings. I think that this,
that there's the this sets up anopportunity for some pretty
significant property tax reliefas well,
Chris Parri (13:17):
you can get better state funding to your schools
and in exchange be less relianton property taxes at the local
level, because we know,districts across the state are
voting every year to taxthemselves because of the lack
of state funding that's goinginto their building.
Matt Compton (13:31):
And it's been the interest of lawmakers for a
handful of years to lowerproperty taxes. So they still
have the billion and a halfdollars that if if they choose
to, could put towards adedicated fund for for building
new schools making repairs. Andthat too, would decrease. First,
it would decrease the cost ofproperty taxes on an already
(13:51):
overburdened tax population. Andat the same time, it's probably
a job creator, which would spursome economic growth in Idaho
because of you ensuring thatIdaho wins. We're working in
construction and whatever, youknow, that has exponential
cascading effects for theeconomy.
Mike Journee (14:10):
Well, the Governor did talk about a few other
things besides teacher pay, inhis in his speech and his
recommendations, and one of themwas $27.9 million for health
insurance benefits foreducators. On top of on top of
the work that was done last yeararound educator health benefits,
Matt, is that is that going tois that going to get us to where
(14:30):
we need to be on health benefitsfor educators?
Matt Compton (14:32):
Well, I think the additional money for
discretionary and the moneythat's freed up and
discretionary will give moredistricts an opportunity to take
a look at the state health careplan and determine if that's the
direction that they want tomove. They have one more year to
take an evaluate to take a lookto determine is that you know,
in a price comparison, is thatadvantageous for them to move
over there? And that cost besupplemented by the state. So
(14:56):
negotiations this year are goingto be very interesting and I
think that districts are nolonger gonna be hot, held
between like a rock and a hardspot. But they will have like
two gems that they havepresented in front of them as
opportunities to take hold of.
Chris Parri (15:08):
Yeah. One question mark, I think related to the
health insurance stuff is thatwe still have that existing $80
million gap. And this, I think,is this is on top of the
investments. So we're hopingthat we can find the $80 million
elsewhere, the legislature cancan fix that, that gap to make
sure every person in a schoolhas the has great benefits.
Mike Journee (15:33):
So now, one thing that the governor didn't
mention, in the speech wasafters. And, but he did go out
of his way to outline how muchschool choice exists in Idaho,
especially in the public schoolsphere. And so I just want to I
just want to play this clip foryou.
Unknown (15:54):
We're also third in the nation for education freedom
measures and includes spending,school choice, transparency and
regulations, whether it's yourtraditional public school,
public charter schools, publicmagnet schools, private schools,
online academy, academies arehomeschooling, hundreds of
(16:19):
schooling options are availableto Idaho families.
Mike Journee (16:23):
Now, that was quite a laundry list of school
choice. We talked about themoniker school choice in
previous episodes of this andwhat that means. It's often it's
often couched in terms of whatwe call vouchers with taking
public dollars away from publicschool classrooms for the
benefit of private schools. Andso as I was curious, he didn't
talk about vouchers. But it'skind of the secret that
(16:46):
everybody knows that we aregoing to have some voucher
legislation coming forward. Ithink it's almost certain,
especially given hisrecommendations around salaries,
that there's going to be a bigpush to get vouchers, if nothing
else is a trade off for approvalof, of those salaries. So so it
was was Was he talking aboutthat here? Do you think,
Matt Compton (17:07):
you know, he also started this speech talking
about, you know, the investmentsin education as being a moral
obligation. And he also citedthe Idaho Constitution as a, as
a foundation for theseinvestments, it would be very
difficult to talk about thatmoral obligation and the
constitutional requirement, andat the same time talk about
funding a second unnecessarysystem of of schools, that being
(17:32):
the private schools. And we'vesaid in the past, that the IEA
would be more than happy to havea conversation about funding
private schools, when we meet atleast the low watermark, if not
the mid watermark for funding ormeeting or adequate needs for,
you know, traditional publicschools.
Chris Parri (17:50):
Yeah, we're not close to that right now. And the
idea that we want to cut up asmall pie and divvy and make,
you know, get divvied up evenmore is just wild to me. I'm
glad you didn't say elephant inthe room in the speech that
vouchers work because I wouldhave to come out swinging on
behalf of elephants, but thelike it. I think that the
(18:12):
governor is trying to kind ofretake the word school choice
and bring it out of that publicto public dollars to private
school tuition kind ofconversation, because he's
right. I mean, the the heritagefoundation of all places, even
with Idaho, lacking a voucherprogram ranked us number three
in the country for education,Freedom School Choice, all those
(18:33):
different euphemisms that aretypically, like you said,
dedicated to vouchers. So he islaying out a landscape where we
have school choice, but it's avery Idaho specific version of
it that meets the needs of ruralcommunities and, and is in the
context of a chronicallyunderfunded public education
system.
Matt Compton (18:53):
And he's learning what we have known for a long
time is that while there may bea growing chorus of anti public
school voices in the Idaholegislature, that Idaho wins
across the board in overwhelmingmajorities 95%, want to see
continued investments in publiceducation, that being if it's in
teacher salaries, are ensuringthat rural schools have all the
(19:14):
resources they need for studentsto be successful, that that that
loud minority at the legislatureis not who he is trying to
serve. He's serving everydayIdahoans.
Chris Parri (19:26):
And I view this as also as a call to folks to
basically back this up back thisup back this idea of the school
choice does not need to be asiphoning it can be a
collaborative process. And tobring in the people he is
talking to voters, we did thepolling they we know voters are
on his side on this, our side onthis. So yeah, I think to Matt's
(19:49):
point earlier, like we're goingto need educators lobbying and
pushing this through to maintainthis velocity and to retake the
conversation around schoolchoice,
Matt Compton (19:57):
and he's he's recognized over the last handful
of years starting in Thepandemic and even into now that
that students do have needs thattheir traditional public schools
may not be able to meet. Now, ifwe were to fully fund schools,
that would probably no longer bethe choice. But when you have
the imperative, empoweringparents grant that was
introduced, during the pandemic,he recognized that families were
(20:19):
needing additional resources tomeet the needs of that hybrid
situation. And then it wascontinued last year. And then
this year, he makes this anongoing program, because he does
recognize that families may needadditional auxiliary resources
for their students, for theirkids, so that they're as
(20:40):
successful as possible. And Ithink that the empowering
parents grant services thatfantastic and also because it
identifies the the lowest incomefamilies in Idaho as the highest
priority for receiving thesegrants, and then ratchets up as
the as the grant, you know, ifthere's additional availability
(21:02):
that other Idahoans can applyfor it, as well.
Chris Parri (21:06):
And the thing that like, that I really like about
the parent parents grant is theuniversality of it, it
recognizes that every family inIdaho has an interest in their
child's education, whetherthey're a private school,
parent, public school, parent,homeschool, whatever, and they
can all access these funds. Soevery every parent can provide
(21:26):
good books and Internet andcomputers and and all of that
stuff that that folks are usingthis for. And isn't just
cordoned off to a very specificgroup of people. You know, or,
you know, excluding broadswaths, swaths of parents, it's,
it really isn't investment inevery home for every parent,
(21:46):
every child, unlike a lot of thevouchers programs you see across
the country.
Mike Journee (21:53):
And he recommended we make it permanent, that
another that $30 million go intoit.
Matt Compton (21:58):
This is this is a $30 million ongoing budgetary
line item. So that goes intoperpetuity. So parents can count
on applying for these grantsyear over year.
Mike Journee (22:09):
Now, having said all that, about the empowering
parents grant last year, when itwas being negotiated. Voucher
advocates did ask the initialdraft of the bill included
tuition, which, which in ourdefinition is tuition going to
go to a private school any toany tuition to wherever the the
(22:30):
recipient wants to put thosedollars, that that would be an
accepted expense that could gotoward this that was negotiated
out of the bill? Do you guysthink we're going to see that
come back as part of thisdiscussion around the empowering
parents grant this year, and iskind of where we're going to see
(22:50):
at least one voucher effort,
Chris Parri (22:53):
I think they're going to try and attack vouchers
will attack the public educationsystem with a with a voucher
proposals from kind of allcorners and kind of see what
sticks. I think that part of thereason we were able to negotiate
the voucher part out ofempowering parents in the first
place, not easily it took a lotof work. But I think the reason
that they still kind of crossedthe line, even without the
(23:14):
voucher piece is because the themoney would be eaten up so
quickly by vouchers, or bytuition, within this pot of
money that it was it wouldalmost not serve anybody. And
last year, there was $50 millionthat was in the pot of money
instead of 30 million. And Ithink that you know, that's
that's part of the argument thisyear about not allowing tuition
(23:35):
to be able to pulled from thisbecause you want this this
funding to end up in a homewith, you know, with a kid
learning with their parents, youdon't want it to end up in the
coffers of some, you know, youwant you want the empowering
parents grants, monies to be inIdaho homes. Not in not on a
(23:55):
profit spreadsheet or something.
Matt Compton (23:57):
If what we've seen in Utah is any indication, when
the governor there indicatedthat he wanted to see additional
$6,000 Go towards everyeducator, his Republican led
legislature immediately insistedon the adoption of some kind of
voucher program. So I would notbe surprised if right out of the
gate that the Idaho legislaturetried to pin something or attach
(24:21):
something to his proposal forincreased funds for for
teachers. I don't know howthat's going to play out. But I
understand. You know, I believethat educators and parents will
come out hard to ensure thatthere's a distinct separation
between the raises that theseeducators deserve versus the
need to fund a voucher scheme.
Mike Journee (24:44):
So Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is traditionally
the Idaho Education Association,lobby day and that's when we
bring dozens of lawmakers totown, I'm sorry, dozens of
educators to town to talk tolawmakers about what's going on.
I want to tell their story aboutwhat happens in their classrooms
on a day to day basis to helpinfluence education policy. And
(25:06):
so that's happening this comingMonday. It's really the most
important day for education,advocacy, all session really,
you know, and, and we're goingto spend some time on our next
episode talking about what'swhat happens, we'll talk towards
the members and and, and includethat in this podcast and have a
conversation about that. But,Chris, can you give us a quick
rundown of what our members aregoing to be doing on Monday?
Chris Parri (25:29):
So yeah, well, on Sunday, actually, the night
before, they're going to have adinner and a training here in
Boise. And we're gonna havegreat speakers there as well
from the legislature, includingrepresentative Giuliana Moto,
who is the chair of HouseEducation. And Governor Brad
little himself will be there toto answer questions about about
(25:50):
his proposal and, and put somewind in our sails as we go into
the legislature the next day. Soon Monday, we will be meeting in
the State Capitol building. Andfrom there, we'll kind of give a
little bit of a touch and makesure everyone has meetings and
logistics are all taken care ofand then let educators loose in
(26:10):
the building and start meetingwith with lawmakers. So
Matt Compton (26:14):
one of the one of the reasons I think that this
has been so successful year overyear, is that while Chris and I
are exceptional at our job,extremely talented, we're very
talented. It's true. When youhave the actual practitioners in
in the building, talking andsharing their stories and their
Why are there classroomexperiences with policymakers
that connects so much cleanerand so much more authentic than
(26:39):
what we can what we can share.
And so not only on on this lobbyday, but throughout the
legislative session, we will beleveraging the voices of Idaho's
professional educators, and toensure that this legislative
session is as successful as itought to be as laid out by the
state of the state.
Chris Parri (26:58):
Yeah, Matt and I are kind of like the bumpers
that you'll set up at a bowlingalley or something. But the
educator will be tossing theball down there to knock those
pins over. This is a strangemetaphor. But you know, I didn't
that.
Mike Journee (27:11):
That was a good one. But the you know, their
stories make a difference.
Lawmakers hear it, and it helpsinfluence policy and it makes
policy better. And that's whatwe're after with this
Matt Compton (27:23):
right as people attack education or educators.
And they're doing that from afaror from a keyboard. When you
have an actual teacher in youroffice sharing a real story
about why they got into theprofession. And they're talking
about their students and sharingsome of the difficulties they're
having. It's really hard todisregard that as and chalk it
(27:49):
up to you know, what we'rehearing in the culture wars
these days.
Mike Journee (27:52):
And I'll say they've they, those are
participating this year. They'vepicked the excellent time
exciting time to be part of ourefforts at the Statehouse. It's
going to be an interesting year.
Yes. Well, thanks, guys. It'sbeen a great conversation. And I
look forward to to what's gonnahappen with these amazing
recommendations that Governorlittle came forward. It's very
(28:14):
exciting, and it's somethingthat both of you should be proud
of, because you played a role inhelping make this happen over
time and as well as our members.
Their their influences is asIdaho's most important education
experts is is is legit, and thenthey band together. Good things
(28:34):
happen.
Chris Parri (28:35):
That's extremely true. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
Thank you.
Mike Journee (28:42):
Thank you for listening to Idaho education
Association's hotline podcast.
Thanks as well to our guest,Matt Compton and Chris Perry.
Please watch for future updates,but new episodes on IE social
media channels or sign up foremail updates on our website at
Idaho eaa.org. I'm Mike journee.
And as always, I hope you joinme in thanking Idaho's public
school educators for everythingthey do for our State students,
(29:05):
families and public schools.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com