By Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — Gaps in available state data have limited expert conclusions on teacher shortage trends in Wyoming, according to witness testimony on Thursday.

Christiana Stoddard, an economic researcher from Montana State University, has been involved with research on teacher salaries and educational funding in Wyoming since 2010. Part of her work as a state consultant includes assembling a labor market analysis report on the cost pressures of teacher salaries.

Stoddard was asked to testify in the Wyoming Education Association’s lawsuit against the state for allegedly underfunding its public schools. The bench trial, which began Monday, is being held in a Cheyenne district court and is scheduled to last six weeks.

WEA attorney Patrick Hacker asked Stoddard several questions Thursday morning regarding the details of her research, including any obstacles she came across.

Stoddard said she looked at areas such as the percentage of districts that hired first choice applicants and the number of applicants per full-time position. This data was restricted to only one or two school years, she said, adding she was unsuccessful in her multiple requests for more information.

Hacker pressed the question of whether increased salaries would increase the quality of teachers hired in Wyoming, but the economic expert indicated that none of her research could back up that assertion.

Stoddard said Wyoming doesn’t have a good way to assess the quality of its teachers and is also one of 13 states that don’t collect vacancy data.

With limited information, Stoddard said she could not conclude if there is a teacher shortage in the state or if certain areas are facing more difficulties than others.

She also refused to confirm if increased teacher salaries would increase the quality of teachers hired into a public school.



Teacher salaries below market

The gap between teacher wages and comparable workers’ wages has grown significantly since 2013, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A comparable worker is essentially a person or occupation with similar characteristics to the job it’s being compared to, such as education and training levels.

The ratio of teachers’ salaries to comparable occupations in Wyoming has eroded over the last few years, according to a 2023 labor market analysis report.

The average wages of teachers in Wyoming were 83% of the average wages in comparable professional and technical occupations in May 2022, according to the labor market analysis report. This a significant decrease from the recorded 96% comparison in the 2011-12 school year.

Despite the drop, Wyoming’s wage ratio is higher than the national average, which recorded teacher wages to be 73% of other professional wages in 2022.

Actual Wyoming teacher salaries, or the real average salary paid by each school district, “have increased very modestly” since 2010, at an approximate rate of 1% per year. The weighted model average for teacher salaries went “essentially unchanged,” from $53,046 in 2010-11 to $53,506 in 2022-23. An external cost adjustment enacted by the Legislature in the 2023 general session increased the 2023-24 model salaries by about 4%, to $55,763.

The statutory funding model is the formula used by the Legislature to fund public K-12 education. Personnel costs are the largest part of any school district’s budget, and funding from the state has lacked a substantial ECA adjustment for faculty and staff salaries.

Wyoming school districts have historically paid an average teacher salary above the statutory model for the past decade. In the 2010-11 school year, there was a 6% difference between the funding model and actual weighted average teacher salaries. By the 2022-23 school year, school districts paid an average teacher salary 16% above the statutory model.

Teachers leaving mid career raises concern

Wyoming is seeing a large exodus of teachers, with a 12% exit rate of teachers in the 2022-23 school year. What’s particularly concerning, Stoddard said, is the uptick in exit rates for teachers who are leaving four or more years into their career.

This group is usually the least likely to leave, Stoddard said, since teachers have established roots in their community by this point. The 2022-23 school year saw the highest exit rate for mid-career teachers at 9.3%, according to the report.

However, student enrollment and teacher retirement “are not significant contributors to cost pressures on salaries,” according to a 2023 labor market analysis report.

Stoddard presented this report at a September meeting before the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Education Committee, which was also attended by members of the Joint Appropriations Committee.

“That rate tends to be quite low,” Stoddard said at the September meeting. “That’s a data point that’s worth being concerned about, because I think that does speak to larger reasons why teachers may be exiting.”