With the governor's signature, educators will see $1,700 raises and a 2.5 percent bump in per-pupil spending. Late Wednesday, the Senate also approved another $25 million for teacher compensation, and the House concurred.
Of that $25 million, $5 million would go toward paying for $1,000 signing bonuses for new teachers, and $20 million would go toward performance-based pay programs designed by school districts. The Senate originally had hoped to put $1 million of that money toward incentives for teachers seeking American Board Distinguished Teacher certification, but instead decided to refer that idea to interim study after the House opposed that part of the bill.
Though lawmakers approved far fewer education programs than they had hoped, several measures won big. Legislators worked to help schools retain and recruit hard-to-find math and science teachers with $11.5 million to fund two new programs that would pay those instructors more through raises and by extending the school year.
Other winners included a program that would get $15.8 million to hire more art and music teachers.
A large chunk of money, $5 million, would help extend a program aimed at assisting students and their families learning English. An at-home software pilot program for preschoolers would get $3.5 million.
"Given that the [revenue] numbers had to be recast," Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said, "I think we can still stand very tall with the overall education package, which is very consistent with the last three years running."
But many programs and ideas lost out.
Though lawmakers boosted the overall amount for class-size reduction, they declined to add other money for a class-size-reduction program aimed specifically at students in grades K-3. Utah Education Association President Kim Campbell said money lawmakers spent on new programs should have gone toward taxpayer priorities such as lower class sizes.
Legislators also acted to better equalize funding for school construction. They passed a bill that would distribute $15 million to districts statewide.
However, Murray, Salt Lake, Granite and the two school districts that will result from the Jordan split will pool part of their property-tax revenue for redistribution throughout Salt Lake County. Jordan-west stands to gain about $12 million but the other four districts will lose millions.
