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A Fortunate Move

Nebraska College Graduate's Move Across the Missouri Illustrates the Teacher Salary Pressure Nebraska Faces

When Sutherland native Lindsay Copeland graduated from Doane College in May 2001, she considered teaching in Nebraska.

She searched for a job in a small- to mid-sized district similar to the one in which she had been schooled. But it didn't take long for Copeland to find her way to the higher salaries offered across the Missouri River in Iowa.

 "I did look at some Nebraska school districts, but pay was the main reason I chose Iowa," said Copeland, a high school special ed teacher.

Her foresight proved valuable. Now at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, Copeland will earn  $37,000 this year, plus a $2,963 state stipend. Those state dollars come from a plan approved by Iowa legislators that will put teacher salaries in the Hawkeye state at the national average by this time next year.

Next year, the locally-negotiated increase, combined with another $1,500 boost from the state's plan, will put Copeland in line to earn more than $42,000. That's in the same range as the $42,875 her mother earned in 2006-07, the final year of her 37-year Nebraska teaching career. By comparison, Copeland will begin just her eighth year in the classroom next year.

Salary Disparities
Copeland's fortune illustrates the disparities in salaries that face educators in the upper Midwest.

Unfortunately, Nebraska teachers are at the short end of the salary ladder when compared to teachers in nearly every neighboring state. On either end of Nebraska, in Wyoming and Iowa, the squeeze is most notable. Both those states have made significant strides in teacher salary improvements in the last two years.

It's a situation that leads to border bleed, causing fresh graduates of Nebraska's 17 teacher education programs, along with some veteran teachers, to look to other states.

"Neighboring states have made funding teacher salaries a priority," said Larry Scherer, NSEA's assistant associate executive director of Bargaining and Research. "Policymakers in those states understand the value in attracting and retaining good teachers."

Consider that:
The bottom line: Nebraska is at risk of losing young teachers, and in many cases veteran teachers, to school districts in neighboring states that pay more and, in some cases, substantially more.

Retention
In addition to attracting teachers from other states, the Iowa plan has an added benefit: keeping young teachers in the profession. Copeland worked some summer hours at a major transportation firm near Omaha, and could have left teaching for a full-time job with that firm. But her teaching salary increase, along with the time off during summer months, kept her in the education profession.

"They wouldn't have been able to start me at what I was going to be making in teaching. I also would have had to pay for health insurance," she said.

So Copeland remained in teaching - a victory for public schools, albeit Iowa public schools.

Copeland detailed the State of Iowa's salary enhancement program to her mother late last month. The plan provides from $1,700 to $3,800 for each Iowa teacher, depending on experience and post-graduate education. Copeland has a master's degree; her mother had 42 hours beyond her bachelor's degree. "It made my Mom sick when I explained the Iowa plan to her," she said.

Sick, perhaps, that Nebraska has never done so well for its teachers.

"I've been pretty fortunate to start at $24,000 and within seven years to be at $40,000," she said.