Charters Throw a Monkey Wrench in Legislative Bill
From Washington's Paramount Duty:
ACTION ALERT: STOP Betsy DeVos policies in WA! In the dead of night, at 1:30 in the morning, the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed the bill proposing to address the school district levy lid issue, SB 5313.
But the only way they could do so was to meet the demands of Democratic Senators Guy Palumbo (1st District) and Mark Mullet (5th District) to add two poison pill amendments that would cut teacher pay, undermine public employee bargaining rights across the state, and increase funding for charter schools.
This bill will still have to be approved by the full State Senate, the State House, and Governor Inslee. That means we have the opportunity to stop it. We need to insist that the legislature instead pass a clean levy lid lift bill that does not give money to charter schools, cut teachers' pay, or reduce public employee bargaining rights. The bill must restore levy flexibility to all the districts in the state that need it. But we need your calls right now.
TAKE ACTION! Here's what you can do to help.
Call or email your Senator (especially if your Senator is a Democrat) and urge them to reject these amendments -- and pass a clean bill that provides levy flexibility for every district in the state.
Then, call Governor Jay Inslee and tell him to issue a public threat to veto any bill that cuts teacher pay, undermines bargaining rights, or gives more money to charter schools: (360) 902-4111.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
The first amendment would wind up slashing teacher pay and introduce the awful right-wing policies of people like Scott Walker to our state. It would limit teachers from collectively bargaining with school districts for fair wages for many important educational priorities. For example, this would prevent special education teachers from getting paid what they deserve for managing the process of IEPs for students.
The second amendment would allow charter schools to get new public money from the state, without requiring a public vote, even as the legislature claims they don't have enough money to meet the basic education needs of students in our public schools. It would also rescind the one of the few limitations Washington currently has on establishing new charter schools in our state.
These amendments are right out of the Betsy DeVos agenda. Teachers across the state deserve good wages—not this pay cut—for the important work they do for our children in our public schools. With this proposed pay cut, the teacher shortage will likely grow worse and good teachers will leave. And, it is totally inappropriate to let charter schools have more public money, especially when our public schools are still not fully funded.
Senators Palumbo and Mullet refused to stop the cuts to local public school districts and held the entire state budget hostage unless these extreme demands were met. This is no way to govern, and it comes at the expense of our public schools and teachers.
ACTION ALERT: STOP Betsy DeVos policies in WA! In the dead of night, at 1:30 in the morning, the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed the bill proposing to address the school district levy lid issue, SB 5313.
But the only way they could do so was to meet the demands of Democratic Senators Guy Palumbo (1st District) and Mark Mullet (5th District) to add two poison pill amendments that would cut teacher pay, undermine public employee bargaining rights across the state, and increase funding for charter schools.
This bill will still have to be approved by the full State Senate, the State House, and Governor Inslee. That means we have the opportunity to stop it. We need to insist that the legislature instead pass a clean levy lid lift bill that does not give money to charter schools, cut teachers' pay, or reduce public employee bargaining rights. The bill must restore levy flexibility to all the districts in the state that need it. But we need your calls right now.
TAKE ACTION! Here's what you can do to help.
Call or email your Senator (especially if your Senator is a Democrat) and urge them to reject these amendments -- and pass a clean bill that provides levy flexibility for every district in the state.
Then, call Governor Jay Inslee and tell him to issue a public threat to veto any bill that cuts teacher pay, undermines bargaining rights, or gives more money to charter schools: (360) 902-4111.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
The first amendment would wind up slashing teacher pay and introduce the awful right-wing policies of people like Scott Walker to our state. It would limit teachers from collectively bargaining with school districts for fair wages for many important educational priorities. For example, this would prevent special education teachers from getting paid what they deserve for managing the process of IEPs for students.
The second amendment would allow charter schools to get new public money from the state, without requiring a public vote, even as the legislature claims they don't have enough money to meet the basic education needs of students in our public schools. It would also rescind the one of the few limitations Washington currently has on establishing new charter schools in our state.
These amendments are right out of the Betsy DeVos agenda. Teachers across the state deserve good wages—not this pay cut—for the important work they do for our children in our public schools. With this proposed pay cut, the teacher shortage will likely grow worse and good teachers will leave. And, it is totally inappropriate to let charter schools have more public money, especially when our public schools are still not fully funded.
Senators Palumbo and Mullet refused to stop the cuts to local public school districts and held the entire state budget hostage unless these extreme demands were met. This is no way to govern, and it comes at the expense of our public schools and teachers.
Comments
-last chance
WEA will be coming back for more next year.
Perhaps the Senators that provided the amendments had enough. I certainly know that I've had enough.
Teresa
That was irresponsible.
The cuts are going to hurt. Probably hurt bad. It’s time for restraint.
https://crosscut.com/2019/04/facing-cuts-seattle-school-librarians-fight-save-their-budget
"as even the Seattle Times acknowledges, the result would be a cut. The wording in the amendment is designed to make it look like the base pay is protected, but TRI isn't included in that, even though it is a key element of the compensation teachers get. https://www.seattletimes.com/.../after-late-night.../
Slash EM; time from restraint from whom?
The vitriol and panic comes from the fact that these items are as poorly defined as the McCleary fix is funded. The narrative has shifted from "The State isn't anywhere close to funding the school system" to "Those teachers got a pay raise and it's all their fault".
Here is SPS we agreed to one of the lowest percentage raises in the state because we looked at sustainability and agreed to 8% less than we were due based on competitive salaries and past lack of increases. We already are looking out for the community. Fully funded schools need materials, buildings, and staff to actually teach.
Every year for the past 4 or 5 years we've had massive drama and a number of strikes. Don't you think this impacts teaching and learning when everyone is on edge, getting let go, teams busted and moved around, benefits are unclear, and legislators attacking you for their inaction and failures?
It definitely does do harm to student learning and retaining teachers in a profession that loses 50% of new staff in the first five years of a career.
The McCleary job is not done and it will take progressive taxation on the massive wealth in this state to do so. Do it all at once and let us get back to focusing on our relationships with our students and their success once we have a sense of safety for ourselves.
Mr. Theo Moriarty
In Seattle in 2017-2018, a new teacher with a BA made $50,603. Teachers with a master’s degree and that have worked for the district for 14+ years, made $96,608.
In Seattle in 2018-2019, a new teacher with a BA made $56,947. Teachers with a master’s degree and that have worked for the district for 14+ years, made $108.651.
So, a new Seattle teacher received a $6,344 raise (12.5%) and a senior teacher received a $12,043 raise (12.5%) from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2018-2019 school year.
Teachers are contracted for 180 days of work, which is 36 weeks of the year. That’s not to say teachers don’t put in extra hours grading homework etc., but teachers in general receive significantly more vacation than most other salaried workers.
Teachers also receive a guaranteed pension of 60% of their final salary for life if the teach for 30+ years. To buy an annuity with a similar income stream would cost around $1,000,000, so in other words, teachers retire with around a $1,000,000 retirement benefit. And because the pension is based on the final years of teaching, when teachers receive a 12.5% raise, its will be costing tax papers an extra 12.5% for the 20+ years that the teacher is retired.
Do I appreciate the work our teachers do? Absolutely.
But I would ask why the district didn’t instead give new teachers the $12,043 raise and senior teachers the $6,344 raise? How many other workers get a 12.5% raise the year before the are set to retire? How many other workers get a guaranteed for life pension boost the year before they retire? How many other works receive a guaranteed pension at all?
The problem as I see it is the union will always write the contract so the senior teachers get the biggest absolute raise (and the biggest chunk of new funds), and then cry that the newest teacher's are underpaid.
Grab the popcorn.
Flat rate increases that impact ALL staff would be the fair solution, and the LAST THING a top heavy org like SSD will agree to.
Welcome....
What nobody ever states is these "raises" are more of an inflation adjustment after years of not receiving COLA in an area that has seen unchecked growth. Compare number for yourself: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_211.60.asp?current=yes (I can't find Seattle specific comparisons, but the state numbers are depressing)
Here's a quick Seattle 10-year inflation calculator: It's not pretty (as we all know) http://www.in2013dollars.com/Seattle-Washington/price-inflation
OuttaSeattle
Senator Mullet is also working on a bill that considers the amount of time teachers spend working outside of the classroom.
Clarified Butter
No wonder this female-dominated profession has become such a low status job.
Now that salaries are more commensurate with education and experience locally, the narrative becomes that they are money grubbers.
How many of you who are complaining about these salaries want your own kids to become public school teachers?
Didn't Thinkso
Two experienced teachers, in a single household have the capacity to earn a combined income of $200k per year. Retirement and health care benefits are an extra bonus.
In Seattle the steps only go to 15 years. After that there are no more step increases. As for Cola, since I've been teaching in Washington (1998) thee have actually only been a couple of years where we actually got the Cola. People voted for us to get it, however every year something would come up and it didn't happen.