The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Like their counterparts in the state work force, teachers and other school support staff have gone three years without a pay raise.
Virginia Education Association officials are calling on the General Assembly to halt that trend by appropriating funds in the upcoming legislative session to help boost educators' salaries 3 percent.
Without a raise, Virginia faces the possibility of losing teachers to other states that offer better wages, VEA President Kitty Boitnott said Wednesday.
"We must make the teaching profession more attractive than it is today if we are going to convince young people to enter the profession," she said.
Even if raises are granted, Boitnott said, that probably wouldn't elevate the average Virginia teacher salary of roughly $50,000 to the national average of more than $55,000.
The state share of the 3 percent is $100 million annually, an amount that could be a tough pill during lean budget times. Localities also contribute to teacher pay.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Bob McDonnell said he will "review this proposal in the days ahead, recognizing that any action made at the state level would have to be coordinated with local governments."
In Virginia Beach, School Board Chairman Dan Edwards said his colleagues would like to give teachers more money but aren't sure if they can until they get a better sense of what's coming from the state.
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Va Teachers asking for 3% raise
Use current bldgs,contract out employee services@prv't school salaries.Demand active parent involvment.Use savings for Sp.Ed,continue to contract out severely emotionally disturbed kids.There is a place for deliquent kids and it is not schools. Buzz words of all politicians schools,police,fire,sometimes recreation.Gets-ur-vote evertime results continue-2-b- deplorable.Stop accepting monies(feds) w/unattainable goals(no child left b-hind)Stop accepting/initating programs which relieve parents of their responsibilities.Look @ eliminating,revamping,combining programs w/similar goals(early chldhd,pre-K,Title 1,Head Start) Ideas must have parent particp/tchr support.Monies/job attched to student outcomes.
Sorry Folks
GOOD teachers have always been under paid and probably always will be but this is not the time for raises for anyone paid by public funds unless they are near the poverty level (e.g., some military) until we take some big bites out of debt/deficit.
Fact vs fiction
Whether the average salary is $50,000 or $59,000 a year is not the point. Calling these professionals greedy is ridiculous. If you are at the top end of the average, a 3% raise on $59,000 amounts to $1,770. By the time the state and federal taxes are taken out the net would average about $1469. And that also doesn't include the increase cost of health insurance most districts are passing on to employees. What if these folks aren't single? How about the single parent or sole breadwinner with a family to support? Perhaps the school districts could find the money by fining parents of unruly children who parents depend on the schools to not only to educate their kids but to raise them too.
what is the point?
Nobody is calling them greedy but at a time when over 60,000, let me repeat that, 60,000 Virginians and 15.1 MILLION, that's 15.1 MILLION people nationally are unemployed is a ridiculous time to demand a raise. They are STILL employed and have benefits which includes insurance. Teachers do a great job everyday and when times improve a raise is in order, but to ask taxpayers to fork over more in taxes when many are struggling just make ends meet so someone else can have more is ridiculous. Thousands have lost jobs locally in the past year. Any raise would almost certainly include a local tax increase in the form of either real estate, property taxes, or both. For some people this will be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.
just the facts please
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
http://www.bls.gov/ro3/oesvateachers.htm
United States
Secondary School Average: $55,150
Middle School Average: $53,550
Elementary School Average: $53,150
Virginia
Secondary School Average: $59,980
Middle School: $59,000
Elementary School: $58,320
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C. (MSA includes Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Surry, and York Counties and Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg cities in Virginia, and Currituck County in North Carolina):
Secondary School Average: $55,340
Middle School Average: $56,470
Elementary School Average: $54,380
How would the teachers feel
How would the teachers feel about giving the pay raise ONLY to those teachers whose students are meeting certain benchmarks and showing improvement? Not so good? Then that's your answer. THey don't need a raise.
Someday, We'll Actually have a Common Sense Discussion...
about education. Because how many lawyers or doctors would like their rates set based on healthy patients or their number of patients who die? Othe number of clients who don't commit crimes or win their cases? Doesn't make sense, does it?
Thanks. That's a perfect
Thanks. That's a perfect analogy. It shows why arguments like the one you responded to are stupid. There is no other way to put it.
Value received
Look at the report comparing US scholastic achievements with other countries. We as a nation arefar below China, Finland, and many other countries. Perhaps if teachers were paid what they are worth, and the school systems were allowed to provide real learning instead of politically influenced SOLs, our actual "standards of learning" would actually mean something, and we would get an educational system that would put us in the top ten, anyway, instead of way behind Asia and other countries. Or maybe, people just don't care about good teaching enough to insist on having our kids be competitive in the academic world.
Maybe the kids just aren't
Maybe the kids just aren't smart, and good teachers or not our country is going to loose?