Legislative committee receives recommendation to raise teacher salaries

SHERIDAN — A consultant’s recommendation to increase average teacher pay in Wyoming could aid recruitment efforts and help teachers stay in the communities they teach.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration began reviewing a report on recalibration from Picus Odden & Associates Tuesday.

Included in the report was a recommendation to pay Wyoming teachers an average salary of $70,560 through the state’s K-12 school block grant funding model for the 2025-2026 school year. Doing so would pay teachers a salary similar to other professional and technical workers, adjusted for the 185 contract days they work every year, explained Legislative Service Office consultant Dr. Christiana Stoddard, professor of economics at Montana State University. She estimated that other professional workers work a total of 234 days per year.

The state’s funding model currently has a base salary of $40,562 for the 2024-2025 school year. 

Stoddard’s presentation indicated the average teacher salary paid by districts is $65,265; much of the difference is subsidized by school districts. 

By increasing base pay in the funding model, districts would have enough funding to hire the recommended number of teachers. Wyoming’s evidence-based funding model provides a student-to-teacher ratio of 15:1 for kindergarten to third grade and 25:1 for grades 6-12.

Since 2005, districts have often hired fewer teachers to be able to offer better pay, LSO Senior School Finance Analyst Matt Wilmarth said.

Arvada-Clearmont K12 School 7-12 science teacher Kiley McConnell urged the committee to accept the recommendation to raise teacher pay to $70,000, which she said could help aid teacher recruitment efforts. She added the pay increase would also better reflect the effort teachers put into their job.

Working in a smaller district, McConnell said, teachers’ efforts are especially evident because they fill a variety of roles, including lunch duty and additional student mentorship opportunities.

McConnell said she’s making $48,000 this school year, which wouldn’t be enough to purchase a home in Sheridan County.

“I’ve kept my max of Zillow to be $250,000 and if I do that, my options are still extremely limited,” she said. “So, the opportunity for me to be investing back into my community, wanting to stay where I am and continue to teach becomes more and more difficult because of the salary limits.”

McConnell previously worked a second job during the summer, though she didn’t this year.

“However, I don’t know that that will continue,” she said. She added she needs additional income to have a better financial standing and continue pursuing education or training opportunities.

Sheridan County School District 2 Superintendent Scott Stults told the committee that SCSD2 received fewer applications for vacant teacher positions this year than it did in 2016. Stults said the district had 147 elementary teacher applicants in 2016 and 41 in 2025, adding there were 350 junior high and high school applicants in 2016 and 109 in 2025.

He blamed at least part of the difference on slow teacher pay increases.

“Salaries make a difference,” Stults said.

Recalibration process

The committee is tasked this year with recalibrating the state’s K-12 school block grant funding model.

In 1995, the Wyoming Supreme Court ordered the legislature to adjust school funding levels every two years to account for inflation and review the state’s school funding model every five years to keep up with costs or change its components. Lawmakers last adopted a school finance recalibration bill that became law in 2011, and in 2018, lawmakers cut K-12 school funding by about $30 million.

Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher ruled in favor of the Wyoming Education Association earlier this year, determining the state’s school funding model is “unconstitutional” and “no longer cost-based,” finding the state has unconstitutionally underfunded its public schools. 

In that ruling, he found the state had failed to properly fund costs for “quality educational goods and services,” as well as provide adequate funding for teacher and staff salaries, mental health counselors, school resource officers, nutritional programs and computers for students.

Froelicher’s ruling requires the state to recalibrate its K-12 school block grant funding model.

The committee continued reviewing the report from Picus Odden & Associates Wednesday and is slated to meet in Cheyenne Jan. 22 and 23, during which it will craft legislation to recalibrate the state’s K-12 school block grant funding model. 

The legislature’s 2026 budget session is set to begin Feb. 9.

This story was published on Oct. 30, 2025.