The chairman of the House Common Education Committee has introduced his legislation to provide raises for teachers. Rep. Michael Rogers’ legislation would give teachers a $6,000 raise over three years through a phase-in approach.
“It’s important that we develop a realistic plan that can be approved and signed into law,” said Rogers. “We are again facing a budget gap that is going to limit new expenditures, so we have to find a responsible solution for our teachers while being good stewards of the limited taxpayer dollars we have available.”
House Bill 1114 boosts teacher pay by $1,000 next year, another $2,000 the following year, and teachers would receive a $3,000 raise in year three of the phase-in. Rogers believes it would boost Oklahoma’s average teacher pay to the highest in the region and moves teacher pay from 48th to 27th in the country.
Rogers’ plan has the support of House Speaker Charles McCall.
“Our goal is to provide our teachers a pay increase without raising taxes on already overtaxed Oklahomans,” said McCall. “Any pay raise plan is going to face challenges when revenues are down, but I believe House Republicans have the political will to get this done in 2017, and I think we can find efficiencies in government spending to pay for it.”
As a retired teacher: WHERE IS MY INCREASE TO MY Teacher’s RETIREMENT under this plan? We laid the ground work for these teachers. We deserve an increase also. That old saying: you can’t get blood out of a turnip: there IS no money in this state to give this raise.
The legislature ALSO owes raises to state employees, high way patrol and those retired from these groups.
Actually, the pension plans you mentioned are being overly funded to make up for past legislatures’ failure. They’re on track to be fully funded.
New state employees don’t even get the same benefits you get, because it was unsustainable. Be grateful.
A bunch of pols are claiming plans to create 5 to 6k teacher raises. Are any pols providing realistic ways to pay for the raises? As the PEL guy says, ‘talk is cheap’.