INDIANAPOLIS — A report recently released on how to raise Indiana teacher pay has recommended a number of pathways both school corporations and the state government could take to increase salaries, but some educators say the recommendations place too much responsibility on corporations and not enough on the state.

The Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission, a panel tasked with finding ways to make Indiana teacher salaries more competitive, recommended a mix of cost savings and spending shifts to raise average teacher pay from $51,000 to at least $60,000.

The commission was formed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in February 2019 to look for long-term solutions to the state’s low pay for teachers; the raise would bring Indiana’s average teacher salary from ninth-highest to third-highest in the Midwest. The investment would cost more than $600 million.

The report includes a total of 37 recommendations for increasing teacher pay, including suggestions for both the state government and for individual school corporations. Suggestions include a state tax increase to pay down pension debt and having school corporations contemplate budget cuts or referendums asking local voters to raise local taxes.

“It’s encouraging that there was a commission in the first place,” said Dana Allen, a representative of the Eastern Hancock Educators’ Association, but some of the recommendations in the report seemed to her to be things that would hurt teachers rather than help them.

For example, one recommendation in the report advocates for no longer allowing teachers’ employed spouses to be included on their health insurance. That might allow for a slight increase in pay, Allen said, but at the cost of taking an important insurance option away from teachers’ families. The same is true of a suggestion to remove retired teachers from health care plans once they reach the age of Medicare eligibility.

Other suggestions, Allen said, are just unlikely to work, like the advice to attempt a referendum that would increase education funding through local taxes.

“We tried to do that 10 years ago, and it failed miserably,” she said.

Dan Holub, executive director of the Indiana State Teachers Association, told The Associated Press that if state lawmakers don’t act on the recommendations quickly, schools will be left to solve teacher pay on their own.

“We’re simply not going to solve the problem that way,” Holub said. “It is clear from this report that the legislature has to be the biggest player in that effort. If the legislature doesn’t step up, none of these efficiencies are going to go far enough.”

Eastern Hancock superintendent David Pfaff said he was pleased to see the state release a report on the issue.

“I’m glad that this study committee verified what we have felt like, which is that Indiana teacher pay is too low,” he said.

Pfaff said school finance is a complicated issue and that not every school corporation is the same. Looking at statistics might not give you the full picture, he said, and the issue is not entirely on corporations to fix, but they should consider the recommendations laid out in the report.

Kent Gish, a representative of the New Palestine Classroom Teachers Association, said local teachers’ unions are always working to improve the issue of teacher compensation, and that any discussion on the issue in the capitol is a positive thing.

“It’s nice to see that our legislators are aware of and trying to help with the issue of teacher pay,” Gish said.

Gish said he is pleased with the efforts his corporation has made to compensate teachers fairly. The recently ratified SH contract calls for a base teacher salary of $45,800 to $82,400, depending on education and experience. As much as $3,000 will be available per teacher through the grants for teachers who are rated as effective or highly effective through evaluations.

“We’re well-supported here in Southern Hancock, and we’re glad that we are,” he said.

Wes Anderson, director of community and school relations at Southern Hancock Community School Corporation, said he thinks most school corporations are already doing many of the things the report recommends.

“The easiest way to increase teacher pay is for the legislature to put more money in the base grant,” he said, referring to the standard amount of money per student schools receive from the state.

Anderson said leaders with the school corporation have a close relationship with local representatives in the state legislature and discuss the base grant with them “on a monthly basis.”

State Rep. Bob Cherry, R-Greenfield, said education is a top priority for the state legislature. It makes up more than 50% of Indiana’s budget and is the only funding area that has not faced cuts this year due to the COVID-19 crisis.

However, he said, money is tight for the state, and decreased revenue might not support any more money for school corporations.

“We’ll do everything we can to shovel as much money to the corporations as we can,” Cherry said.

Allen said she believes most of the burden of increasing teacher pay in Indiana should be on the state government; schools can only do so much to make up for the difference when the state doesn’t send them enough money, she said.

“They’re saying, ‘we created these problems, and now you’ve got to help fix it,’” Allen said.

Allen attributed the state’s relatively low wages for teachers mainly to a property tax cap imposed by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels, which limited the amount of money schools can bring in even if property values rise.

As lawmakers consider school funding in the coming session, Allen said, she hopes they will remember that they are creating a two-year budget that will apply, hopefully, after the end of the COVID-19 crisis. Despite her concerns, she said, she’s glad the issue is being discussed.

“It’s always much better to have this conversation than to pretend it isn’t happening,” she said.
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