HB 230-OUT-OF-STATE TCHG EXPERIENCE & SALARIES
9:45:43 AM
CO-CHAIR RUFFRIDGE announced that the final order of business
would be HOUSE BILL NO. 230, "An Act repealing the limit on the
number of years of out-of-state school experience that may be
substituted for in-state experience in teacher salary scales."
9:46:36 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT, as prime sponsor, presented HB 230.
She explained she had a multitude of goals for HB 230, and
paraphrased the sponsor statement [included in the committee
packet], which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
HB 230, OUT-OF STATE TCHG EXPERIENCE & SALARIES is a
single line bill that repeals the existing limit on
the number of years of teaching experience gained
outside the state that can be used to determine a
teacher's salary. This bill will help address our
teacher shortage and bring in more experienced
teachers from out-of-state.
Teachers are currently only allowed to count eight
years of out-of-state teaching experience, if they
have a masters' degree, and six years of out-of-state
teaching experience, if they have bachelors' degree,
for the purpose of determining the correct placement
on a district's salary scale, even if they taught out
of state for much longer. Repealing this limit is one
of the recommendations from the "2021 Teacher
Retention and Recruitment Action Plan," the plan is a
product of the Alaska Governor's working group on
teacher retention and recruitment that was established
in 2020.
Districts across Alaska are having an extremely
difficult time filling teaching positions. First day
teacher vacancies in Alaska have increased from about
155 in 2019 to about 394 in 2022 according to the
Department of Education and Early Development and this
shortage impacts both urban and rural districts. With
the passage of this bill, state statute will no longer
inhibit districts from hiring the most experienced
out-of-state candidates, and in turn teachers will be
fairly compensated for their experience.
9:48:30 AM
BARBARA ADAMS, Consultant, Adams Analytic Solutions, provided a
brief background and related that she started work on teacher
retention and recruitment in 2020. She explained that HB 230
would remove the criteria put on districts so they can be more
flexible while trying to recruit teachers. She clarified that
the action plan [in the playbook] could be provided to the
committee.
9:50:22 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY asked for examples in the working group as
to why its members felt it was an important statute change.
MS. ADAMS replied there is a superintendent available who could
better speak to that.
9:51:20 AM
DAN POLTA, Superintendent of Schools, Denali Borough School
District, provided his educational background and shared a story
about interviewing a U.S. teacher candidate who was American
educated but working in international schools. Because of the
statute, he said, he could only offer a limited contract and
could not legally offer the candidate a better placement. He
added that the candidate had to regretfully turn down the
position.
9:55:02 AM
CO-CHAIR RUFFRIDGE invited closing comments on HB 230.
REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT opined that "we could do good things
with this bill," and offered to talk offline as well.
9:55:42 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCKAY expressed what he considered troubling, in
that the principal of Sand Lake [Anchorage, Alaska] informed him
that he puts out job ads for elementary teachers and gets many
applications from the Philippines. He noted that the University
of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) still does not have its accreditation
for teaching certificates, and he suggested that the legislature
should "do a dive into the problem" and find out why.
9:57:19 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY thanked Representative McKay for bringing
his experience up but stated her understanding was that UAA
could work with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) because
it could certify teachers.
9:58:09 AM
CO-CHAIR RUFFRIDGE stated that time could be specifically
dedicated to a UA discussion at a later date.
[HB 230 was held over.]