But if you mosey 200 miles east down Interstate 90 to Gillette, Wyo., a town one-fourth the size of Billings, that same teacher will start out at $42,500 this fall.
Even in relatively small Buffalo, Wyo., with just 4,500 people, starting teachers will make $37,000 next school year.
“It's pretty hard to compete,” says Jack Regan, superintendent of schools in Miles City. “We really need to get our salaries up. There's not a lot of applicants any more.”
Miles City pays its starting teachers about $26,000.
Wyoming isn't the only neighboring state luring teachers away from Montana.
In Superior, which is 40 miles from the Idaho border, superintendent Bill Woodford says our neighbor to the west can offer a much better deal than can his district.
Starting elementary teachers in Superior earn only $22,700 a year.
This year, the Idaho Legislature increased the minimum teacher salary for the state to $31,000. In larger Idaho school districts, the starting pay is much higher.
In both Wyoming and Idaho, state officials decided several years ago to make a conscious effort to increase teacher salaries.
Rod Kessler, superintendent of schools in Buffalo, says increasing state funds and other factors led to a 16 percent increase in teacher salaries a year ago.
“We were losing young teachers to Colorado, Arizona, Nevada,” he says. “The last few years we've had a little more success having quality applicants apply.”
Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the union representing schoolteachers in Montana, acknowledges that Wyoming and Idaho have better salaries than Montana.
It's definitely a goal to shoot for, he says. But the tax and school district structures in both states are markedly different than Montana, making comparisons a little misleading, he adds.
For example, Wyoming has only 47 school districts, organized by county, whereas Montana has 430 school districts, creating inherent cost inefficiencies, Feaver says.
Wyoming also is swimming in mineral wealth, and distributes those funds equally across the state - unlike Montana, he says.
Feaver also says many Montana districts could make teacher salaries a higher priority if they chose, and ask local voters to support that priority by paying higher property taxes.
In Helena, for example, the district negotiated a contract a few years ago that has led to the highest starting teacher salary in the state: $32,850 this fall.
Bruce Messinger, superintendent of schools in Helena, says 550 people applied for 20-some open teaching slots in Helena this year.
Yet having voters approve local tax levies to increase teacher salaries or pay for other costs is easier said than done, some local officials say.
Woodford, the superintendent in Superior, says state law allows the district to ask voters to approve levies up to $214,000. Instead, the district asked for only $50,000 this year - and that levy passed by a mere 11 votes.
“We could vote $214,000 on our levy, but it would go down in flames,” Woodford says. “We've been very conservative.”
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