Senate votes to improve student achievement

Accountability measures will guide efforts

A bipartisan Senate majority approved legislation that will keep our commitment to Iowa’s students by continuing an aggressive plan to increase teacher quality across our state.

The initiative approved by the Senate will bring the average pay of Iowa teachers to 25th in the nation by the 2009-2010 school year.

The Teacher Quality Initiative will boost efforts to raise teacher pay to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers in the country.

The average pay of Iowa teachers currently ranks 40th out of the 50 states. In recent years, student teachers at Iowa’s teaching colleges have been heavily recruited by other states seeking to improve their school systems. Currently, Iowa teachers make $3,795 less than the average teacher in the nation.

Under the new legislation, the Legislature will increase annual spending on local schools by $70 million in the 2007-2008 school year and by $75 million in the year after. To improve teacher quality and increase teacher salaries to the national average by 2009, the Legislature will spend a total of $174 million in the 2007-2008 school year and a total of $249 million in the next year.

When added to the $108 million increase in basic state aid to local schools which was approved last month, Iowa’s students are on track to benefit from the largest increase in state funds for education in more than a decade.

Another key provision of the new initiative is funding for as many as 30 pilot projects in the next two years to study the most effective way to pay teachers who increase their students’ achievement. The bill also makes innovative changes in the delivery of continuing education for Iowa teachers to ensure more accountability by connecting these activities to such district goals as raising student achievement.