AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives passed Tuesday a proposal to incrementally increase minimum salaries for teachers to $50,000 by 2028, though the measure may run into funding hurdles.
The bill from Senate Majority Leader Teresa Pierce, D-Falmouth, would increase the current minimum salary of $40,000 to $45,000 in the 2026-2027 school year and reach $50,000 by 2028. The House passed it 80-65 on Tuesday, with Reps. Sheila Lyman of Livermore Falls, Nathan Carlow of Buxton, Caldwell Jackson of Oxford and Steve Bishop of Bucksport the lone Republicans to join Democrats in supporting it.
The Senate approved the measure without a roll call Monday. Whether lawmakers fund the proposal is the big question mark amid a tight state budget environment and members having about $130 million left to spend for the next two-year cycle. The measure also highlights long debates over local control in education.
The state estimates it would need almost $6 million to fund the increases next year, $8.9 million in 2027 and $11.5 million in 2028. Local districts would share costs with the state beyond then. Additional costs are expected with higher contributions to the teacher retirement system.
Rep. Kelly Noonan Murphy, D-Scarborough, who co-chairs the Legislature’s education committee and works in schools as a behavioral health professional, said Maine teachers have cited lower pay in recent years as the “biggest perceived drawback” to working in the field.
To better recruit and retain teachers in the future, Murphy said that “we need to prepare now.”
The National Education Association found Maine ranks near the bottom of the country for average starting teacher salaries, while the average salary of $62,570 for all educators is 30th nationally. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and lawmakers increased the state’s minimum teacher salary to $40,000 in 2019.
Republican opponents argued the increased salary floor will cause taxes to rise and that local districts should make minimum salary decisions. The Maine School Boards Association echoed that argument in opposing the bill earlier this year, but the state superintendents association supported it by noting Maine is at the bottom nationally for teacher compensation.
Rep. Kimberly Haggan, R-Hampden, who worked as a public school teacher and administrator for almost 40 years, said it was “a really hard bill” for her to oppose and that an assistant superintendent she knows called her to ask, “Did you really vote against this?”
“I just can’t burden the smaller school districts with big property tax increases,” Haggan said.
The measure faces further action in both chambers before reaching Mills. Citing information from the last legislative session, the Maine Department of Education said only around 4 percent of school administrative units pay a minimum salary of at least $50,000.
“While we believe [the 2019 change] was an important step toward fairly compensating our teachers, the Department of Education and the Mills administration agree that the $40,000 minimum teacher salary remains too low,” Paula Gravelle, the education department’s public school finance director, testified earlier this year.