Nick Archuleta and North Dakota United, the state's combined teacher and public workers union, are touting a report showing that our state is sliding down the rankings in terms of teacher pay.

We're now 40th in the nation, down significantly from roughly a decade ago.

But Archuleta admitted during an interview on Plain Talk that educators could be doing a better job of giving the taxpayers some context around the pay issue. "We are horrible at telling our success stories," he said.

"We have to do a better job," he added, rattling off some examples of the stories that could be told. "Eighth graders are second in the nation in mathematics. Fourth graders are third in the nation in mathematics.

Archuleta said it's also time to "tone down the rhetoric surrounding K12 education" and back off some of the expectations, from the left and the right, that educators be central to the culture wars.

"Everybody that I know that has gone into education goes into it because they want to make sure that every child has the best educational outcomes that they can possibly have," he said. "They don't go into it to be part of a political scrum and they shouldn't. That's exactly the wrong reason to get into education."

As for teacher pay specifically? Archuleta said that North Dakota is "not increasing salaries very quickly." He also noted that other states like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Mexico have "done things that actually raise salaries faster."

This is impacting North Dakota's ability to recruit new teachers. "We have an acute teacher shortage in North Dakota" that "has gotten to the point, this is particularly true in rural areas but also in our larger areas, where we're depending more and more on foreign based teachers, particularly from the Philippines."

Also on this episode, co-host Chad Oban and I talk about how on-going chaos in the North Dakota Republican Party and a possible legal fight with the state Ethics Commission may impact the upcoming election cycle. We also take a look at the last bills from the recently-concluded legislative session that are on Gov. Kelly Armstrong's desk and what he might do with them.

(Full disclosure: Oban also works for North Dakota United.)

This episode is presented by Lignite Energy Council, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the development of North Dakota's abundant lignite resources. Their goal is to maintain a viable lignite coal industry and support the generation of electricity, synthetic natural gas, and valuable byproducts. Visit www.Lignite.com/Podcast to connect and learn more.

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