HELENA — On Tuesday, a major bill aimed at tackling Montana’s public school funding got its first hearing in a Senate committee, after passing the House last month.
Supporters of House Bill 252, also known as the STARS Act, say it’s one of the key pieces of education funding legislation this session. It makes a number of changes to school funding laws – one of the most significant being a revision to the 2021 TEACH Act, providing more funding to school districts if they increase their basic teacher pay.
“We have recognized in Montana that our beginning teacher pay is not adequate to attract teachers and retain beginning teachers,” said Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, who’s sponsoring the bill.
HB 252 also creates additional financial incentives, like for districts to expand dual credit and career and technical education programs. All together, it could put another $55 million a year into schools from the state general fund.
Jones says it makes sense to structure the funding boosts as incentives, giving local school districts the option on whether to take these steps.
“Obviously some in the education community would rather just have the money, with no obligations and strings attached,” he said. “We've kind of tried that, and we have one of the lower teacher pays in the country. So this incentive package is very directly designed to get money into the classroom for the benefit of kids.”
Jones said, with the work they’ve done on the bill so far, he’s convinced all school districts will be able to qualify for the incentives.
For the 2026 fiscal year, districts that want to qualify for the additional funding would have to increase their lowest teacher salary to more than $41,000.
“Some districts, depending on how many teachers they have below that number, are going to have to use more of the money to get to that number,” said Rob Watson, executive director of School Administrators of Montana. “Other districts are a little bit closer to that base, and so they'll still get the money, but they can use it for other things like bargaining with their classified staff, for example.”
Watson said even $41,000 is likely not enough for some districts, especially considering the rising cost of living in Montana, but that the bill would be a key first step.
“A lot of our districts are really struggling with finding qualified teachers, including in our larger school districts, so we think the STARS Act is a significant step forward,” he said.
HB 252 also allows additional payments for school districts employing people on emergency authorizations – when they’re unable to find a candidate with the required teaching license. Watson estimated Tuesday that more than half of districts statewide are currently using emergency authorizations – and even higher percentages in Eastern Montana.
The bill passed the House 88-9, with most Republicans and all Democrats in support.
On Tuesday, Senate President Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, said he thought Republican senators understood the reasoning behind HB 252, but that some of them would be more reluctant to support it after a school choice bill failed on the House floor. House Bill 320 would have set up a new state account to collect private donations and then distribute them to help pay for educational expenses for students outside the public school system.
“It's disappointing to not see the full gamut come forward, and I think that does affect maybe a little bit of how people look at STARS then,” Regier said. “Is it less apt to invest in just in public education if the other options aren't there too?”
Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they didn’t think the STARS Act alone was enough to address school funding needs.
“We view that as a step in the right direction, in helping new teachers, but we think it can go further – it doesn't do much, or anything, for existing teachers, and retention and pay for those teachers,” said Senate Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade. “So we believe there's more work to be done there.”
Flowers said that additional work could be done through amendments to HB 252 or through other legislation. House Minority Leader Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, said they are still hopeful for bills that would increase per-student funding for sixth graders and specifically direct lottery revenue to education.
Jones and Watson said another key bill on education funding will be House Bill 15, which would boost state public school spending by about $50 million over two years to account for inflation. That bill has passed the House and received an initial endorsement in the Senate.
