So when a state school board committee recently considered increasing teacher-licensing fees, the Morgan County father scoffed and offered a reality check.

"Both girls left, and their decisions were financially motivated," he said. "You've got a problem."

And that problem may continue after the Senate Education Committee on Monday slashed a $21 million bill designed to attract and retain teachers like Guffey's daughters by boosting pay and mentoring for beginning teachers.

Now, House Bill 188 calls for $2.5 million to replenish an existing but unfunded program that provides $5,000 signing bonuses to new math, science and information-technology teachers. Lawmakers will study over the summer the larger issue of how Utah teacher pay compares with other states.

HB188 sponsoring Rep. Bradley Johnson said he knew the cost of his original proposal would be a tough sell. The measure had cleared the House by just one vote last week.

"You take what you can get," the Aurora Republican said Monday. "But the beginning teacher's salary has to be addressed, and the school districts just can't do it."

Right now, Johnson says, Utah is losing teachers and new graduates to higher-paying districts in Nevada and Arizona.

Beginning-teacher salaries in the Beehive State range between $23,000 and $30,000, as negotiated by school districts and their teachers' bargaining teams.

"It's becoming more and more difficult for Utah to compete with neighboring states," said George Welch, Jordan School District's executive director of human resources.

At least one novice teacher in his district -- the state's largest -- plans to leave Utah after a couple of years because of the district's flat salary schedule for years one through three on the job.

"It's going to take a good five years to make more money than I do now, and that's not fast enough," said Katie Sullivan, 23, a first-year, first-grade teacher who makes $25,600 at Rose Creek Elementary in Riverton.

For example, in Las Vegas -- the city often cited as Utah's chief competitor for teachers -- it would take her seven years to reach $36,000 a year. In Jordan District, it would take 11 years.

With an estimated 140,000 additional students flooding the classrooms in the next 10 years, the state can ill afford to keep losing teachers. A Utah State University study estimates the state will need an extra 1,175 new educators a year partly because of growth, partly because of attrition. About a third of novice teachers quit within their first three years.

However, district leaders and representatives of the Utah Education Association are quick to point out that much of the attrition -- especially among new teachers -- has less to do with salary than educators' desire to start families or follow a spouse out of state.

They also question the fairness of increasing pay for some teachers and not others.

"What kind of message does this send to the veteran teachers?" asked Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen. "That we value newer teachers more than we value them?"

He acknowledged that his district's starting salary of $30,396 gives it a recruiting edge.

"That has been a conscious effort over the past few years to keep us on the top of the state's pay scale and to compete with . . . Nevada," he said. "We see it as an advantage."

At first blush, Las Vegas' starting salary of $28,500 doesn't seem all that far apart from those in Utah.

But factor in zero state income tax, generous district-paid retirement and 100 percent district-paid health insurance and total compensation approaches $40,000 for a first-year teacher.

The state school board has convened a task force to examine compensation issues and possibly recommend a salary structure that gives incentives for teaches to work in at-risk schools and critical shortage areas such as special education.

But if past trends hold true, hundreds of novice teachers won't be around to see what becomes of those efforts. They will be long gone.

"It's a stretch to make more money," Sullivan said. "In other states, it's a quicker move."

Of course, paychecks aren't everything.

Sullivan passed up a $37,000 offer from a Texas school to take her current job, where parents are supportive, students are focused and colleagues are mentors.

Those equations count, too.

rlynn@sltrib.com