The Impact of a $10,000 Bonus on Special Education Teacher Shortages in Hawai‘i

Abstract

We study the impact of a bonus policy in Hawai‘i Public Schools that raised the salaries of all special education teachers by $10,000. We estimate that this policy reduced the proportion of vacant special education teaching positions relative to general education positions by 32% and the proportion of special education positions that were vacant or filled by an unlicensed teacher by 35%. These impacts were largest in historically hard-to-staff schools in which all teachers received additional bonuses. The policy did not have significant effects on special education teacher retention; instead, the impacts of the policy were driven almost entirely by an increase in the number of general education teachers in the state who moved into open special education teaching positions.