Legislature approves $9.3 billion education budget, including teacher pay raise
The Alabama Legislature has approved a teacher pay raise as part of a new $9.3 billion Education Trust Fund budget.
The budget includes a 2% pay increase for public school teachers and employees. Gov. Kay Ivey has a goal of making starting teacher pay the highest among neighboring states.
“Ensuring every Alabama student receives a quality education is my number one priority, and I am proud we are once again, for a sixth straight year, investing a record amount in education,” Ivey said in a statement.
“From fully funding critical programs like the Literacy and Numeracy Acts to supporting the Turnaround Schools program to increasing our investment in special education to prioritizing workforce development needs like career coaches and dual enrollment, this budget wisely invests in the spectrum of education. I am proud we are jumpstarting priority projects like the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences. We are giving more Alabama families the ability to choose the school that best suits their child’s needs through my education savings account program. We are ensuring students are protected by investing in their mental health care and in the safety of our schools.
“Each year in my tenure as governor, I have been proud to propose a pay increase for our teachers, and I am grateful to the Legislature for again answering the call to give our teachers another deserved pay raise. During my state of the state address, I also challenged the Legislature to increase our starting salaries for teachers so we could have the highest base salary for teachers among our neighboring states. We accomplished that, and since I have been governor, we have seen a 24 percent base pay increase – that’s something to be proud of for sure.
“Education is every Alabama child’s ticket to a successful future, and I am proud this year’s budget is exactly that – an investment in the future of Alabama.”
The Education Trust Fund budget joins the $3.4 General Fund budget, which covers non-education items like roads and prisons. The two budgets are for the 2025 fiscal year, which begins October 1, 2024.
