Class is out for the day at Lolo School, a K-8 district just south of Missoula. When teachers Jessica Lucas and Lexie Hilliard carpool home, they’re headed to the same place: Lucas’ house.
Hilliard has rented Lucas’ basement for six years because she can’t afford a place of her own on her teacher salary.
It wasn’t a living situation either of them had planned for. Hilliard says she took a steep pay cut from her old teaching job in New York to seek a new adventure in Montana. Unlike her old job, she was shocked to find she just couldn’t afford a place to live on her new wages.
“It was hard. I almost left. I almost left and went back home,” Hilliard said.
The STARS Act, a plan from state lawmakers to raise starting teacher wages may not end up helping Hilliard. That’s because the STARS Act focuses on boosting pay for new teachers, which in Montana is among the worst in the nation.
Education advocates say the policy stands a good chance of helping recruit new educators. Hilliard and Lucas say that’s a good thing. But, Lucas worries about retaining the veteran teachers who may not get a piece of the pie.
“It would be cool if you just funded the schools,” Lucas said. “Gave them some money and let the schools do business as usual.”
Hilliard and Lucas’ superintendent is familiar with what it takes to run a school on a tight budget. Dale Olinger has led Lolo School for eight years, and was one of the STARS Act’s earliest supporters.
“This is the first big step that the Legislature has taken toward improving our funding formula in a very long time.”
Olinger says the STARS Act should net Lolo School about $150,000 extra next year. That’s money the district won’t have to ask voters for, and that has him excited. Lolo residents rejected an operating levy by a two-to-one margin last year.
“I think creating a baseline is a step toward saying, ‘Montana cares about its teachers, and we’re making strides toward ensuring that starting teachers can be offered something close to a living wage,’” Olinger says.
The STARS Act offers bonus money to schools that check a few different boxes, like graduating students with dual credit or career training. Most prominently, it will give schools like Lolo a lump sum of money to help raise starting teacher pay to a minimum of about $41,000. The remainder of the bonus can be used for whatever the school wants.
Olinger says Lolo will have some STARS Act dollars left over after it raises its starting pay. But, that won’t be the case for all Montana schools.
Darin Hannum leads an association of superintendents in northeast Montana. He says, “I’ll be honest, when I first saw it, I was a little concerned.”
Hannum says some of the schools that need the STARS Act money the most could have the hardest time meeting its starting pay requirements. Small schools with many new teachers may find their STARS Act dollars spread thin, and in the worst cases, fail to cover the cost of raises altogether.
Hannum advises those schools to call the Montana School Boards Association for help crunching the numbers.
“And try to make it work, because, if they can’t make this work, then they lose out on the money,” Hannum says.
Data from Montana’s largest union of teachers show at least 120 districts statewide will need to raise their starting salary to qualify for the STARS Act. About 20 small, rural districts will have to do so by $10,000 or more.
Lawmakers backing the bill, Republicans in particular, have argued raising pay is the point. They say the STARS Act will make sure much of the money goes to early-career teachers, instead of other expenses.
But, Montana Federation of Public Employees president Amanda Curtis says those other expenses are in danger of being overlooked. She says the STARS Act may help recruitment, but she worries it won’t help retain veteran teachers, and that too little has been done to reduce the burden of school funding on property taxes.
“Everyone knows that the $45 or $50 million in the STARS Act is not even close to the amount of money that it’s going to take to get public schools up to the adequately funded level,” Curtis told MTPR.
Back at her home at the foot of Lolo Peak, Jessica Lucas says the job of a teacher is only getting more difficult, and schools need help.
“I mean, our paraprofessionals deserve more money. The support staff needs more money. The buildings are falling apart,” Lucas said. “We’re blessed in Lolo to have what we have, but a lot of schools around our state, you know, they need, just, infrastructure.”
The STARS Act is not the only policy this year directing money to public schools. Lawmakers are advancing a bill that could help schools afford maintenance work. And, Gov. Greg Gianforte has already signed a separate law giving schools $50 million to catch up with inflation. He’s also pushed lawmakers to send him the STARS Act.
The conversation around paying for public education won’t stop when the Legislature gavels out. A panel of lawmakers and private citizens is set to take a deep look at the issue before the 2027 session convenes.
