House committee advances vocational teacher salaries bill
A teacher addresses students in a classroom. (Photo credit: Getty Images)
A Senate bill that would include vocational teachers in the tiered minimums for teacher salary rates unanimously passed its first House committee Monday.
The House Education Committee quickly gave Senate Bill 343, sponsored by Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces), a do-pass vote, sending it to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee next.
The bill would amend parts of the School Personnel Act, which addresses hiring and firing practices related to licensed school employees, as well as designating teacher salaries based on their level of licensure. Minimum salary tiers would change to include vocational teachers, who teach topics such as culinary arts, auto repair and health sciences.
According to the LESC's bill analysis, the estimated average salary for vocational teachers was about $10,000 above the minimum salaries for each tier during fiscal year 2025.
Soules told Source NM that the bill stems from concerns from several local school districts, including Las Cruces Public Schools, where the personnel office interpreted the current law and chose not to pay vocational teachers a higher salary rate.
'It's almost a nothing burger type of bill,' Soules said. 'It just makes it very clear that the intent of the law is that vocational teachers can get paid at the higher rate.'
The current salary minimums are $50,000 for a level one teacher, $60,000 for level two and $70,000 for level three. However, House Bill 156 this session proposes increasing each salary tier by $5,000. The bill passed the House floor last week by a vote of 62-1 and was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) was the one lawmaker to vote in opposition.
Kersti Tyson, K-12 program director for the LANL Foundation, voiced her support for the bill during the committee meeting and pointed to the benefits for vocational teacher, or career technical education teacher, recruitment.
'We hear from many schools across the state that they have challenges recruiting and retaining CTE teachers. This bill will help with this by ensuring an equal minimum salary,' Tyson said. 'This will signal a commitment to CTE programs and make teaching more attractive to industry experts.'
According to the LESC bill analysis, schools across the country have reported more difficulty in filling CTE or vocational teaching positions compared to academic subject positions, particularly in 'high-demand' areas such as information technology, health sciences and engineering where experts are paid significantly more in their industries compared to teaching the subject.
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