Legislators Putting Final Touches to School Funding Formula

Legislators Putting Final Touches to School Funding Formula

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LITTLE ROCK - The Senate and House Education Committees are close to finalizing next year's school funding formula.

They have worked all year on the formula, in order to comply with the mandate in the Arkansas Constitution that requires the state to provide all children with an adequate and equitable education.

Committee members have gone over hundreds of pages of data to prepare an adequacy report. Their recommendations will be an essential starting point when the entire legislature convenes in regular session in January and considers a budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2025.

School districts in Arkansas get about $7 billion a year from federal, state and local sources. In 2023 Arkansas schools spent about $2 billion to pay classroom teachers.

Last year the legislature approved the governor's proposal to increase the minimum teacher salary to $50,000. According to a study by researchers at the University of Arkansas, the increase went a long way toward narrowing the salary disparities between prosperous schools and schools in poor, rural areas.

The state provided all the funding for the salary increase, about $181 million. The majority of that new funding went to poor, rural areas because that is where teacher salaries generally are lowest.

Statewide, the average retention rate for teachers was 74 percent. In rural areas it was 76 percent and in urban schools it was 70 percent.

The retention rate was lower in poor areas, as measured by the number of students who qualify for free lunches. It also was lower in schools that got an "F" on school report cards.

There are about 33,000 teachers in Arkansas and about 5,000, or roughly 15 percent of the total, completed a survey by legislators about recruitment and retention. Also, 807 principals completed the survey and they represent 77 percent of the state's principals.

There are 12 teacher education programs at state colleges and universities, and the majority of new teachers go through them.

People also can become teachers by an alternative route, if they already have a bachelor's degree and are knowledgeable in the area in which they want to teach.

Research indicates that turnover is higher among those who have taken the alternative route to become teachers. That may be due to less preparation for the challenges of teaching. However, it also may be due to the fact that those teachers are often hired for the hardest to fill vacancies with the most challenging conditions for a new teacher.

Salaries and health insurance help retain teachers. So do strong training and preparation, along with the presence of veteran teachers who actively mentor younger teachers. It helps more when the mentor teaches the same subject as the new teacher, and when they share time planning lessons.

Last year, the average length of experience for Arkansas teachers was 11.8 years. About 49 percent have a bachelor's degree only and 42 percent have earned a master's degree.

Statewide, three percent of teachers have emergency or provisional credentials, which means they are still working on certification in the subject or grade level they teach.

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