{"id":94960,"date":"2019-03-26T20:30:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T02:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/program-adds-incentive-for-rural-teachers\/"},"modified":"2019-03-26T20:30:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T02:30:38","slug":"program-adds-incentive-for-rural-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/program-adds-incentive-for-rural-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Program adds incentive for rural teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Lawmakers
Lawmakers are trying to lure teachers to rural schools with bills that offer stipends, loan forgiveness and professional development. Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law this week that will expand an incentive program for rural teachers.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Monday a bill that will expand a program offering rural teachers stipends, an incentive that lawmakers hope will draw teachers to the schools most affected by a statewide teacher shortage.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 9<\/a> offers annual stipends of $4,000 to teachers who spend two years in a rural district and $6,000 to rural teachers seeking a national board certification. In years past, the program had been limited to 100 applicants, but SB 9 lifts that cap and will require the General Assembly to provide extra funding, if needed, to meet demand.<\/p>\n

\"Lawmakers
Lawmakers are trying to lure teachers to rural schools with bills that offer stipends, loan forgiveness and professional development. Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law this week that will expand an incentive program for rural teachers.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe must ensure teachers stay in our rural communities, in our state and in our classrooms,\u201d said Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, a former teacher who sponsored the bill in the House.<\/p>\n

Colorado is short more than 3,000 teachers, vacancies that particularly affect rural areas of the state where pay is lower. Some rural school districts have teaching vacancies that last for years, while others can\u2019t compete with the draw of wealthier, urban schools.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are trying to lure teachers to rural schools with bills that offer stipends, loan forgiveness and professional development. But none of the bills address the underlying issue \u2013 that Colorado teacher salaries remain among the lowest in the country.<\/p>\n

All schools in Southwest Colorado are considered rural, and Durango School District 9-R is the largest, with around 5,000 students.<\/p>\n

Teachers in Southwest Colorado may still see a pay hike as an indirect benefit of lawmakers\u2019 pledge to fund full-day kindergarten. Lawmakers set aside $185 million to fund one of Polis\u2019 signature campaign promises.<\/p>\n

In District 9-R, for instance, about $1.2 million from its general fund is devoted to paying for 15 full-day kindergarten classrooms at its eight elementary schools. The district has a total of 411 kindergarteners this year. In Durango, state-funded kindergarten would free $1.2 million from the general fund to cover most of the district\u2019s anticipated increased salary costs for its teachers.<\/p>\n

rhandy@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

intended to lure educators to places where pay might be lower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[394,3025],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-94960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-state-rep-barbara-mclachlan"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94960"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=94960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}