Teacher Incentive Bills Aim To Keep Educators In Roles Longer, Raise Pay

Two partner bills advance to the Senate and seek to create a way for Oklahoma’s career educators to make more money as their career progresses.  

At the beginning of the session, Governor Kevin Stitt touted the effort as a means to pay Oklahoma’s ‘best and brightest’ teachers a $100 thousand annual salary.  

HB 4387 creates a framework for certifying teachers as they advance in their career, with extra pay incentives.  

The state law creates lead, advanced, and master level certifications — and leaves it up to districts to determine qualifications.  

HB 4388 is the companion measure that creates funding for the measure through surplus lottery commission funds.  

Speaker Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma House Representative Kyle Hilbert says the measures are filling a workforce need.  

“Right now, for our best and brightest teachers who are really good in the classroom, the best mechanism we have to reward them with a greater salary is to pull them out of the classroom and make them administrators. So, we need a system in place to help keep out best teachers in the classroom,” Rep. Hilbert said.  

The measure encourages mentorship between more experienced teachers and Oklahoma’s growing number of emergency or alternatively certified staff. 

“We need to provide the support to help those alternatively certified teachers to be successful to stay in the classroom longer,” he said.  

This — as the teacher shortage, looms over Oklahoma classrooms. 

“Colleges of education are only graduating about 50%, annually, as many graduates in education as we have retirees from education,” Hilbert said, citing a December LOFT report.  

Funding won’t come from the state aid formula. Instead — it will come from lottery funds and appropriated general fund dollars to back full any fluctuations in lottery revenue.  

Districts will have to come up with a 50/50 match from their own budgets. 

They would have to foot the bill for roughly $20 thousand additional salary dollars to receive a high enough match for teachers to approach a $100 thousand annual salary.  

“One way or another, finding the funds, and making sure we’re providing this career advancement for our teachers,” Hilbert said.  

Both bills advanced last week and could now be heard in the Senate.