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Citing report, ISTA calls for legislature to act on increasing teacher pay
12/15/2020

Earlier this week, a long-awaited report by the governor’s Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission was released. The report confirms what ISTA has been raising an alarm about for years – Indiana’s teachers are underpaid causing a shortage of educators.

At an ISTA news conference, ISTA President Keith Gambill shared that the Association agrees with the report’s goals of $40,000 starting pay and average salary of $60,000. Because of this, we are calling on the legislature to begin addressing the problem in the 2021 session.

You can watch the entire news conference on our Facebook page.

While there are positive aspects to the final report – there are recommendations around how schools can save money toward teacher pay that we oppose. The state can’t solve this problem by moving money around. Savings and efficiencies alone won’t be enough to dig us out of this hole. We need new, sustainable revenue.

The legislature and the governor need to look beyond the current pandemic crisis and take action now, so that the thousands of teachers who are contemplating leaving the profession, can see a clear light at the end of the tunnel. Further delay will cause the state to lose good teachers and we cannot afford to let that happen.

We hope you will join our call for bold action this legislative session, by reaching out to your legislators over the coming months. Teachers and our students cannot wait.