Amber Huett-Garcia’s tenure on the Memphis-Shelby County School (MSCS) Board recently ended as she transitioned to her new elected position on the Shelby County Commission.¶
During Huett-Garcia’s four-year term, the school system faced multiple leadership transitions, resignation scandals, scathing state audits, and the start of a state intervention. Huett-Garcia recently sat down for an interview with Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she was asked whether she thinks the state could help MSCS schools outside the planned intervention.¶
“Retaining teachers and supporting teachers would require significant support from the state,” Huett-Garcia said. “Whatever survey you do, you ask high-performing teachers what matters the most, and it’s pay. It’s pay and benefits. That’s how you retain great teachers.”¶
Huett-Garcia’s solution?¶
“We have a structure where it does not matter how good you are at your job, you do not make more money at it,” Huett-Garcia said. “There are very few other professions through which your outstanding performance is not rewarded. So how do we figure that out?”¶
Huett-Garcia's comments raise questions about whether MSCS could adopt a teacher pay structure that awards additional compensation to high-performing educators, a policy often called merit-based pay.¶
Tennessee lawmakers have taken action to make this payment structure a reality in Tennessee school districts if local school boards adopt it.¶
State Action on Merit-Based Pay for Teachers
In April 2025, Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law permitting local school districts to “adopt and implement a merit-based pay structure for educators to award additional compensation to high-performing educators and to incentivize educators to meet and exceed expectations.”¶
The bill’s intent, according to sponsor Speaker Pro Tempore Pat Marsh, R-Shelbyville, is to motivate teachers to innovate in the classroom and improve student outcomes.¶
This bill will allow school boards to incentivize educators to meet and exceed expectations and school boards to reward educators for their extraordinary work,” Marsh said during the legislative committee conversation.¶
Marsh described the bill as permissive, allowing local school boards to set their own policies on merit pay programs, including the option not to implement a merit-based structure at all. But he says they should have the choice to do so if they want to.¶
“They don’t have to do it at all. But if they have some great teachers that deserve to be moved up and make more money, they can do that. Now they cannot,” replied Marsh.¶
MSCS Action and Teacher Pay
Because of the legislation passed by the state, MSCS could adopt, as Huett-Garcia suggests, a pay model that financially rewards the highest-performing educators.¶
In 2023, the Tennessee General Assembly passed the largest teacher salary increase in state history, increasing the base salary to $50,000 and placing Tennessee in the top 10 states in the nation for teacher pay.¶
