Legislative Update: May 28, 2025

Legislative Update: May 28, 2025

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Introduction

The House passed its version of the biennium budget. After Governor Josh Stein gave his approval, a number of Democrats voted for the bill. From the House floor, the budget will go back to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate will most likely vote not to concur, meaning the final budget will be decided in conference. This is where the budget chairs from the House and Senate meet to negotiate what will end up in the final State budget.

House Budget

Teacher Pay

The House’s budget gives teachers an average pay raise of 8.7%. However, like Governor Stein's budget, this is heavily front-loaded. Starting teacher pay would be increased by 17.7%. Teachers with 10 years of experience would see a raise of 6.7%. Teachers with 25 years of experience would see a raise of only 2.1%. The House also chose to restore Master's Pay. The chart below shows the House’s teacher salary schedule over the biennium (based on a 10-month pay schedule):

Teacher Monthly Salary Schedule:

Policy 

The House placed policy into its budget. While these policies are currently in the House version, the conference budget will determine what is included. The following chart indicates policy that was included in the House’s version of the budget:

Bill	Name	In Budget (Y/N)
HB 4	Sam’s Law	Y
HB 87	Cell Phone Free Education	Y
HB 106	Revive High-Need Retired Teachers Program	N
HB 149	School Financial Flexibility Pilot Program	N
HB 414	1 to 1 Credit for Career and College Promise	N
HB 415	Split Math Courses and Change Math Graduation Requests	N
HB 420	Sound Basic Education for Every Child	N
HB 445	Fairness and Transparency in Education Salaries	N
HB 796	The Student Mental Health Line Awareness Act	N
HB 815/816	Voucher School Accountability Act	N
HB 846	Teacher Retention and Recruitment	N
HB 943	Turning High-Achieving Students into Teachers	N
HB 959	Social Media Literacy in Schools	Y
HB 986	Support Our Teachers	N
SB 227	Eliminating “DEI” in Public Education	N

Tax Cuts

While the Senate’s version of the budget increases the tax cuts and triggers, the House version ties the tax cuts to inflation. This is projected to help mitigate the deficits expected in state revenue during the upcoming years. Because of the tax discrepancies, the House and Senate are expected to take longer to produce the final budget. 

PENC Advocacy Team:

Tammy Beach

Bryan Holloway

Trevor Fulcher

Megan Miller 

Robert Mitchell

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