Plain Talk: 'The main point of this bill is we need teachers'

MINOT — State Rep. Mike Nathe, in partnership with Superintendent Levi Bachmeier and Gov. Kelly Armstrong's administration, has announced legislation aimed at paying North Dakota teachers annual retention bonuses funded by the earnings from the Common Schools Trust Fund. That fund's balance is currently more than $9 billion and growing. For the next two-year budget cycle, it's projected to generate $718 million in earnings. Nathe's legislation takes 10% of that to fund the bonuses. "The main point of this bill is we need teachers," Nathe said of the initiative on this episode of Plain Talk. The bonuses would go to all educators working in a position that requires a teaching license, both in public and private schools. Nathe said both because "a teacher is a teacher" wherever they might be teaching. Bachmeier supports the legislation because, in his tours of schools statewide, he's seen the teacher shortage firsthand. "We have too many empty classrooms," he said