(The Center Square) – The superintendent of the McGehee School District asked Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday if veteran teachers could expect any additional raises under the state’s LEARNS Act.
The act raises starting teacher pay from $36,000 to $50,000. Veteran teachers making more than $50,000 yearly will get a $2,000 pay raise in the 2023-2024 school year.
McGehee School District Superintendent Linda Tullos asked at a town hall meeting held in Helena if veteran teachers could expect anything else.
“We have such wonderful veteran teachers who only got the $2,000 because we don’t have the extra income or revenue to give them more, and those are the mentors for these young ones that you gave the $50,000 [salaries] to and they deserve more so my question is in the future are you looking to give us more?” asked Tullos.
The governor said she intended that every single teacher in the state should get “something.”
“That’s not a final something, but we wanted them to at least get an additional pay bump and so we included, and have funded, again not just in the immediate but in perpetuity, the state is on the hook to not only fund the increase from the $36,000 to $50,000, but for every single teacher in the state to get $2,000,” Sanders said.
The state is “on the hook” to pay for the raises, Sanders said.
“That’s not something that ultimately then falls back on the district, that’s something that we have committed to fund in perpetuity,” the governor said. “Meaning, every dollar that a district got before Arkansas LEARNS, they still get. Now they just get additional funding on top of that to cover the increase in teacher salaries.”
Elaine Mayor Lisa Hicks Gilbert, who has three children in the school system, said she is mainly focused on observing outcomes from the literacy component of the LEARNS Act, which includes literacy coaches and provides early literacy resources for parents, among other things.
“Our babies are so far behind, so I am counting on this LEARNS Act to help us with that,” Gilbert said.
The governor called the $300 million LEARNS Act a total overhaul of the state’s current education system that was not perfect but was a strong starting point for Arkansas.
“At the end of the day, I’m tired of Arkansas being at the bottom. I’m tired of Arkansas being 47th, 48th, 49th, and in some cases 50th, in all the places that I want us to be first and second. And frankly, all the places that I know we’re capable of being first and second. The best place we can start to move those numbers up is with education. That’s why we’ve spent the last seven months working so tirelessly on promoting, passing, and now implementing Arkansas LEARNS,” Sanders said.
