Career Ladder

Career Ladder is at risk of being eliminated due to budgetary constraints. The teachers across the state and here in Thayer receive up to an additional $5,000 a year for participation in career ladder which, if eliminated, would have a huge impact on our teaching staff.

Career Ladder provides additional pay to teachers who take on extra duties. The state pays approximately 45 percent of Career Ladder funding on average, In Thayer the state pays approximately 65% with the district paying the remaining 35%.

One problem with the way the state funds for Career Ladder, is that appropriations for the program has always been in the year following the year that the teachers have already put in the extra time.  Teachers are therefore unsure of whether they will receive pay for the work they completed in the previous year.

State statute says that funding for the Career Ladder Program is to be placed in a “Career Ladder Forward Funding Fund,” so that teachers can receive compensation for their work. The fund was created in 1995 to try and end the practice of funding the program retroactively, but no action has been taken by any legislature to follow through with proactive funding.

Sen. Nodler said that legislators and budget analysts will have a better idea of available funding after a Consensus Revenue Estimate (CRE) is released in December. Sen. Nodler yesterday recommended that the best way to fix the practice of retroactive Career Ladder funding would be for the governor to ask for funding in his supplemental budget, which is traditionally proposed towards the beginning of each legislative session to address budget issues that were not passed or were not funded to the level of being sufficient for the whole year. “I am asking Governor Nixon to make clear to teachers and school districts in the supplemental budget process whether or not it is his intention to fund the current year’s Career Ladder Program in whole or in part,” said Sen. Nodler.

“Career Ladder funding for the current school year depends on several important questions: Do we have the money to fund the program, and, if we do, then how do we do it?” said Sen. Nodler. “If the governor believes there is enough revenue available to pay for some or all of this year’s Career Ladder expenditures and will request a supplemental appropriation, then I will support it, and I will vote for it.”