To repeal section 163.172, RSMo Supp. 1996, relating to minimum salaries for teachers, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

     Section A. Section 163.172, RSMo Supp. 1996, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof to be known as section 163.172, to read as follows:

     163.172. 1. In school year [1994-95] 1997-98 and thereafter, the minimum teacher's salary shall be [eighteen] twenty thousand dollars[. Beginning in the school year 1996-97] and, for any full-time teacher with a master's degree and at least ten years teaching experience in a public school or combination of public schools, the minimum salary shall be [twenty-four] twenty-five thousand dollars. Beginning with the 1998-99 school year and for each year thereafter, minimum teacher's salaries shall change on the same percentage basis as the prorated guaranteed tax base (GTB) used for payment purposes, as defined in section 163.011, RSMo, and prorated for payment purposes according to subsection 6 of section 163.031, RSMo, changes when the product of the proration factor times the payment GTB for the second preceding year is divided by the product of the proration factor times the payment GTB for the third preceding year.

     2. Beginning with the budget requests for fiscal year 1991, the commissioner of education shall present to the appropriate committees of the general assembly information on the average Missouri teacher's salary, regional average salary data, and national average salary data.

     3. All school salary information shall be public information.

     4. As used in this section, the term "salary" shall be defined as the salary figure which appears on the teacher's contract and as determined by the local school district's basic salary schedule and does not include supplements for extra duties.

     5. The minimum salary for any fully certificated teacher employed on a less than full-time basis by a school district, state school for the severely handicapped, the Missouri School for the Deaf, or the Missouri School for the Blind shall be prorated to reflect the amounts provided in subsections 1 and 2 of this section.

     6. Beginning with the 1996-97 school year, the general assembly shall make an annual appropriation to the excellence in education fund established in section 160.268, RSMo, for the purpose of fulfilling the minimum salary requirements for public school teachers in those districts meeting the qualifications established in subsection 7 of this section. The appropriation shall be sufficient to ensure that all qualifying districts are able to comply with the minimum salary requirements of this section. The department of elementary and secondary education shall determine, prior to each school year, those districts which shall be eligible to receive funds in this subsection during the school year. A qualifying district shall be eligible to receive funds appropriated in this subsection only during the first three years following the district's qualifying for such funds.

     7. To qualify to begin receiving funds in subsection 6 of this section, a school district shall meet all of the following criteria:

     (1) A portion of the real property of the district shall have been removed from the tax rolls due to the impact of state or federal government action;

     (2) The district shall have received no more state aid on a per pupil basis for each of the last three school years, exclusive of categorical funding, than the district received for the 1992-93 school year;

     (3) The salaries paid to all teachers in the district for the school year prior to qualification shall be totally compacted at the eighteen thousand dollar per year minimum established in this section;

     (4) The district shall have in its employ for the school year prior to qualification one or more teachers with a master's degree and at least ten years' teaching experience in a public school or a combination of public schools;

     (5) The district shall be financially distressed or have a history of deficit spending which, if continued, will cause the district to become financially distressed within three years;

     (6) The district had an enrollment of no greater than four hundred pupils for the preceding school year; and

     (7) The district shall have levied an operating levy for school purposes of not less than two dollars seventy-five cents per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation for the previous year and shall continue to levy at no less than that rate.

     8. For any school year in which a school district receives funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section, such school district shall continue to expend on teacher salaries no less than the amount it expended on teacher salaries in the school year immediately prior to the school year in which it first receives such funds.

     9. No school district receiving funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section shall receive additional funds pursuant to subsection 6 of this section by virtue of the annexation of another school district to such school district during or after the school year immediately prior to the school year in which the annexing district first receives such funds; nor shall any school district annexed to a school district receiving funds pursuant to subsections 6 and 7 of this section also receive funds pursuant to subsection 6 of this section by virtue of such annexation if such annexation occurred during or after the school year immediately prior to the school year in which the annexing school district first receives such funds.