Just heard back from Senator Warren Daniel [Insulting & Pandering] This was his letter to me: I appreciate your email and as you point out this is not an across the board COLA as has been done in prior years. The pay raise is designed to help our state recruit and retain new teachers who are currently making far below the national average. Our veteran teachers, those who are nearing retirement, are already making significantly above the national teacher pay average. I take issue with your claim that the 7% average pay raise is “dishonest” or deceptive. It is only dishonest or deceptive to those who lack the mathematical knowledge base to realize that when you calculate an average figure, there are some numbers below and some numbers above the average. In this case, the goal of the legislature was to reform the 37 step pay system, reduce it to 6 steps, and bring our entry and early year teacher pay more in line with other states in the region. In future years we hope to begin implementing a merit-based supplemental pay system. On a final note, I applaud you for having the phrase “Jesus Saves” as your email name, and I think that puts into perspective the reminder that all of the worldy goods we have, salary or otherwise, are just temporary.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:25:00 +0000