Montana Legislature Passes Bill To Raise Starting Teachers’ Pay

The Legislature’s high-profile STARS Act cleared its final vote in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, with a bipartisan bloc of 43 lawmakers approving the proposal that would direct $100 million toward raising starting teacher pay in Montana’s K-12 schools.

The STARS Act — also known as House Bill 252 — quickly emerged as a top policy priority this session for a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats, public education advocates and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has promoted it repeatedly in public appearances and speeches this spring and included the $100 million request in his proposed budget.

The bill’s key feature is a significant increase in state funding for districts that raise beginning teacher salaries to better align with their average teacher pay. But as proponents have routinely pointed out, HB 252 includes a slate of other provisions providing additional financial support for trades-based credentialing and dual-credit opportunities for students, and would allow districts in areas with high housing costs to raise more local money for teacher housing.

“It’s just a real strong vote in favor of our public schools and of recruitment and retention of quality staff, and ultimately for kids,” Montana School Boards Association Executive Director Lance Melton told Montana Free Press in an interview following the Senate’s action Tuesday. “This whole lift here is going to put us up the ladder in terms of the national rankings on base teacher pay, it’s going to help us get closer back to the inflation that we lost over the four-year period after and in the midst of COVID-19, and it’s just coming at the right time for school districts. They sorely need it.” Melton credited much of the STARS Act’s success to the work of its sponsor, House Appropriations Chair Llew Jones, R-Conrad, whom Melton helped to craft the bill based on discussions last interim about the financial challenges facing K-12 schools across Montana.

Though the STARS Act has attracted opposition votes from several Republican lawmakers critical of Montana’s public school system, verbal debate against it was virtually non-existent in the lead-up to its passage. Prior to its final appearance on the Senate floor, the bill cleared the chamber’s Finance and Claims Committee on a unanimous vote April 18, with supporters including Republican state Superintendent Susie Hedalen touting it as a crucial step in addressing the state’s ongoing teacher shortage. The bill now goes to Gianforte for his signature.

HB 252 wasn’t the only proposed change to state education funding to advance in recent weeks. Several bills have already passed both chambers and made it to Gianforte’s desk, among them a measure from Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, that would replace district-specific levies that generate the local share of funding for schools with countywide levies — a move Bedey says will distribute financial pressure more evenly among property tax payers. Also awaiting the governor’s signature is House Bill 567, a measure from Republican Rep. Brad Barker of Red Lodge to allow districts within the same county to share the costs of certain educational equipment and resources, while a push by Rep. Eric Tilleman, R-Cascade, to enhance federal funding for career and technical education in Montana middle schools has already been signed into law.

A smattering of Democratic- led proposals have also made it to Gianforte’s desk. One of those, House Bill 509 from Whitefish Rep. Debo Powers, would expand state loan assistance eligibility for public school teachers. Another, House Bill 266 from Helena Rep. Luke Muszkiewicz, seeks to resolve a longstanding dispute over inflationary increases to education funding by creating a process for state lawmakers and the Office of Public Instruction to adjust those increases above a 3% cap in state law when needed.

And in a surprise twist April 17, the Senate revived a handful of proposed public education policies that appeared stalled out in the chamber’s education committee. The bills tackled a range of state funding increases for school meals, school building maintenance and special education programs for preschool-aged children with disabilities. One by one, a bipartisan majority of senators approved bypassing the committee’s votes that previously tabled the measures, blasting them to the Senate floor for consideration.

The committee’s chair, Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, grew visibly frustrated with the development, echoing concerns raised by other Republicans about the increased state costs associated with the proposals and criticizing the treatment of his committee’s decisions.

“I take offense to these motions that have wasted our time that we worked so hard on the other night,” Fuller told fellow senators. “I ask a rhetorical question: Why do we even have committees if this is what’s going to result?”

Four of those bills passed additional votes by the full Senate on Tuesday, with one moving back to the House with an amendment and the other three advancing to the governor. In defense of the Senate’s revival of the measures last week, Sen. Sara Novak, D-Anaconda, said in a press statement on behalf of her caucus that Montanans “expect their leaders to prioritize our kids, our schools, and our future.”

Tuesday’s Senate floor session also saw the deciding vote to forward House Bill 483 to Gianforte’s desk. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, redirects surplus funds from the so-called 95 mills — a revenue stream designed to equalize state funding between tax-base-rich and taxbase-poor districts — to reduce local levies for teacher retirement and school transportation. In a press release announcing the bill’s passage, Sprunger said the “Right Back Act” is projected to deliver as much as $60 million in local property tax relief in its first year.

“Montanans have been asking for more than a one-time fix — they want a property tax system that’s fair and built to keep up with the times,” Sprunger wrote. “The Right Back Act is the first bill this session that not only reforms the system, but also starts pushing money back to the people. It’s a smart, lasting step forward for Montana homeowners.”

At least one prominent proposal centered on school funding has so far been left tabled in the Senate’s education committee: House Bill 339, sponsored by Rep. Melissa Romano, D-Helena. The bill aimed to elevate per-student state funding for sixth graders in middle school settings to match the funding level for seventh and eighth graders. Supporters argued the current mismatch, with sixth graders funded at the same level as elementary school students, fails to factor in the added costs associated with middle- school-style instruction. But the projected increase of roughly $17 million in state spending associated with the request drew opposition from some Republicans, and as of Tuesday afternoon, no attempt had been launched to revive the bill. Speaking to this week’s passage of the STARS Act and other prominent school funding bills, Melton told MTFP the 2025 Legislature is shaping up to be the most significant session in at least three decades when it comes to changes to state support for public education. He added the spirited debates and bipartisan work that have characterized the advancement of those policies this spring may well set the tone for Montana’s upcoming decennial study, a mandated 10-year review of the state’s education funding formula set to kick off shortly after the Legislature concludes.

“We got ready for the final without pulling an all-nighter,” Melton said.