Highly qualified science and math teachers are in short supply and to help attract more the state will be increasing the starting salary of new teachers to the fifth-year salary level.

According to a statement released by Gov. Sonny Perdue last week, the state produced 2,000 early childhood teachers, but only one physics teacher, nine chemistry teachers and 140 math teachers last year. The legislation he signed into law is meant to increase the numbers of teachers in those high demand fields.

The law also provides an annual $1,000 bonus for primary teachers who earn a science or math certification, payable for five years.

Tom Wilson, the superintendent of the Carrollton City Schools, understands the spirit of the law, but wonders why it ignores other areas of teaching that are just as hard to fill, such as special education and foreign languages.

“It’s obviously an incentive to recruit more people to go into math and science because those are the shortages of graduates.” Wilson said. “I’m just worried, does it send the message that other subjects are not as important? I would argue that they’re all important, and we should be paying all teachers more, because I assure you foreign language teachers are as difficult to find.”

Math and science degrees can lead to more lucrative careers in the work world and the increased salary could help attract more people in those majors to teaching or even keep young teachers in the field. But attracting quality teachers should be a priority in all fields, Wilson said.

The pay increases will take effect in two years for the 2010-2011 school year. As the city system prepares the teacher contracts to be sent out this week, not many current teachers will be affected by the pay increase, said Annette Murphy, personnel director for the system.

“In our particular school system, it would be a minimum number of school teachers because most of our teachers are experienced and not considered new teachers,” she said. “We’re not hiring this year, so we wouldn’t have any new people hired this year that it would affect.”

It might have more impact in the Carroll County Schools. Karen Pate, director of classified staff for the county school system, said the system currently has 53 math or science teachers who have less than five years experience and might benefit from the higher salary. It also has 10 vacancies in those fields which could be filled with teachers who would benefit.

The additional salaries would be funded through the state and is subject to appropriation, according to the legislation.

“We complete what they call a CPI report and it has all our employees on it and how many years of experience they have and what degrees they have,” said Greg Denney, chief financial officer for the Carroll County Schools.

The state uses all that information to figure the allotment it sends the district to pay the teachers, so this would be a state-funded initiative, not locally funded, he said.

More teachers would benefit from the math and science endorsements bonus in the lower grades, Murphy said. The teachers can receive the endorsement with four or more additional courses in the math or science area, she said.

The city school system will provide opportunities for its teachers to get the endorsements through the West Georgia Regional Educational Services Agency.

That is something Wilson completely supports, because it is open to more teachers.

“It’s a wonderful incentive to try to encourage folks to go into math and science,” Murphy said. “Hopefully, it will increase the number of people in those areas and help in recruiting efforts.”