In the midst of the HS discussions I was chatting privately with a teacher about science pathways and he mentioned everything is in flux due to the pending budget cuts/reduction in staff for next year. This comes on top of news that the district is proposing cutting back librarians at all the middle and high schools to 1/2 time. On top of that, because of my participation in the JAMS BLT I'm also seeing the cutbacks effects directly at the school.
The point of these separate observations is that advanced learning rise and falls with the district as a whole and we're really at a crisis point. This is the time to get activity lobbying at the district and state level to fix the funding situation. If something does not change, the quality of education is not going to be the same next year and going forward.
4 comments:
There was plenty of money last year, but SPS chose to give it all to the teachers in the form of a massive pay raise. Now, there's nothing left and we're supposed to lobby for more. Seriously?
Fed Up
I've never head such an inaccurate statement on the HCC board. "Plenty of money" - that has not been the case in the 17 years I've been involved in the SPS. The district has chosen to punish the teachers for pushing for a well-deserved increase in wages (one could hardly call it "massive") by cutting FTEs. As of this month the state legislature is controlled by Democrats who should be concerned about education in the state. Now would be an excellent time to encourage the state to step up to the plate instead of encouraging the import of highly educated workers from other states and other countries to staff their highly profitable businesses. The Democrat-controlled state legislature blew an entire decade of control of the legislature in the 2000's. Now would be an excellent time for them to prove themselves useful to their constituents or be voted out again. I have been profoundly disappointed by Democrats in the state legislature after over 30 years in Seattle. They often use the excuses that Fed Up mentions while handing out pork on the sly. They have put education on the back burner every single chance they have gotten. Gary Locke left a particularly spineless legacy behind in this respect. I believe it is time to lobby the state legislature to FOR ONCE prove their worth and fund education or step aside. It doesn't help the constituents of the state when Democrats suck up to Republicans.
-Parent
Parent,
Seattle teachers received a 10.5% pay raise last year, compared to an average pay increase in the US of roughly 3%. So yes, I stand by my statement that Seattle teachers' pay raise last year was "massive". I'd also use the word "irresponsible" when referring to SPS leadership's role in the negotiations. And that's not even including the effect of the pay raise on long term pension obligations.
If the teacher pay increase was held to 7.5% (more than double the national average, so still really big if not "massive"), SPS would have the following amount of additional money available this year for the support services they claim they cannot afford:
3% x $65,000 average salary x ~3200 teachers = $6 Million
An extra $6M would go a long way.
Fed Up
@ Fed Up, I think if you're going to compare teacher raises to average US raises, you probably need to look at more than one year. For example, if teachers got no or small raises for years prior, a larger raise could still be justified if it's attempting to make up for ground that was lost in the past. A single-year comparison is way too simplistic.
it's complicated
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