Walters' Oklahoma comprehensive teacher pay reform plan comes with caveats
TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced his “comprehensive teacher pay reform” on Wednesday.
Walters’ plan consists of two new initiatives: Conditional signing bonuses for new teachers and a “teacher empowerment program”. While it sounds like a promising way to fight Oklahoma’s teacher shortage, it also comes with a number of caveats.
Walters said educators who did not teach in Oklahoma last year could receive signing bonuses of anywhere from $15,000-50,000.
“This is the biggest signing bonus in the country,” Walters said to an assembly of students, educators, and press at the Warner Public Schools Event Center.
The exact bonus depends on experience and location. The maximum amount will go to teachers with five or more years of experience heading to rural or impoverished school districts. However, this only applies to those teaching pre-K through third grade or special education teachers at any grade level.
If the program proves popular, bonuses for each district could be capped at $150,000. That means the money might run out after just three teachers with five or more years of experience.
“We want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to get these things,” Walters said. “We have some large districts that, with a program like this, they have the potential to go in and use all of it. We want to make sure that for small districts, we’re not going to allow the biggest districts to take this huge share of this money.”
The bonuses, which are taxable, are contingent upon signing a five-year contract with a school district. If a teacher leaves before that contract is up, they’ll have to pay back part of the bonus.
Walters said most teachers leave after their second or third year but are more likely to stay in the profession if they make it past that point. Walters said forcing teachers to commit makes this more likely to be a long-term solution.
“I want every district in the State of Oklahoma to know, hey, we want to help you recruit teachers,” he said. “We want to help you retain teachers. And so that’s what we’re focused on, is ensuring every single district has the ability to do that.”
The bonuses will only be given out this summer. Walters said the state is working with a private advertising agency to lure educators from across the country. Funding for the bonuses will come from the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan.
The signing bonuses; however, are only part of Walters’ plan. He said bonuses will bring new teachers to Oklahoma, but his teacher empowerment program will keep them around.
The program, Walters said, is meant to incentivize teachers who are going above and beyond. It will create three new teaching certifications: Advanced, lead, and master. Those will come with bonuses of at least $3,000, $5,000, and $10,000 each.
School districts could even award up to $40,000, proceeded by a bonus then matched by the state and funded by lottery. But as Warner Public Schools Superintendent David Vinson pointed out, many districts don’t have that kind of cash lying around.
Walters agreed that is a problem but didn’t offer any immediate solutions.
“We’ve got to continue to invest in education,” Walters said. “But we’ve also got to acknowledge that in rural parts of the state, they are stretching dollars much more thin. We’ve got to reflect that in the way that we fund education. We’ve got to reflect that in ensuring that our rural districts have the opportunities to do these types of programs.”
Only 10% of a district’s teachers will be eligible for these certifications, the criteria for which will be decided by each individual district.
Walters also said he’d ask the state legislature to authorize teacher pay raises of up to $10,000 across the board. However, he didn’t provide any specifics as to how or when that would happen.