Act 237 of 2023, the LEARNS Act, amended Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-2403 to require classroom
teachers to be paid a minimum base salary of $50,000 beginning in 2023-24. Teachers making above $50,000 in 2022-23
shall receive a minimum salary increase of $2,000 in 2023-24. Funding will be provided in the 2023-24
school year to increase teachers making $48,000 or below in 2022-23 to the $50,000
minimum, and to increase teacher salaries of $48,001 or greater by $2,000. Funding has been calculated based on each
school district’s 2022-23 cycle 1 budgeted base salaries.
To qualify for the LEARNS Teacher Minimum Salary and Raise
Funds in 2023-24, districts must meet the following requirements:
- Revise
each teacher contract by the 2023-24 school year to require each teacher
to be employed at least one hundred ninety (190) school days each year,
- Not
adopt a personnel policy or incorporate terms into a personnel contract
that provide more rights to personnel than those provided under state law
in effect during the term of the personnel contract,
- Not
have a waiver of teacher salary requirements,
- Be
open for on-site, in-person instruction for at least one hundred
seventy-eight (178) days; or one thousand sixty-eight (1,068) hours, and
- Utilize
an amount of state funds equal to eighty percent (80%) or more of the
amount allocated for school-level personnel salaries, according to the
adequacy funding matrix recommended by the Senate Committee on Education
and the House Committee on Education for the previous school year, for
teacher salaries and teacher raises. Districts can monitor their progress
towards the 80% requirements by going to the APSCN
District Information Report page.
If meeting the requirement of this section would impact
student safety or potentially cause a school district to go into fiscal
distress under the Arkansas Fiscal Assessment and Accountability Program, §
6-20-1901 et seq., the public school district may apply to the State Board of
Education for a waiver from this requirement.
Attached are preliminary allocations for the LEARNS Teacher
Minimum Salary and Raise Funds.
LEARNS Teacher Minimum Salary and Raise Funds shall be
expended only for teacher salaries and benefits. The first disbursement of funds to qualifying
districts will be in July 2023. A final
disbursement will follow later in the fall.
The Revenue Code for LEARNS Teacher Minimum Salary and Raise Funds is
32205, fund 2001.
The exact amount a district receives for LEARNS Teacher
Minimum Salary and Raise Funds must be transferred before year-end to the
teacher salary funds with accounts 69315 and 52205. The journal entry required to make this transfer
from fund 2001 to fund 1000 is as follows:
DR
2001 5200 000 000
00 69315
CR
2001
01010 (CASH)
DR
1000
01010 (CASH)
CR
1000
52205