Starting teacher salary in Iowa would rise to $50,000 per year under bill passed by the House

Starting teachers would be paid a minimum of $47,500 next year and $50,000 the following year under a bill that passed the Iowa House Thursday with bipartisan support.

The bill, House File 2630, also sets aside $14 million to allow schools to pay paraeducators and other school staff a minimum wage of $15 per hour. And it provides $22 million for schools to use to increase experienced teachers’ salaries.

Gov. Kim Reynolds jump-started the conversation about teacher pay when she proposed a $50,000 starting salary for teachers in her Condition of the State address. Under current law, teachers in Iowa make a minimum salary of $33,500.

The bill’s floor manager, Rep. Bill Gustoff, R-Des Moines, said the legislation amounts to “the largest single boost to teacher pay in the history of the state.”

“The bill achieves a significant goal set forth by Gov. Reynolds to move Iowa’s minimum starting teacher salary to $50,000 and I thank her for setting a bold target that will vault Iowa to the top of the list to attract teachers in terms of pay,” Gustoff said.

More: Kim Reynolds proposes in annual speech to boost Iowa teacher pay, overhaul AEAs, cut taxes

Lawmakers voted 92-1 to pass House File 2630, sending it to the Iowa Senate for consideration. Rep. Mark Cisneros, R-Muscatine, was the only no vote.

The bill is part of a larger negotiation between House and Senate Republicans as they seek to reach an agreement over a school funding increase for the upcoming school year as well as a deal to restructure how Iowa’s Area Education Agencies offer special education and other services to students with disabilities and school districts.

The House already passed its version of legislation changing how the AEAs offer services. The Senate was set to take up its own bill on Tuesday, but Republican leadership pulled the measure from the debate calendar at the last minute.

The Senate’s AEA legislation would increase the minimum starting teacher pay go $46,250.

More: Iowa House passes GOP plan to change AEA education services and school contracts

House Democrats praised House Republicans for considering the teacher pay legislation separately, rather than including it in the same bill as the AEA restructuring that Reynolds and Senate Republicans have proposed. Democrats and many education groups have fiercely opposed the AEA changes.

“We are able to send a bipartisan message to the Senate and to the governor to tell them that the House of Representatives is united in support of paying our teachers, paying our educators, paying our paraprofessionals in a way that is nonpoliticized, that is independent and that is good for Iowa kids,” said House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights.

Des Moines Register reporter Galen Bacharier contributed reporting.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.