Posted on 02/15/2005 5:47:56 AM PST by Theodore R.
Group rallies for higher teacher salaries
By Becky Orr rep6@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Freya Butterfield says she would like to teach in Wyoming when she graduates this spring from the University of Wyoming.
But she won't, because she can't, she said.
"I'm not going to get paid enough," Butterfield said to a crowd of hundreds gathered Monday on the steps of the state Capitol.
The group came in support of the Legislature providing more money for salaries for support staff and teachers.
Many at the rally told emotional stories about low teacher salaries. They urged people to contact their legislators to support House Bill 185. The bill would provide about $28.4 million statewide for pay increases for teachers and staff.
Butterfield is a Wyoming native. She is a student teacher in Sheridan now and said she loves the state. But she said there's no incentive for her or other classmates at UW to stay in Wyoming when other states pay significantly more.
"Even though Wyoming holds a deep place in our hearts, we have to move on," she said. She said she hopes HB 185 passes so she can return to teach here.
Butterfield was among the speakers at an event called "Valentine's Day Rally: We Love Our Schools." The Wyoming Parent Network coordinated Monday's rally.
Pete Laybourn, a member of the network, said there is a broad coalition of support for more money for education. It includes school administrators, teachers, parents and school board members, he said.
Some people at the rally carried placards and balloons and wore pink buttons. They also were given paper to send a Valentine message to their state legislators about their opinions.
"What sort of a shameful, disgraceful situation are we involved in here?" Laybourn said after Butterfield's comments.
The money sought in HB 185 is a "fraction of what is sitting in the school foundation guarantee program," he said.
"We're not here asking to take from any other department or any other program in the state of Wyoming," he said. "We have the funds."
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship said Wyoming's average teacher salary is about $10,000 below the national average, which puts the state 43rd in the nation.
Deb McLeland of the Campbell County District 1 school board said demands from teachers are growing as salaries are going down.
"This is not being nationally competitive," she said. "House Bill 185 deserves a public forum on the Senate floor."
Kelley O'Toole, Simone Sellars and Lindsey Hanlon are members of a future teachers' club at Cheyenne's East High. They told the group that they want to be teachers, but unless the salary structures in Wyoming change, their dreams or the location will change.
Sellars said students at East aren't interested in going into teaching, because there's no money in it. Her parents have started to encourage her to go into something else because of the salaries.
Hanlon said her mom has been a special education teacher for 20 years. "No matter how unruly the child, or how difficult the objective, these things haven't made her give up hope or think about quitting. However, money (or the absence of it) has," she said.
Ken Vernon of Cheyenne said 5,000 teachers in Wyoming are eligible to retire within the next five years. Right now, more than 350 teachers in Cheyenne are eligible to retire, he said.
"The crisis is now," Vernon said.
Contacted after the rally, Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, said he's not opposed to increasing teacher salaries. But he said HB 185 is not the way to do it.
The proposed bill is arbitrary and raises everyone's salary by $2,000, which would not meet a state Supreme Court mandate that funding has to be cost-based, he said.
He is opposed because the state's funding model is going through recalibration. "That is the way it needs to be done," he said, adding the salary issue could be evaluated in the recalibration process.
Coe said there is about $47 million that would be available to school districts through Senate File 47 and the external cost adjustment. The $33.7 million proposed in SF 47 is to help districts pay for health insurance costs. The external cost adjustment would provide an additional $13.5 million statewide.
"People haven't paid attention to that," he said of Senate File 47, which would free up about $33 million to school districts. The districts could spend the money on salaries if they chose to, he said.
That bill is in the House Appropriations Committee.
You know what the pay scale is when you become a teacher. OR a nurse. Or a worker at McDonalds. So now are all salaries supposed to be equal? If you don't want that kind of money, go into another field.
Possibly but consider this. The FOUR most IMPORTANT jobs in the USA, Cop, Firefighter, Teacher, Nurse are ALSO the
four most UNDERPAID!
I wanted to be a cop when I retired from active duty but getting 35K a year to risk my ass just don't cut it.
The underpaid myth is alive and well, I see.
So let's leave it to the free market instead of government fiat to determine salary. Why do you think other professions pay more ? Because they aren't government workers, nor are most of them unionized.
In point of fact, I know quite a few nurses and teachers who are being paid extremely well. My neighbor, for example, is a nurse who works in the ER 28 hours every weekend. She gets in excess of 40k per year. That's about $30 per hour. You think she's underpaid ?
Some places. Other places have regular shifts, but that isn’t uncommon.
They’ll typically be scheduled to work two days/week. My cousin was scheduled typically Monday/Thursday. You go in at 5:00 pm on Sunday and get off at 5:00 pm Monday (for the “Monday” shift).
That one “day” constitutes three eight-hour “shifts.” So you can tell that during the course of a “regular” week, you automatically rack up eight hours of overtime. When they disclose pay they don’t include that in the figures.
And, you can (at least in his case) “cover” for a vacation or illness one day/week without any authorization. In that case you rack up the entire thing at overtime rate.
In that case - working your shift plus covering a day for someone – you end up with 40 hours at regular rate plus 32 at overtime rate.
Keep in mind that they’re not alert/awake the entire day. They might respond to a car accident or drive around to check fire alarms at apartment complexes – but the rest of their day is spent checking equipment, washing/waxing, cooking, eating, playing basketball or pool, watching TV, playing Nintendo, or sleeping.
Those that poor-mouth the PD/FD etc, are either PD/FDers trying to manipulate or gain sympathy or don’t have a clue.
They’re compensated at top-GD-dollar, and we haven’t even gotten into their obscene benefits.
I just married a teacher, and I hear her bitch alot about the pay. I have stopped telling her she made her own choices in life.
Yep, I find where I live that firemen (Vancouver, WA) are very well compensated and if the general public were aware I think they might be crying foul.
tenured public school teachers in the NY metro suburbs make $100K+. In addition to a beneifts and pension package that is unreal. All for 10 months work. All on the backs of workers in the private sector who are struggling to see their wages keep pace.
This number, $10,000 and the ranking 43rd mean nothing. The question is whether the salaries are capable of recruiting and retaining teachers. Although there is a great deal of posturing in the article, there is nothing that directly answers the question of whether these salaries are capable of recruiting and retaining teachers. The students say they want to be paid more but if it doesn't take more to get people to teach in Wyoming it would be stupid to do it.
Well, she is not overpaid! Have you seen some of the people in the ER? It looks like the Barnum & Bailey Circus. She is working more than an 8 hour day and she is at risk from STD's, AIDS, etc.
Please spare me the sarcastic comments about select another field. I appreciate teachers who watch rude, unruly children who disrupt the class. I have seen even small children get into adult's faces because they cannot be challenged or disciplined. And the parents can be worse than the children.
I was going to go back into teaching. When it came for me to get a TB test, I thought that the teens should be tested for STD's to make sure they didn't give me something. I'm monogomous, married to the same man and have no medical propblems. If I taught or worked in the medical field I would be fearful of compromising my health by exposing myself to my 'clients'. Teachers, firemen, police, medical professionals do not get half of what they earn.
I would also wonder just where Wyoming ranks when it comes to the cost of living? These teachers could be making $10k or more above the average, and still they would have a hard time paying the bills if they were in NY, LA, or some other locations.
Exactly. That is one of many things that determines whether their current compensation is "market competitive". The rankings listed mean nothing.
Of course they do, and many with poor qualifications benefit by better qualified people choosing to be engineers and managers. Teachers have many other rackets, and if one wants to (and not all teachers are like this thank heaven), a teacyer can use materials over and over again and reduce preparation time to almost nothing. (Yes, some times after the first five years I walked into classrooms with absolutely no thought to what was going to happen that day.)
In one school (continuation school) the teachers got their salaries for teaching 9 to noon four days a week. The higher per hour pay was justified because the kids were so tough in this school, but few classes had more than 7 kids attend.
Fortunately for me, I was laid off for the following year and went back to aerospace and a pay raise. BTW, I had a BS and MS, and the MS did add $500 a year to my pay. (1975)
In the free market teachers would be paid on how good they are, not by how many degrees they have or how long they've been a teacher. Abolish the socialistic public school system! Give charter schools a chance!
"In the free market teachers would be paid on how good they are
Wouldn't work because administrators would pay their "pet" teachers more than the disfavored without regard to "quality" in teaching.
Possibly but consider this. The FOUR most IMPORTANT jobs in the USA, Cop, Firefighter, Teacher, Nurse are ALSO the
four most UNDERPAID!
I wanted to be a cop when I retired from active duty but getting 35K a year to risk my ass just don't cut it.
Excellent point. It's why the number of male teachers like me is at a 40 year low.
That being said, money isn't the motivator for me to teach and we do still get decent benefits (though the amount being withheld from my paycheck has made my salary actually go DOWN in the past few years).
There are some areas where teachers probably get a little too much. I may be of the minority opinion among teachers in that we shouldn't get paid as much as say technical positions. But a little more wouldn't hurt:).
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