The Mountain Home and Salem school districts will receive additional funds from the state to help improve the salaries of its teachers.
The Teacher Salary Equalization Fund, created by Acts 679 and 680 of this year’s legislative session, will provide Mountain Home Public Schools with $712,153.80 in additional funds for teacher salaries. Salem Public Schools will receive $154,907.90 from the fund.
Arkansas lawmakers created the fund earlier this year to help address the inequality in pay across the state’s 238 public school districts and 24 public charter school systems.
Schools with an average annual teacher’s salary of less than $51,822 were eligible to receive additional funds if the schools were not already participating in the Education Compensation Reform Program, which helps districts meet the states minimum teacher salary requirements.