Teacher retention, wages hot topics at meeting of state education officials

Discussing likely areas for future policy improvement in Montana’s K-12 school system at a meeting in the state Capitol Monday, officials with the Office of Public Instruction highlighted teacher retention as a continued challenge across the state, noting that Montana public schools lost 2,039 educators to attrition during the 2021-22 academic year.

According to the presentation, given by OPI Chief Operating Officer Julie Murgel during a meeting of key lawmakers and education officials in Helena, more than half of those teachers left the workforce entirely. Murgel’s data came from a study conducted by OPI to shed greater light on the state’s teacher recruitment and retention issues, which among other findings concluded turnover is particularly acute among educators in their first five years of teaching. Murgel said nearly 90% percent of Montana schools experienced turnover in at least one teaching position in 2022.

“I think it sets the necessary conversation to be looking at the entire pipeline for teachers, not just at the recruitment end but at the retention end,” Murgel said, adding that OPI has already laid the groundwork in part by fostering residency and mentorship opportunities for starting teachers.

Monday’s meeting was the latest in an intermittent string of gatherings over the past two years featuring prominent education policy voices from the legislative and executive branches of state government as well as representatives from Montana’s major statewide education associations. Such meetings have often centered on high-level conversations about national and global trends and helped set the stage for a raft of new state laws in 2023 targeting teacher pay, public school health insurance, trades-based education and funding for early childhood education.

This time around, the so-called “constitutional players” — many of whom exercise some degree of authority in public education under the Montana Constitution — largely focused on ongoing efforts to address specific challenges facing students and educators across the state. In addition to teacher recruitment and retention, the group discussed Montana’s work promoting career and technical education, its recent regulatory changes governing school quality and accountability, and efforts to improve the workforce pipeline for childcare providers and early education programs.

Rep. David Bedey, the Republican from Hamilton who led the proceedings and chairs the Legislature’s Education Interim Budget Committee, said lawmakers made considerable progress on the latter through last year’s establishment of a state-funded early childhood literacy program. The first wave of local programs enabled under that law kicked off this summer.

Michelle Exstrom, education director at the National Conference of State Legislatures, told officials at the meeting that her organization has seen a “huge uptick” in legislation nationally focused on childcare and early childhood education. This year alone, NCSL is already tracking nearly 1,000 such bills as other state legislatures meet (Montana’s every-other-year Legislature is out of cycle until 2025). That interest is an indication, Exstrom said, of nationwide struggles with low wages and workforce shortages in the childcare sector. 

Republican state Rep. Terri Collins of Alabama also addressed the childcare topic, telling Montana officials that her state has gradually increased financial support for children below age 5, including offering a state-level child tax credit for families and funding full-day pre-K initiatives.

“We’ve made incremental increases, sometimes up to $20 million to $25 million a year, but it’s supported not only by our business community but by all of our education community,” Collins said.

Attendees at Monday’s meeting noted the state has made some efforts to put more money into education, but acknowledged the teacher shortage remains an ongoing issue regardless. A preliminary report from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry presented at the meeting showed the average educator wage in Montana’s eight largest school districts is $65,000, and around $45,000 for entry-level teachers. In response to the figures, Rep. Linda Reksten, R-Polson, said she’d like to see additional information about the cost of living in those communities, reiterating a concern she voiced last session about the impacts of rising inflation on school employees.

“Particularly when we’re talking about housing affordability across the state, I think that’s the biggest, just speaking at the statewide level, is one of the largest contributors to inflation,” DLI state economist Amy Watson replied. “It’s certainly an issue not just for teachers but across the state as we’re talking about the state facing a significant workforce shortage.”

The debate comes as many Montana school districts reduce staff in an effort to contend with budget shortfalls. Last week, school board trustees in Helena, for example, approved a $2.5 million budget cut that includes eliminating nearly 40 teacher, custodian and paraeducator positions. District leaders have increasingly called on state officials to address funding issues they argue are making it more difficult to provide students and teachers with a quality learning environment.

On the topic of teacher compensation, Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, presented the group with several potential improvements to the 2021 TEACH Act, which created financial incentives for districts to increase their starting teacher wages. His suggestions included applying the incentive to raises for all classroom teachers.

During the meeting’s public comment period, School Administrators of Montana Executive Director Rob Watson referred to teacher retention as “our next big hurdle” and reported that progress is already being made toward forming a statewide health insurance trust for schools — an initiative approved by the 2023 Legislature to help drive down benefit costs for districts and their staff.

Helena science teacher Sarah Urban also said she’s concerned about the escalating health care costs she said she’ll be paying next year and voiced her appreciation for school leaders’ ongoing efforts to examine the issue.

“You all asked excellent questions, including questions about where teachers were living, questions about inflation and so on,” Urban said. “As a classroom teacher, that discussion was on point. Please keep asking those questions.”

Alex Sakariassen is a reporter for the Montana Free Press, a Helena-based nonprofit newsroom, and can be reached at asakariassen@montanafreepress.org.