OKLAHOMA CITY – State policy experts should partner with local school districts to put together bonus packages to retain public schoolteachers, the chairman of a House budget committee said last week.
State Rep. Mark McBride (R-Moore) said he’d like to see the state Department of Education work with local school district to pay $4,000 relocation bonuses and $5,000 retention bonuses to Oklahoma public schoolteachers.
McBride said a portion of the bonuses could be paid with federal pandemic relief funds that were earmarked for public education.
“Teacher shortages are one of the most pressing, immediate education challenges in Oklahoma and across the country,” McBride wrote in a media statement. “Bonuses are a powerful tool to attract and retain teachers amid this national teacher shortage. Money talks, and there is a lot of school money available in Oklahoma right now. Let’s use it to fill this shortage and get our schoolchildren more teachers.”
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in February 2022 there were 380,000 open jobs in schools and universities nationwide, the highest number of openings in the past decade.
“Since April 2021, only two months (August and September 2021) had fewer than 300,000 open jobs. That’s compared with the period from 2012 to the end of 2019, when no month had over 300,000 open jobs,” a story in Education Week noted.
In Oklahoma school districts have requested more than 3,000 emergency certifications. The average pay for a beginning public school teacher runs between $43,000 to $46,000 plus benefits.
McBride said the state has received about $2.3 billion in federal pandemic relief funds through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. He said less than half of those funds, about $1.3 billion, have been spent. The funds are controlled by the State Department of Education and local districts.
“As well-intentioned as those other initiatives may be, they won’t matter much if the teacher shortage isn’t aggressively reduced,” McBride said. “Money in teachers’ pockets will help the shortage immediately. I’m suggesting Oklahoma focus some of this enormous pile of federal education funds on the urgent need to address the teacher shortage. The pandemic contributed to the teacher shortage in Oklahoma and nationally, so these funds are appropriate for this purpose.”
McBride said some Oklahoma school districts are already using the funds for bonuses. He said Edmond Public Schools is offering $1,000 bonus to new teachers or existing teachers returning for the 2022-2023 school year.
“Some leadership and collaboration within the education system can help Oklahoma take an approach some districts are already using statewide,” McBride said. “Relocation and retention bonuses are high-impact, aggressive moves that won’t cost Oklahoma any state or local education dollars if Oklahoma uses the federal relief funds already at its disposal.”
Oklahoma has about 700,000 students in public schools statewide, most of which will return to classes this month.