State Board approves commission to explore teacher recruitment and retention solutions

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct a name.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) approved the formation of a Blue Ribbon Commission to make recommendations and conduct studies on teacher recruitment and retention.

At the December 2021 State Board of Education meeting, the state board legislative priorities subcommittee proposed a number of legislative priorities to the State Board for their approval ahead of the 2022 legislative session.

At the session came the proposal that the Blue Ribbon Commission would be created by the DESE to explore some of the issues surrounding the teacher recruitment and retention challenges in addition to teacher salary.

Mallory McGowin, spokesperson for DESE said the teacher shortage affects all Missourians.

"These are urgent issues that really affect all Missourians. This is an economic development issue at its core, and the state board of education really wanted to prioritize that this session," McGowin said.

Raising the starting teacher salary was also proposed at the 2021 session.

In state statute, the minimum teacher salary in Missouri is $25,000.

"The minimum teacher salary in Missouri is $25,000. That does not mean that every starting teacher in our state makes that amount but at minimum, that's what a starting teacher has to make," McGowin said.

Missouri currently ranks 50th in the nation, when it comes to average starting teacher salary. The average starting teacher salary is $33,000.

McGowin said the commission plans to look at extra pay options for teachers.

"The things they may look at is incentive pay or pay for performance. They may also pull together workgroups that look at the design of health benefits and maybe even tenure, things that could really take a closer look at to get down to the core of what we can do as a state to better support teachers," McGowin said.

McGowin said many teachers leave around the fifth year of teaching.

"What we have found is on the other side of the coin are things like how can we better support educators, especially during those first five years of their career? By the fifth year of teaching, we're losing over half of new teachers. They're leaving the profession and we really need to explore why that is," McGowin said.

McGowin said the commission will be made up of a minimum of 17 people.

"The Commission will be made up of a minimum of 17 individuals, and a large number of those will be individuals from the business community, business leaders or civic leaders. The Commission will also be made up of members of the legislature," McGowin said.

McGowin said it is important to have lawmakers as a part of the discussion.

"It's important that as we look at what could possibly result in changes in statute, that we have lawmakers at the table to understand the conversation and ask great questions through this process," McGowin said.

The commission will form several workgroups.

"That commission will then form added workgroups. There may be a workgroup that looks closer at health benefit design and a workgroup that looks closer at incentive pay," McGowin said.

The commission will also look into how to support teachers' mental health.

"How can we take care of our teacher workforce more, how can we better support teacher well-being? It's an incredibly stressful profession that's also incredibly rewarding, but it comes with a number of challenges," McGowin said.

A teacher shortage is no secret in Missouri.

Brent Ghan, with the Missouri School Boards' Association, said it has been an issue for several years, even before the pandemic.

"Our school districts across the state and I don't know of a district that isn't facing teacher shortage right now, our school districts across the state are dealing with this issue, they're struggling right now. The pandemic is definitely playing a role in that. Teacher shortage existed before the pandemic but the pandemic has only exacerbated the situation," Ghan said.

Ghan said certain subjects, and certain geographic areas have had difficulty for several years hiring teachers.

"In certain subject areas in our K-12 schools math, science, special education in particular, were already difficult issue difficult areas to hire teachers, certain geographic areas have more trouble than other areas in our state, especially some of our smaller rural school districts," McGowin said.

Ghan said they are very pleased the state board is donating time and resources to a very important issue of teacher recruitment and retention.

"It may very well be the most important issue facing school boards and administrators and our communities right now related to K-12 education. I don't know an institution that isn't facing an issue with teacher shortage right now," Ghan said.

Ghan said the DESE has gathered a lot of information and data on where schools stand in the state. The commission is tasked with going through the data.

DESE noted at its Wednesday meeting that they are hopeful to have members selected for the commission by the March 2022 meeting.