Lawmakers Reject Plan to Boost Teacher Pay with Unspent Voucher Funds

Senate committee votes down measure that would have invested unspent voucher funds into teacher salaries

A key legislative committee rejected an effort to increase a planned teacher pay raise this week. The proposal would have used funds previously allocated for Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher program, which now seems unlikely to advance this year.

The measure came in the Senate Finance Committee in the form of an amendment to Lee's budget proposal and was offered by Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar of Memphis.

All nine of the committe's Republican members voted against the measure.

Lamar said that with the funds no longer needed to support the stalled voucher measure, that money could be used to boost teacher pay as a means of improving recruitment and retention of educators in the state.

“This amendment would take the K-12 education funding set aside for Gov. Lee’s school voucher program and reassign it to the K-12 student funding formula,” said Sen. Lamar. “There are so many needs our public school system has that this voucher money could be used for — one of which being teacher raises."

If Lamar's amendment had been adopted, it would have added an increase of teacher salaries of roughly 4.5% on top of the planned raise of nearly 4% offered in this year's budget.

Sen. London Lamar of MemphisPhoto bySenate Democratic Caucus