Utah teachers will get a $1,446 pay raise from the state. Support staff will also receive a one-time, $1,000 bonus.
“We have rock star teachers. They deal with the largest classroom sizes, with the best outcomes anywhere in the nation,” Senate President Stuart Adams said at a Feb. 28 news conference in the Gold Room at the Utah State Capitol. “Today we not only want to congratulate our teachers, but we want to show them our appreciation by giving them more compensation.”
The funding increase for teachers, support staff and district staff amounts to $278 million. It includes:
- $77.7 million for educator professional time.
- $14.3 million for classroom supplies.
- $12.4 million for student teacher stipends.
- $7.3 million for the Grow Your Own Educator Pipeline Grant Program.
- $65 million for a Career and Technical Education Catalyst program.
- $795,700 for professional liability insurance for educators.
To emphasize the significance, Gov. Spencer Cox said it’s a tight budget year.
“Some of these legislators up here have bills that will not get funded, that have the support to get passed but will not get funded because we're doing this, because we're making this a priority and it's the right thing to do.”
State law required $446 of the raise as a part of the Educator Salary Adjustment program and that increase was included in the public education base budget passed at the start of the legislative session. Lawmakers are adding an additional $1,000 on top of that increase.
The beginning of the 2025 legislative session was defined by large numbers of teachers and other public employees frustrated with lawmakers.
“There’s a narrative out there being pushed by a small group of people,” House Speaker Mike Schultz said. “That the legislature doesn’t like our teachers and that we don’t value education. That is simply not true.”
Hundreds, even thousands, of Utah teachers spent the first few weeks of the session pleading with lawmakers not to pass a bill banning public labor unions from collective bargaining. Multiple lawmakers said they’ve never received so many messages in opposition to a bill. Despite the flood, lawmakers narrowly passed the bill and it was signed by Cox, to the disappointment of union members.
This means unions will no longer be able to negotiate for better pay and working conditions for public employees, like teachers. Some lawmakers repeatedly said during debates they would do a better job of taking care of educators than the unions did and claimed if anything, unions stood in the way of teachers getting paid more. Lawmakers repeatedly said teachers unions opposed a 2023 bill giving teachers a pay raise, although the unions opposed the bill because it also created a new school voucher program.
The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, viewed Friday’s announcement as “political posturing.”
“State leaders took credit for policies that educators fought for, not politicians,” union President Renée Pinkney, a Park City social studies teacher, said in a statement.
“Paid maternity leave, professional planning time, and paid student teaching were all championed by members of the Utah Education Association, not handed down by lawmakers. Meanwhile, these same politicians pushed through a union-busting bill designed to silence educator voices, ignoring thousands of pleas from Utahns who demanded the protection of teachers’ collective bargaining rights.”
After Cox signed the collective bargaining bill, the union said they were exploring a potential ballot referendum to overturn it. They told KUER after the pay raise announcement they are still exploring that option and nothing has changed.
Pinkney said a salary increase is important, but it’s not enough. Overall, she said schools are underfunded, classrooms are overcrowded and teachers are “burning out due to a severe lack of support, insufficient staffing, and the growing challenges of managing student needs without adequate behavioral support resources.”
Lawmakers could do more to address these issues, Pinkney said. Instead, she said they are spending money on the Utah Fits All Scholarship voucher program, money that could be going to public education. The state allocates $82.5 million annually for the program and there’s a proposal this year to add $40 million more to the program. The union has sued the state over the program, alleging it is unconstitutional. A judge is expected to rule on the case in the coming months.
“If Utah’s leaders are serious about supporting educators and students, they must invest in real, long-term solutions: respectable wages, sustainable staffing levels, classroom behavioral support, and fully funding public education instead of diverting millions to private interests,” Pinkney said.
According to state leaders, Utah has one of the highest starting salaries for teachers in the West and credited it to legislative investments.
“No other state in the nation has done more for teacher compensation than Utah,” Adams said.
The pay raise starts July 1.
