More than a quarter of Montana’s public school districts are set to participate in what could be the final year of a state program incentivizing pay raises for new teachers.
The TEACH Act has been the state’s primary tactic to raise floundering pay rates for early-career teachers for the last three years. It offers schools additional money if their teachers make more than around $36,700.
Gov. Greg Gianforte pitched the program as a way to give schools the boost they needed to raise teacher pay. But, the number of districts receiving the incentive fell each year since it was first offered.
That trend has reversed for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. 138 districts are set to participate, according to the Office of Public Instruction — more than double this year.
Montana Association of School Business Officials director Shelley Turner says that’s mostly due to increased outreach and better communication from the state.
Districts in rural areas have said the TEACH Act incentive isn’t enough to help them raise pay. Education advocates are hopeful the policy’s shortcomings will be smoothed over with a bill up for debate in the Legislature that ramps up the amount of money schools could get for raising teacher pay.
