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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders promised to raise starting teacher salaries in her state “from one of the lowest to one of the highest in the nation” in her Feb. 7 Republican rebuttal speech to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
The next day, she unveiled Arkansas LEARNS, a major education initiative that includes teacher pay raises alongside a major expansion of school choice; a policy to keep 3rd graders who haven't met reading standards from advancing to 4th grade; and the repeal of the state's mandatory, graduated pay scale for teachers as well as a state law that requires that teachers receive written notice of a suspension or termination and allows them to request a school board hearing to try to get their job back.
That Huckabee Sanders' marquee education initiative couples teacher pay raises with other, more traditional conservative education policies is one example of the growing bipartisan support for boosting teachers' pay, a cause traditionally championed by Democrats.
While a proposal from Democrats in Congress to raise teachers' base pay to $60,000 has gained some high-profile support, governors from both parties this winter have proposed teacher pay increases as schools struggle to fill key positions and fewer young people show interest in the profession.
In Arkansas, Huckabee Sanders' LEARNS—short for Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking, and School Safety—proposal has since passed the state’s Senate and House in the form of a 145-page bill. It will go back to the Senate for a concurring vote before heading to Huckabee Sanders' desk.
It would raise Arkansas’s starting teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, bumping the state’s starting salary ranking from 48th in the nation to sixth, according to a National Education Association report on teacher salary benchmarks in the 2020-21 school year.
Huckabee Sanders labeled the initiative “an education package that will be the most far-reaching, bold conservative education reform in the country.”
Biden also called for teacher salary increases in his State of the Union speech, proclaiming, “Let’s give public school teachers a raise” to cheers from the congressional audience.
In Congress, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y, introduced a bill to give incentives to states to raise teacher salaries to $60,000, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., plans...