Posted on 01/25/2005 11:46:20 AM PST by Theodore R.
Lawmakers address low pay in education
By Jessica Lowell rep5@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - The employment picture for K-12 teachers and school staff across the state is equally dismal.
In Natrona County, teachers are being aggressively recruited by out-of-state districts with the promise of dramatically higher salaries.
In Laramie County, school bus drivers with 30 years of experience make less than $15 an hour; some have filed for bankruptcy protection because they can't make ends meet.
In Teton County, teachers routinely work second jobs to earn enough money to pay their bills.
In Weston County, teachers have signed their children up for low-income school lunch and breakfast because their low wages qualify them for such programs.
In Albany County, University of Wyoming students who are more than a year short of completing their educations to be educators are being recruited via telephone and e-mail with the promise of signing bonuses, free laptop computers and the promise to pay off student loans.
John Lyttle, assistant superintendent for human resources at Laramie County School District 1, said he recently attended a national school administrators' human resources conference. The presenter at the seminar recommended that school districts target teachers in places like Wyoming because the pay is low to fill their increasing vacancies, estimated to be 2.2 million nationwide in the next five to 10 years.
"I raised my hand and said, 'I'm from Wyoming. What do I do?'" he said. He got no suggestions.
In all, more than 300 people traveled from across the state Monday to Cheyenne to testify in front of the House Education Committee about the challenges they face in the education business.
Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship said the state is facing a crisis.
"Wyoming teacher salaries are well below the national average," Blankenship said in the packed meeting room in the Herschler Building. "In the next five years, 4,500 (Wyoming) teachers will be eligible to retire."
Of 378 reading teachers in the state, 31 are age 40 or younger, Blankenship said. Three-quarters of the science teachers are now older than 45 and are eligible to retire within a fairly short period of time.
"Nationwide, the teaching force is aging, and universities are not keeping pace with the demand. There's going to be a shortage of 900,000," Blankenship said. "We're bringing a knife to a gunfight."
The National Center for Educational Statistics ranks Wyoming 43rd in the nation for teachers' salary. At best, Blankenship said, Wyoming trails the national average teacher salary by $7,000 a year.
"It is legitimate to fund raises outside the model this year," Blankenship said, referring to the education resource block grant that's due to be reevaluated later this year. "This doesn't get better if we wait."
At stake in House Bill 185 is $45.2 million from the school foundation fund that would be distributed to school districts to pay for salary and wage increases across the board for teachers and school staff.
The proposal is similar to one Blankenship has offered in the past.
As drafted, HB 185 would increase salary levels and training funds, but it's not intended to add more employees. The bill would pay $3,181 for every professional, certified and classified full-time equivalent staff with benefits included. It would be up to districts to decide how to spend it and report to state lawmakers on how it would be spent.
After more than two and a half hours of testimony, the House Education Committee endorsed a change to the bill brought by Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, himself an educator and coach.
Instead of applying the money to training and staff development, Harshman said it should be made available for recruitment and signing bonuses as well - particularly useful in replacing retiring teachers, he said. The money would provide an inducement for teachers while not increasing the number of teachers on staff.
"It's important to note this money comes from the school foundation fund, which has a surplus of about $280 million, and not the general fund," Harshman said, so it's not competing with money that could be invested in the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund.
The school foundation fund gets its money from mineral taxes paid to the state that are dedicated to education.
Committee Chairman Jeff Wasserberger, R-Gillette, also a school administrator and coach, said the bill faces an uphill battle. If it survives a referral to the House Appropriations Committee over the funding, and three readings on the House floor, he said, it will go to the Senate.
"Your efforts will have to be redoubled or this bill will not pass," Wasserberger said, following the standing ovation the committee's 8-1 vote prompted. The sole no vote on the committee was from Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis.
15 bucks an hour in Wyoming isn't that bad. And who cares about the 30 years of experience? A driver pretty uch plateau's after 6 months on the job.
This notion that educators are underpaid is ludicrous. It always fails to mention that they don't work very hard, get summers off, and that their masters degrees are worthless compared to other professional degrees.
Well, if competing employers are offering them higher salaries, they may just be underpaid.
Hey, somebody's got to be number 43.
Now, I don't know what the problem is in Wyoming, but here in maine it is becasue the teachers are taken for granted by both parties. http://www.christian-news-in-maine.com/january15-2005.htm
South Dakota pays it's teachers the least, $32,414 and it's students' average SAT Scores for 2004 were 594 V + 597 M = 1191
California pays it's teachers the most and it's students' average 2004 SAT scores were 501 V + 519 M = 1020.
Our Nation's Capitol, Washington DC, under permanent Democrat rule is #5 in teacher salaries at $53,194 and it's students are #51 on the SAT with 2004 scores of 489 M + 476 V = 965
Are they arguing that they need to pay their teachers more so their students will do better???
Because eyeballing the numbers, it seems that if they were to pay their teachers more their students should do worse!!!
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