Heres what the News and Observer says about the pay raises: newsobserver/2014/05/27/3891976/teachers-get-higher-pay-but-give.html The Senate’s plan would: • Create a new pay schedule that has substantial increases built in. Some teachers would see 16 percent to 20 percent increases in pay. In exchange, those teachers who choose the new plan, which is called “professional status” in the documents, would relinquish longevity pay and tenure, which is officially called “career status.” • Keep pay flat for teachers who keep their tenure. • Continue to pay teachers an additional 10 percent for having a master’s degree or having started work on one and an additional 12 percent for holding national board certification. • Jump North Carolina teachers from among the lowest nationally in teacher pay to somewhere in the middle of the pack, depending on which measure is used. North Carolina teachers would be among the highest paid in the Southeast under the Senate plan. Rankings of teacher pay in the state has become a potent political issue, and the movement to address that is reflected in the new plan. • Repeal a law that had forced schools to eliminate tenure. Two state judges have said the law was unconstitutional, but Republicans had backed it as a necessary reform to increase student outcomes. Plateaus of pay Republicans have been focused on eliminating a long-standing system of pay for teachers that is based on a teacher’s years in the job; the highest-paid teachers are the longest-serving ones. The new plan creates plateaus of pay that are higher than the current schedule. For example, a starting teacher would be paid $33,000 per year for the first four years, under the draft plan. Currently, the pay schedule pays a starting salary of $30,800 for a teacher’s first six years. The current plan and the proposed plan take different paths after the beginning years, too. The new plan would add $1,000 a year until the 21st year, where it levels out at $50,000 through year 30. After 30 years, a teacher gets a 1 percent bonus. The current plan pays a teacher at 20 years a salary of $41,710, but it keeps rising each year. Still, the effort by Republicans to tie pay to performance would remain. Local school boards would be required to offer four-year performance-based contracts to the top 25 percent of nontenured teachers for the 2014-15 school year. Those teachers would receive an additional $500 in base pay the first year, rising to $2,000 by the fourth year. Starting in the 2015-16 school year, school systems could offer a similar bonus that would cover, in all, up to 35 percent of its teachers. Jacob Vigdor, an education expert from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, said it’s not likely the state will see big changes in teaching rosters if the Senate plan is adopted. Vigdor spoke to a legislative committee this year on teacher pay and effectiveness. Teachers secure in their jobs would be willing to exchange tenure for raises, he said, while teachers who are nervous about their jobs because they don’t get along with their supervisors or feel underappreciated will keep their tenure and raises. Moreover, Vigdor said, principals don’t think that dismissing teachers will improve their schools. Most principals would rather work with the teachers they have, he said, including those teachers who need to do better. “The first instinct is to help personnel through those troubles and to help them improve,” he said. Read more here: newsobserver/2014/05/27/3891976/teachers-get-higher-pay-but-give.html#storylink=cpy
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 23:46:59 +0000
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