Oklahoma Senate passes $2,000 teacher pay raise

By: Nuria Martinez-Keel

OKLAHOMA CITY — A $2,000 teacher salary increase passed unanimously in the Oklahoma Senate.

The $92 million measure is a decrease from the Senate’s original proposal of $2,500 raises for teachers. Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, said the $2,000 figure emerged from budget negotiations with the state House.

The state’s General Revenue Fund would be the source of the pay raise, he said, not money intended for a teacher pension subsidy, as the Senate originally suggested. 

Relying on the General Revenue Fund means lawmakers would have less money to appropriate, Pugh said, and therefore, the proposed teacher raise is lower. He said adding extra funds into the education funding formula is now unlikely, as well.

“We have less money,” he said. “You’re going to see that impact not just in education, but you’re going to see that impact ripple through, I think, all agency budgets.”

Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, speaks at a Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee meeting Feb. 16 at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

The state funding formula is the lifeblood of most public school budgets. Senate leaders had proposed putting another $29.8 million into it to support general school needs. They proposed spending millions more on reading instruction, literacy coaches and other education goals.

However, the idea to pay for the plan by repurposing $254 million that supplements the Teachers’ Retirement System drew backlash from education advocates. One of the top complaints was the Senate’s proposal to use $25 million of that money to increase tax credits benefiting private school families.

The House’s budget leader, Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon, said House lawmakers “have concerns about any proposal that negatively impacts the Teachers’ Retirement System.”

The $2,000 teacher pay raise now advances to the House for further review.

Pugh, who leads the Senate Education Committee, said that amount isn’t enough to keep pace with neighboring states, but it’s a positive step.

He said Oklahoma should raise its first-year minimum teacher salary, currently $39,601, to $50,000 to match Arkansas and compete with New Mexico, whose starting pay is $55,000.

Improving academic outcomes is a major focus for lawmakers this year, and “getting a good teacher in front of the classroom is really where it starts,” Pugh said.