Some states have moved to a statewide salary schedule for teachers to ensure teachers earn wages that make the job attractive. Should Oregon be next?

A state task force met last week to start work on preparing a report on the idea for this year. A second report is due in September 2024 to propose policy changes for the Legislature to make it happen.

The idea is to help get more people to consider getting into education and also get them to stay, said state Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland. Sara Barclay, president of the Bend Education Association, is also member of the task force.

The states that do this do it differently. In many cases, states have a schedule that is on a grid. A teacher would get paid according to their years of experience and type of education.

Some states include other considerations, such as being a teacher mentor or specialized training.

There are 24 states that have statewide minimum teacher salaries.

The salaries vary quite a bit. And they can vary quite a bit within a state because of rural/urban differences. Hawaii had the highest in 2021-22 at $50,123. Massachusetts had the lowest at $18,000.

A few states also have statewide minimum salaries for classified staff, which is basically everyone else who doesn’t have to have a teaching license for their job or is not in administration. The Oregon task force will consider that, too.

There are so many questions at this point:

What will this do to Oregon’s school budget?

Oregon has some 197 school districts and many use different job descriptions and work different numbers of days. How would the state come up with a schedule standardized for all the positions? How would cost of living differences be accounted for?

The big question, though, is if this change would do what’s intended. Would it move Oregon toward the goal of attracting more staff, attracting more staff to difficult-to-fill positions and help retain the staff? Has it actually worked in other states?

If the evidence is not clear, maybe Oregon should still try it, but that would be something for legislators to consider when voting on the task force’s recommendations.