Report: Raising average Indiana teacher pay would cost $600M

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A panel tasked with finding ways to make Indiana teacher salaries more competitive released its long-awaited report on Monday, recommending a mix of cost savings and spending shifts to raise average teacher pay from $51,000 to at least $60,000.

The commission, which Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb convened in February 2019 to examine long-term solutions for increasing the state’s lagging wages for educators, said the raise would increase Indiana’s average teacher salary ranking from ninth-highest to third-highest in the Midwest and third-highest among Indiana’s neighbors.

With more than 65,000 full-time public school teachers in Indiana, achieving that competitive compensation rate will require an additional annual investment of more than $600 million, according to the Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission's report.

Some of the money can be derived from expense reallocations, but hitting the funding goal will also require other “new revenue sources,” the commission said.

As a start, the report includes 37 recommendations for local school corporations and state government that the commission said could provide more than $300 million in additional compensation for teachers each year.

Among the suggestions is for school districts to join the state’s pharmacy benefit plan and to limit their own health care plans, which could mean precluding educators' spouses and Medicare-eligible retirees.

It also suggests that districts make budget cuts or ask local voters to increase their budgets. And it suggests that state government should pay down pension debt, scale back the state's 529 plan college tax credit and raise taxes.

The report's recommendations are non-binding and it would be up to lawmakers and school districts to decide whether to...