by Talk Business & Politics staff (staff2@talkbusiness.net)
A study conducted by The New Teacher Project says Arkansas has the highest teacher pay in the country, when you figure in cost-of-living factors, but the report is hesitant to draw further conclusions about the improvement of teacher recruiting and retention until more data is available on recent initiatives.
Released last week, the TNTP report titled “Moving Up: Promising Strategies to Address Teacher Shortages in Arkansas” is a follow up to a 2021 report titled “Missing Out,” which outlined some ways the state could fix its looming teacher shortage. Some of those recommendations were included in Gov. Sarah Sanders’ LEARNS Act.
The signature education bill raised minimum teacher salaries in Arkansas to $50,000 and provided one-time $2,000 raises to teachers earning more than $50,000.
