Organizing, Optimism, and Focus

Against amazing odds, NEA's Virginia affiliate mounts a long-term salary initiative.

For NEA members in some parts of Virginia, a Commercial Drivers License is as essential to earning power as teaching credentials or an asbestos abatement certificate.

In Russell County, Richard Hess wakes up early each day to inspect and drive a school bus, before teaching social studies at Honaker High School, because his region pays among Virginia's lowest teacher salaries. And in Sussex County, custodian Eddie Gilliam doubles as a driver too, and still can't pay all his bills.

Virginia high school teacher Richard Hess doubles as a school bus driver to make ends meet.

"I have to work two extra jobs after I'm done working 50 hours a week for the county, just to make ends meet," he says. "Working seven days a week is catching up to me and my health is failing."

Like many other NEA members, Hess and Gilliam know their full market value, but aren't always comfortable speaking out for professional, competitive pay. Dedicated teachers and education support professionals (ESPs) are "reluctant to speak up for themselves" because they think it sounds "self-serving," observes Princess Moss, president of the Virginia Education Association (VEA).

But when VEA members talk to Moss in staff lounges, "they tell me they're very concerned about salaries," she says, "because they can't afford things every working family likes to afford; they want to own a home and they want their children to be able to go to college." Some teachers tell Moss they don't want to have to abandon their profession for decent pay, while others say they don't want their own kids to qualify for a reduced-price lunch.

Speaking Up for Better Pay

Moss realizes that she must first "win the trust" of educators before they're willing to tell their own stories publicly and say, "I'm worth it." That's why this former elementary music teacher has launched the latest phase of VEA's year-old salary initiative by visiting school sites across the state. From there, Moss speaks to the media about the crisis in educator pay. She has even ridden Richard Hess's bus route to drive the point home.

"Teachers are very grateful when I speak out as VEA president about low salaries," says Moss. "They see themselves as leaning over backwards -- by becoming 'highly qualified' under the No Child Left Behind Act, by meeting the X, Y, and Z of state and federal accountability standards, and by working long hours after students go home. They know they deserve to be compensated at professional salaries!"

Moss is publicly making her best arguments for professional pay and calling on legislators to work towards a goal that VEA shares with Governor Tim Kaine: Bring substandard Virginia teacher pay to the national average. And she's calling for livable ESP pay, starting in places like low-wage Sussex County, where the VEA local affiliate is running an innovative living wage campaign.

In this media "awareness" component of VEA's comprehensive salary campaign, Moss has generated largely positive local media coverage around salary needs. Out of this continuing coverage, VEA hopes to get community residents to "understand they too must speak up [to state and local government officials] for teacher salaries," she says.

Many Challenges to Overcome

If VEA can mount a serious statewide salary initiative, any NEA affiliate can.

Consider the odds. The Virginia General Assembly, which funds the lion's share of public education, has boosted education aid and approved teacher raises in recent years, yet cannot mandate that any school division, or district, pass that money along to educators. And districts, which have no taxing authority, must approach county or city councils to win funding authorization for teacher and ESP salary increases.

It gets worse. Virginia state law explicitly bans public sector bargaining, making it impossible for a VEA local affiliate to do anything beyond "meet and confer" with a district or county council. A bargained, binding pay agreement is, simply, illegal.

And the challenges just go on, including less-than-robust state revenues, some immense regional pay disparities, and a critical mass of legislators content to pay teachers the middling Southeastern regional average.

But none of this deters VEA, which confronts business as usual with an impressive mix of organization, optimism, and focus. VEA is pursuing a salary initiative based on:

• Smart political action. In 2005, VEA members helped elect pro-public education Governor Tim Kaine, who vowed during his campaign to bring Virginia teacher pay to the national average by the end of his four-year term. Kaine followed through by signing a 4 percent teacher raise for the 2006-07 school year. Now, though talks with Kaine and a member letter-writing campaign, VEA is urging the governor to stay on course -- by signing an amendment to the state's biennial budget providing a 4.5 percent teacher increase for 2007-08. Leaving nothing to chance, however, VEA plans 10 regional meetings in November to prepare local Association activists for a grassroots lobbying campaign in advance of the 2007 legislative session, which starts Jan. 10.
  
  
• A communications-driven buzz. Through stepped-up salary coverage, VEA print and Web publications are using member voices to educate all members -- and ultimately, lawmakers -- on the need for a decent, livable income. VEA News has featured articles on educators who struggle, who moonlight, and who can't afford middle-class housing -- while contrasting the huge earning disparity between college graduates who go into education and those who go into business and marketing careers. And through its media awareness campaign, VEA is educating taxpayers around these issues, with a simple message. "If the community believes that education should be a top priority and if they believe teachers should be paid a competitive salary, they should voice their opinion," Princess Moss told the Martinsville Bulletin.
  
  
• An electronic buzz. During the 2006-07 back-to-school period, VEA created and placed 60-second radio spots in 10 markets across the state, reaching 1.5 million Virginians with a message about the need to raise teacher salaries. And VEA coordinated a public radio sponsorship buy on six stations, including one in Washington, DC, reminding opinion leaders of the need to boost Virginia pay to the regional average.
  
  
• Reliable research. Each time Moss visits a low-paying district, the VEA research division is able to give local reporters a full set of "localized" data, including teacher pay and benefits, the area cost of living, and local labor market conditions. VEA is good at it, and the media loves it. "In a non-bargaining state, an Association government relations department depends on high quality research and the integrity of numbers," stresses VEA Director of Government Relations Rob Jones. "We have to shoot straight with solid data to win the respect of the General Assembly and the public at large. Even school superintendents call VEA to get numbers!"
  
  
• Numbers that crunch. VEA doesn't just "warehouse" data. It places those numbers in the hands of local Association leaders -- empowering them as "go-to" people for district data -- and teaches them how to advocate with this info, using both a Compensation Cadre (of research and UniServ staff) and an annual VEA Compensation Conference. During the 2006 conference, activists from 37 locals got tools for analyzing salary schedules and district budgets, tips for creating member salary/benefit surveys, and strategies for winning a local salary campaign.
  
  
• Strategies for ESPs. In another conference, slated for May 2007, VEA will bring together ESP teams from some 30 local affiliates interested in conducting living wage campaigns. This how-to session will build, in part, on lessons learned in the Sussex County campaign, where well-organized-and-trained ESP activists are steadily gaining support from school board members for a living wage. Sussex ESPs have researched needed payroll data, lobbied individual board members, reached out to churches and community groups, and become highly visible at school board meetings. "I want to see us obtain a living wage, to end the extra jobs," emphasizes Sussex County instructional aide/driver Jerry Parham. "When you work two or three extra jobs, you have no time for your family, your personal life, your home life." It's as simple as that.
  
  
• Strategies for all members. The next step for this teacher/ESP salary initiative: Target promising, committed "lighthouse" locals -- just like the Sussex Education Association -- for extra salary campaign guidance, assistance, and media support from VEA. "It's time for us to focus on making sure a fair share of the money we have driven down to our school divisions gets into the pockets of our members," says Princess Moss. "We hope [success] will creep from one county to another." There's a strong chance it will. VEA has made salary improvement its top legislative priority, is focused on a long-term campaign, and knows full well that the national average is a moving target. "We must keep up with market realities," Moss stresses, "and remember that grocery bills and college tuition will not stop going up."

--Dave Winans, October 2006

More from the VEA Web site:

• "The Second Shift": Why does a high school teacher spend his weekends serving Egg McMuffins?
  
  
• "These Numbers Don't Add Up": VEA President Princess Moss does the math -- and isn't happy with the results.