Wednesday, July 30, 2014

NC Teachers: "Here's Your Pig-in-a-Poke"

Although there's supposedly a "budget deal" in Raleigh, as of this morning there's still no publicly available document to show exactly what teachers will be getting and exactly at what cost to other areas of public education. Because The Honorables in Raleigh can't pay for much of anything after slashing taxes on the rich last year ... can't pay without punishing other sectors of state government.

There's always a worm in any cabbage this General Assembly picks:
While the budget plan, which still requires approval from the full House and Senate, does not cut any teacher assistant positions, $65 million has been moved from the teacher assistant line item to pay for teachers.
Another $24 million in teacher assistant funding was made "non-recurring," meaning the funds will expire next year without legislative approval. Those funds will cover items other than teacher assistants.
Read more at WRAL
Plus raises for bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other school support employees is half what other state employees are supposed to get, and raises for the most senior and most experienced teachers will be far less than the 7% that Phil Berger and Thom Tillis have been trumpeting.

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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:50 AM

    Longevity (incremental , based on years in) has been eliminated. The experienced teacher will lose money.
    This is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Time to get rid of Dan Soucek!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:04 AM

    My husband has worked for the school transportation department as a mechanic who works on diesel's for seven and a half years. $500.00 is not enough. The reward for being a loyal employee for years is to only get half the raise? We are living under the poverty level for a family of four... We thought when he started that working for the state would be a great job, but he can go and get a job as a diesel mechanic making twice the money.....

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  3. Anonymous1:23 PM

    If he can get a job for twice the money, why would he not do it? Of course he would have to understand that poor performance could get him fired - and that the health benefits and retirement benefits he gets from the school job would not continue.

    But, if you all think it's greener grass out here in the real world, then come on over!

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  4. Anonymous4:14 PM

    And 76 million cut from the UNC system, which likely means one more year of no raises and no cost-of-living increases for ASU employees.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DooDah5:01 PM

    "and that the health benefits and retirement benefits he gets from the school job would not continue."

    Help us understand your point of view, Anonymous. Are you saying that it's a GOOD thing if people don't have health and retirement benefits? What do you think we should do - work until we drop dead on the job?? Many jobs in the so-called real world have better benefits than state jobs. People like you always seem to assume that state employees are lazy moochers who are just feeding at the public trough.

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  6. Cyclops6:34 PM

    It should be pointed that veteran teachers at the top of the pay scale get a $1,000 bonus for the coming year. Can we consider that additional longevity pay? BTW, longevity is built into this year's salary schedule. Yeah, it will be eliminated in future years, hopefully replaced with a merit pay regime.

    The teachers grab the big pay raises and then complain that other school employees don't get so much. Wonder why?

    But the bottom line is, no matter how much the GOP increases teachers' salaries, it can never be enough.

    ReplyDelete