News
A Governor's Challenge: 'Raise the Raises'

Backed by the NEA state affiliate, Maryland's governor proposes a unique way to attract and retain quality teachers.

When educators in Maryland's Carroll County school district say they're "crossing the line" to bring in needed income, they're not talking about stealing cars. They're talking about stealing away to districts in neighboring Pennsylvania, where starting and mid-range teachers' salaries can be as much as $5,000 more than those at home.

Increasingly, Maryland public school teachers are being forced to cross some line to pay the bills--be it by switching districts, leaving the state, moving to private sector employment, or plain old moonlighting.

"When I was at a high school meeting recently, several people left early to go to their second jobs," laments Cindy Cummings, president of the 1,500- member Carroll County Education Association. "It's pathetic that professional people have to do this, and it has to have an impact on their classes and students. One of my members, who has a brand new baby, works a paper route and only gets three to four hours of sleep a night."

Facing rising teacher turnover--7.5 percent as of last summer--and an impending wave of retirements, Carroll County desperately needs to boost salaries to attract replacements.

With starting teacher pay of only $28,410--for a district in which homes list from $125,000 to $400,000--district recruiters must now reach as far afield as Georgia.

Fortunately, Maryland has a governor who recognizes his state's problem with recruiting and retaining quality educators, and this governor, Parris Glen-dening, is willing to try something new.

For Fiscal Year 2001, Glendening has proposed an initiative called the Governor's Teacher Salary Challenge Grants, a plan to raise the salary of every Maryland teacher by 10 percent over two years.

The grant concept is simple: If a school district and its union negotiate a minimum salary increase of 4 percent a year over two years, the state will kick in another 1 percent in each of those years. And hard-pressed Maryland districts will also receive a direct state subsidy to reach these targets.

The state contribution will come out of a $100 million fund replenished by Maryland's tobacco lawsuit settlement--$4 billion over 25 years.

The Maryland State Teachers Association, the NEA state affiliate that helped Glendening draft the grant proposal, is working with the governor to pass the program without amendments that would water it down.

"Some counties wanted to be able to use this $100 million for any district need," notes MSTA government relations director Diana Saquella, "but the governor insisted that this money be dedicated exclusively to supplementing, not supplanting, locally negotiated teacher raises."

At press time, the governor's salary grant program stood a very strong chance of being passed by the state legislature. Some reasons why:

• The public realizes the need to boost teacher salaries. In a recent poll, the public supported Glendening's grant proposal by a 71-19 percent margin.

• The Maryland State Teachers Association has helped organize a coalition to support this plan. Cindy Cummings and other MSTA leaders weren't alone when they testified in favor of the governor's proposal before the state Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. They were joined by allies from the state school superintendents, school boards, superintendents, and principals.

  "The Cecil County school superintendent actually begged the committee to pass this bill," recalls Cummings. "He said so many teachers live in his county, yet 'cross the line' to teach for better pay in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey."

• The salary challenge grants foster local initiative. MSTA President Karl Pence, who persuaded Governor Glendening to put this plan on the table, calls the challenge grants "a brilliant way to enhance local contract bargaining, and a chance for districts to say 'We can do a little bit more than we planned to do.'"

  MSTA prefers local bargaining to "annual begging for state raises," Pence stresses.

  "Collective bargaining meets local conditions and has more immediacy for our members," he points out. "It gives them a sense of ownership in compensation issues and encourages experimentation at the local level."

• The concept is working already. Pence says the whole idea of the governor's challenge grant program is to convince local school boards to "raise the raises." And even before Maryland legislators voted on the final FY 2001 budget, that's what happened in Carroll County.

  As contract talks got underway in March, the Carroll school board insisted it didn't have the money to fund the challenge grant's 4 percent threshold raise. But "several hundred" CCEA members attended a March 13 school board meeting.

  "Some 30 of our members made articulate, eloquent, and sincere appeals for a decent raise," says local leader Cindy Cummings, "and the board finally 'found' enough money for a 4 percent raise this year, for both teachers and support staff. Our next job is to get this grant proposal through the legislature, and our raise through the county commissioners."

• The time to raise educators' salaries is now. "When you give a teacher a salary comparable to that of other professions that require the same education, you're saying the teacher is worthy, a professional," Cummings concludes. "Teachers' self-esteem would improve greatly if they did not have to scrounge for every dollar or 'cross the line' to other states."

For more information, go to the Maryland State Teachers Association Web site at www.msta.nea.org.

In Their Own Words

"Our teachers need more than our respect. . .they need a pay raise. If we are serious about our commitment to teachers, and if we really want to attract and retain the best and the brightest in our classrooms, we must come together and help our teachers with a family-supporting, professional salary."

--Maryland Governor Parris Glendening in his State of the State Address, January 19, 2000.

Your Dues Did It

• Chase Speaks Out: Critics of teachers' fair dismissal laws claim they protect the incompetent. In a recent hard-hitting press commentary, NEA President Bob Chase talks back. "The idea that K-12 teachers have a job for life--something called 'tenure'--is preposterous," says Chase. "What they have are fair dismissal rights, the right to a fair hearing, and an appeal." For more, go to www.nea.org/publiced/chase/bc000312.html.

• Attention RA and armchair delegates: Information on this year's NEA Representative Assembly is online at www.nea.org/ra. There you'll find updates on RA conference schedules, issues, caucuses, logistics, and special events. And for more on the Chicago meeting site, go to www.ieanea.org/features/Chicago/chicago.htm.