(The Center Square) – The Nevada Assembly passed Assembly Bill 398, which aims to raise pay for charter school and hard-to-fill public school teacher positions.
Assembly members last week voted 41-1 to pass the legislation, which now heads to the state Senate. Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, sponsored it.
AB 398 says charter school teachers and education support professionals are eligible for salary increases. Staff members who spend more than 50% of their time in a supervisory role are not qualified.
For fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27, the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority will give $19.3 million to charter schools across the state. Nevada has 91 charter schools.
To qualify for this money, each charter school must submit a statement to the SPCSA stating the number of teachers and education support professionals it employed on Oct. 1, 2024.
The SPCSA will submit this information by July 15 to the state Interim Finance Committee and estimate the total amount each charter school will receive for 2025-26. This exact process will be used the following year to determine each charter school’s compensation.
For fiscal year 2025-26, once charter schools submit this information to the SPCSA, they must propose another plan by Aug. 15 detailing how they will increase staff members’ salaries.
SPCSA must present this information to the IFC one month later, describing how charter schools will increase salaries for qualified positions.
This same routine will be used for fiscal year 2026-2027 to govern how charter schools implement salary increases for staff members.
AB 398 says the IFC will determine how money will be sent to charter schools based on an individual charter school’s share of the total teachers and support staff as of Oct. 1, 2024.
To illustrate, if a charter school had 20% of the state’s charter school teachers and education support staff, it would get 20% of the distributed funds.
AB 398 states that the money spent by charter schools must supplement teachers’ income rather than replace it.
Furthermore, the bill states that if IFC doesn’t spend all its money for each fiscal year, the extra money must be returned to the state general fund.
Zip Recruiter data shows that the average Nevada charter school teacher makes $58,556 annually.
According to the education company Fullmind, over 10% of Nevada’s teacher positions are unfilled. The company also found that the state has America’s lowest teacher-to-student ratio: 43 teachers for 1,000 students.
To help address this concern, AB 398 seeks to compensate teachers in hard-to-fill positions.
The bill describes hard-to-fill positions as teaching jobs at Title 1 schools, which serve students from low-income families.
AB 398 sets specific vacancy rate requirements for schools to qualify. High schools must have a vacancy rate of at least 15%, middle schools need at least 12% and elementary schools need at least 10%.
The state Department of Education will give money to school districts to pay bonuses and other compensation for these positions. The bill states that the additional money can’t be used to replace a teacher’s base salary.
Nevada school districts must submit an application to the IFC detailing the amount of money they are requesting, the number of hard-to-fill positions they have and sufficient documentation showing how they intend to use the additional resources.
The IFC will allocate $45 million to school districts for the fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27. Unspent funds will need to go back to the state General Fund.
Money that school districts get from IFC will be subject to collective bargaining.
AB 398 requires school districts to report by Dec. 1 of each even-numbered year the number of teachers receiving extra pay, the total amount paid, and the number of hard-to-fill positions in their public schools.
To pass this bill, the state Senate will have to act quickly, as the legislative session is expected to end June 2.
Earlier in May, Gov. Joe Lombardo said he would veto any education budget bill that doesn’t include pay raises for charter school teachers.
