U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

May 16, 2005

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Press Secretary

                        202-228-3630

Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary

                        303-455-7600

 

SEN. SALAZAR FIGHTS TO RETAIN TEACHERS FOR RURAL SCHOOLS

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar today introduced legislation to retain more teachers in Colorado’s rural school districts.

 

Senator Salazar said, “Schoolchildren across Colorado deserve to be taught by experienced and high quality teachers.  But with nearly one in four teachers in rural Colorado schools leaving after three years, we are shortchanging the futures of our students in rural districts.”

 

Senator Salazar’s Rural Teacher Retention Act of 2005 would create a five-year, $50 million grant program for rural school districts (those receiving funding under the Rural Education Achievement Program, or REAP) with a turnover rate higher than five percent. The funds would be used by rural school districts to provide signing bonuses of up to $2,000 to new teachers and retention bonuses of up to $3,000 for teachers in their third, fourth or fifth years who work at least three years in a row.

 

“When teachers leave, our students and schools suffer. This grant program is an important first step towards making sure that the more than 100,000 students being taught by an estimated 15,000 teachers in Colorado’s nearly 90 rural districts receive the quality education they have been promised and deserve,” Senator Salazar added.

 

Senator Salazar’s proposal comes after months of work with Colorado education experts to address the rural education retention crisis.  Colorado’s rural teacher turnover rate of 23 percent is more than double the statewide average of 10 percent.  Nationwide, the teacher turnover rate is approximately 15 percent.  In rural districts, where 400,000 teachers (31 percent of the nation’s educators) work with eight million students each day, the teacher turnover rate is sometimes as high as 30 and 40 percent.  These teachers earn on average 14 percent less than their counterparts in urban or suburban districts and often teach as many as three subjects due to teacher shortages.

 

Senator Salazar is also an original cosponsor of Senator Dodd’s No Child Left Behind Reform Act (NCLBRA), S. 724.  Among the key components of the NCLBRA would be to allow states to create one assessment test to cover several subjects for middle grade level teachers. This would relieve pressure on rural teachers to be certified in every subject area they teach, a current requirement under federal law. Many rural teachers teach two and three subjects due to teacher shortages in rural school districts.  It would also allow school flexibility in the way they measure yearly annual progress and allow districts to target school choice and supplemental services to the students that actually demonstrate a need for them rather than to all students across the board.

 

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