Chuck Hughes, RSSS Board of Education
♦ I understand the State is being lobbied for a 10% pay raise for teachers.
Although I believe every teacher should be paid a decent salary, with raises based upon tenure and performance, simply increasing salaries for everyone does little to solve the problem of teacher migration between Local Education Agencies (LEA) (school systems). Local dollars drive this train as some LEAs have bloated fund balance coffers that allow them to pay a higher supplement than a less prosperous LEA. In the end, the ultimate salary, State pay plus LEA supplement, loads the dice in favor of affluent school districts. In the end, this is a “supplement bidding war” in which poverty laden LEAs, such as Rowan County, cannot compete.
One solution to this inequity would be to remove the LEA’s supplement option and let the State teacher salary scale reflect teacher pay based upon experience and education, complimented by a supplement based upon a cost of living index for each county. Only then will poorer counties have a fair chance to retain talented teachers who would otherwise be recruited by richer counties. This change would also mute LEA’s ongoing complaint that “we are losing teachers to Kalamazoo, so we have to find some way to compete with their supplements.” Often the only option for the LEA is to drain its fund balance in order to be competitive or accept the losses.
This is not a new concept. Federal agencies, such as the Veteran’s Administration (VA), have stabilized employee movement between one VA to another by establishing pay scales differentiated ONLY by the cost of living in each area. Thus, the playing field is leveled.
Let’s ask the North Carolina General Assembly to end the supplement war.
