Teachers; compensation at or above national average, various annual salary adjustments.

Teacher compensation; at or above national average;various annual salary adjustments. Requires that public schoolteachers be compensated at a rate that is at or above the nationalaverage for each step or level on a years of experience-based payscale. Under current law, compensation at such rate is aspirational,and such aspirational rate is silent on compensation variations basedon experience. The foregoing provisions of the bill have a delayedeffective date of July 1, 2025. The bill also provides that (i) effectivefor the 2024-2025 school year, each teacher in each school division,Academic Year Governor's School, and Regional Alternative EducationProgram shall be awarded a cost-of-living compensation adjustmentin an amount or percentage to be determined in the general appropriationact and (ii) effective beginning with the 2025-2026 school year,state funding shall be provided pursuant to the general appropriationact in a sum sufficient to fund a 12 percent annual increase forteacher salaries in each school division, Academic Year Governor'sSchool, and Regional Alternative Education Program.