Gov. Reynolds proposes raising teachers’ starting salary to $50,000 a year
By Matthew Martinez
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has introduced a bill to invest almost $100 million during her state address. She wants to increase starting salaries for teachers by 50 percent to $50,000.
“These investments will put Iowa in the top five states for starting pay, and help recruit more of the best and brightest to join the teaching profession,” Reynolds said.
The Davenport & Bettendorf Teachers Union director said it’s about time.
“I wish she had been talking about that years and years ago,” said Toby Paone. “It’s a little late coming to the dance but she’s at the dance.”
Some teachers who are part of the local union see this investment as a good starting point. But they believe more needs to be done.
“There’s lots of other educators in the profession including para-educators, custodians, and secretaries,” said Davenport West High School teacher Maggie Reitz. “We need to do more to increase pay for all of us and not just the people that are seeing kids face-to-face every single day.”
“It’s one thing to say ‘Yes, I want to increase teacher salaries or at least base teacher pay.’ But what about all these other things?” said Paone. “It would be like saying we want to fix up our bathroom in our house, but the kitchen, the living room, the garage, the basement, everything is falling apart. No, you got to lift all boats for the system to work well. It’s not just about bringing them in the door. You have to be able to retain teachers for an entire career.”
Reynolds also mentioned that through a partnership with Lexia Learning, the state is providing a free training program on the science of reading to all elementary school teachers.
“Give them those opportunities when they are really young,” says Paone. “Put lots of dollars, money, effort, and staff into early childhood and you’re going to see lots and lots of benefits later on as those children develop.”
Reynolds says nearly 2,000 teachers and administrators have started the training or are registered to start soon.
For more about Reynolds’ Condition of the State Address, clickhere.
