News
Double Standard to New Standard

Alabama NEA members win historic legislation to boost teacher pay to the national average. The keys: unity and bipartisan political action.

In Alabama, there are standards and double standards. Teachers in the state are routinely held accountable for making sure students produce "national average" test scores. Yet experienced Alabama educators average only $36,500 a year, far below the $42,000 national teacher average, or even the $41,000 averaged by experienced educators in neighboring Georgia.

That double standard has a double edge in northeast Alabama's DeKalb County, where you either stay put and teach--for less--on your home turf or commute across the state line for a decent paycheck.

This tough choice disturbs DeKalb fourth grade teacher Anita Gibson, who teaches Alabama history and reading in rural Rainsville, just a short drive from the Peach State.

"Many teachers in this area go to Georgia or into other fields of employment that are more financially rewarding than teaching," laments this NEA activist. "We need their expertise to help prepare our students for careers in the latest technology."

"Teachers need more pay, or we'll lose more good people," agrees Virginia Bailer, a parent and school lunchroom manager in neighboring Jackson County, Alabama.

"For my money," says this ESP activist, "I want the best for children. Teachers can influence kids both inside and outside of school."

Bailer feels so strongly about teacher pay that last spring she collected letters from teacher colleagues at Section High School in Jackson, took a personal day, and rode to the state Capitol with Anita Gibson to lobby legislators for a bill to increase Alabama teacher salaries to the national average.

This precedent-setting legislation, jointly drafted and promoted by the Alabama Education Association and Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, wouldn't even have surfaced for a committee vote if teachers like Gibson and support staffers like Bailer had refused to join forces. The bill was fiercely opposed by powerful interests like the higher education establishment, school boards, and big-city newspapers.

But teachers, ESP, and retired Association members stuck together, refusing to buy the opponents' claim that more money for teachers meant less money for universities, other educators, and public school needs.

Their unity and lobbying skills eventually yielded legislation that will raise the salaries of Alabama teachers, counselors, and librarians to the national average in this decade.

The new pay hike law, signed by the governor in May, provides a 4 percent increase for teachers, ESP, and retirees in 2000-2001.

Then, starting in October 2001, just over 41 percent of the annual growth in the state's Education Trust Fund will be dedicated to teacher raises until the national average is reached in 2006 or 2007.

Should annual trust fund growth fall below 3.5 percent, teacher raises will be subject to the normal give-and-take of lobbying. But, based on recent annual fund growth of 5 percent or better, Alabama teachers can expect annual raises of 1 percent to 5.5 percent, based on experience.

"Before this, trust fund growth was divided up without a real purpose," stresses AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert. "This is the first time our state has committed itself to a long-term goal in any area of education."

Much of the credit for this historic legislation goes to AEA's 83,000 members. Throughout this lobbying battle, they used the power of:

• Teacher-ESP solidarity. Many Alabama ESP used up personal days to participate in the teacher pay campaign, because they remembered the support certified staffers had given them in successful battles over issues like subcontracting and ESP professional development.

  "We get teacher help any time we ask," says Virginia Bailer, an executive board member of AEA's ESP Organization. "And we know that whatever teachers get, ESP will eventually get, too."

  Rosemary Wright, a special ed secretary in the Morgan County schools, says on-the-job connections help explain why she made three trips to the Capitol.

  "I work with teachers every day," says Wright. "They're my friends, and I wanted them to get the national average."

  One May morning--at 4 a.m.--this ESP local vice president squeezed into a carload of teachers bound for Montgomery, determined to occupy the Senate gallery until midnight--or however long it took to pass the teacher pay bill.

  "When this bill finally passed, I thought it was good for teachers, for industry, and the state--a nice day for Alabama," says Wright. "We're all here for the same thing: the children."

• Lobbying in numbers. At about the same time educators and community supporters back home were deluging legislators with phone calls and faxes, close to 900 grassroots AEA members visited the Capitol on three different lobby days to buttonhole lawmakers over salaries.

  "We brought different members each time, to show that it wasn't just a few people fighting for this, and we lobbied in a very professional manner, without attacking or demanding," reports AEA activist Anita Gibson. "We stressed that this bill was important not as a raise, but for the children of Alabama, who deserve the best people we can put in the classroom."

• Bipartisan politics. AEA worked closely with Republican Lieutenant Governor Steve Windom, who presides over the state Senate, to win support for the teacher pay bill in the Republican Caucus.

  By exhibiting a willingness to compromise and helping opponents understand the issues, AEA lobbyists won some surprising converts--and a 34-0 "yes" vote on the very last day of the legislative session.

  "Republican senators could have killed this bill on the last day," notes AEA Executive Secretary Hubbert, "but many realized that this Association works with them at election time. AEA contributes equally to both parties and we began this teacher pay campaign by visiting both party caucuses.

  "We don't put all our eggs in one basket," Hubbert concludes. "We've worked with Democrats and Republicans alike to build a legislature that is strongly committed to public schools and opposed to vouchers."

For more information, go to the Alabama Education Association Web site at www.alaedu.org.

Your Dues Did It

• Speaking out for retirees: In June, NEA submitted testimony to the House Subcommittee on Social Security calling for repeal of the "government pension offset," a provision that imposes severe losses on public employees who are not covered by Social Security and who survive their spouses. These retirees can keep only a fraction of their Social Security survivor benefits. The offset primarily affects NEA members in the 13 states where school employees are not covered by Social Security. To read NEA's testimony or for more information on the offset's impact on retirees, go to www.nea.org/lac/socsec/.

• REACHing out to educate: NEA's Health Information Network is sponsoring Project REACH, a pilot program to train teams of school employees to plan and implement breast and cervical cancer education programs in their school communities. Seven Project Reach teams are already participating in a pilot program in and around Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For more information, contact HIN staffer Rena Large at Rlarge@nea.org.

"Our classroom teachers have the most important responsibility in our state, and that is to train our children to the best of their ability. We must encourage and reward our teachers."

--Alabama Governor
Don Siegelman (D)

"In private industry, we talk about the need for recruitment and retention of quality personnel. It's time we apply the same principle to our classrooms."

--Alabama Lieutenant Governor
Steve Windom (R)

. . . Members of the Pinellas (Florida) Classroom Teachers Association have ratified a 2000-2001 contract with raises ranging from 5.5 percent to 13.5 percent. The "average" increase is about 6.2 percent. Pay for two added training days brings the average to 7.7 percent, and $7 million in employer benefit contributions pushes the net close to 9 percent.

. . . Trenton (New Jersey) Education Association members have bargained a 6.1 percent raise in 2000-01, followed by a three-year contract with increases of 4.8 percent, 5.8 percent, and 5.1 percent. Other gains include higher tuition reimbursement, increased prep time, more release time for Association leaders, and full family medical coverage for new members.

. . . A team of paraeducators and teachers at Fair Haven (Vermont) High School has settled a three-year contract with a $1.95 boost in hourly pay for paras and secretaries by 2002-03. The pact also increases base teacher pay from $22,465 to $27,500 by 2002-03, boosts the maximum teacher salary from $43,321 to $53,488 over the same period, and improves health insurance coverage.

. . . Backed by parents, students, and picketers from other unions, members of the Riverside (Washington) Education Association staged a one-day strike in June to protest the leadership of Superintendent Jerry Wilson--whose budget decisions have left students with inadequate supplies, outdated textbooks, and no coherent plan to meet tough state academic standards.