The Senate plan would raise teacher pay by $6,000 total, at $2,000 a year over three years. It also would give special education teachers an additional $3,000 a year over that period and raise assistant teacher pay from $17,000 to $19,000.
The move came days after the House revived its own proposal for a $5,000 across-the-board teacher raise and pressed the upper chamber to act.
Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar said the larger raise is warranted, but argued the state could not responsibly absorb the full cost immediately because of other budget pressures, including Medicaid and retirement system obligations. He said the first-year cost of the Senate plan would be about $109.5 million, growing to roughly $328.5 million once fully phased in.
“We would like to have done this all in one year,” DeBar said. “But we have some big numbers coming in.”
The Senate is also trying to frame its version as a narrower bill focused only on teacher compensation. During floor debate, DeBar said his amendment dealt “strictly with teacher pay,” in contrast to the much broader House package, which included changes touching PERS and other education policies.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann echoed that argument in a Senate press release, calling the measure a “clean teacher pay raise” and saying teacher pay should not be “held hostage by multiple other political issues.”
The House proposal approved Friday also included return-to-work language for retired teachers, PERS Tier 5 changes for state employees, attendance officer pay changes and other education provisions.
DeBar also said the Senate intentionally kept the first-year money outside the student funding formula so districts cannot absorb it as a lump sum and spend it elsewhere.
Still, House leaders have been arguing that the state already has room in the budget to fund a larger raise right away.
On the House floor Friday, House Education Chairman Rob Roberson said lawmakers had already budgeted for the House plan.
“We have already budgeted for this and if someone says differently, they’re not being honest,” Roberson said. “It was hard, but this is the good work we were sent down here to do.”
In a statement Wednesday night, Roberson said he was “very pleased” the Senate had passed a “meaningful teacher pay increase” and said he wanted to review the proposal more closely. He added that he would prefer not to draw the raise out over three years and said he wanted to work with Senate leaders to find common ground.
Both chambers have through March 26 to approve or kill the other’s proposal. They could also send the issue to conference for final negotiations.
