The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee today passed state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s five-year education plan.
The plan would increase instructional time in the academic year by five days, and would boost teacher pay by $5,000 over five years to the regional average.
The author of the bill is Rep. Scott Martin, chairman of the committee. The pay plan puts lawmakers in a tenuous position, because while demand for teacher pay increases may be high, the state faces a $600 million shortfall.
At least this is a start.
The money could probably be found in that deliberate spaghetti we call a budget.
Tax credits will probably pay for it. Stop the giveaways to wind, oil, etc. and think about our long-range future.
If you pay your worst teacher the same as you pay your best teacher, your best teacher is going to leave and your worst teacher will gladly continue to incompetently teach your children. Across the board pay raises are a poor substitute for intelligent compensation based on who is doing a good job and who isn’t.
You are correct in your argument, castor.
But just keep doing nothing and see where that gets you.
Castor, I agree, and with one other aspect added. Science, Math and Special Education teachers are hard to find. THOSE teachers should be paid more but, are NOT. Why then should anyone sell their services to school districts for the same pay? That’s not the way things work in the real world.
If I had known I could have made over $125,000 a year as a School Superintendent in a NW Oklahoma town of about 1400 people, I never would have moved to the Big City.
This can not be called a pay raise. When more work days are added on it isn’t a raise.
Jane, the added work days are not proportionate to the salary increase. We don’t make $1000 a day, so adding $2000 to salary and 2 days to the calendar is still a pay increase. Over the course of the plan we will teach 5 more days and make $5000 a year more. Now, I remain skeptical that we really will receive that much of an increase (ie, that at least part of it will not be offset by decreased state contributions to retirement or insurance or whatever), but as proposed yes it IS a pay raise.