Pay Progress in Wyoming: What's Behind the Story

Educators in the Equality State know all about pluses and minuses. Wyoming's a state with a boom-bust economy (reliant on mineral/energy prices), lots of conservative GOP voters, huge county-to-county disparities in wealth, a pro-education state constitution, and nothing in state law to guarantee and protect collective bargaining rights.

Take some of the pluses, add in a feisty NEA state affiliate, and you can begin to explain why eight of Wyoming's 48 school districts pay starting teacher salaries of $40,000 or more for the  2006-07 school year -- reflecting increases ranging from $6,000 to $10,500 over the 2005-06 starting rates.

Most impressively, Teton County (home of the affluent resort of Jackson) has raised its starting pay to $50,000, a one-year increase of $16,180. Overall, average starting pay for teachers in Wyoming has increased from $29,295 in 2005-06 to $36,324 for 2006-07.

A very big plus: Wyoming has a history of state Supreme Court decisions mandating school funding adequacy and equity, based on constitutional language guaranteeing a fair, complete, and equal education "appropriate for the times." Subsequently, Wyoming lawmakers must recalibrate the state's cost-based education funding model every five years and send money to districts in a transparent fashion, making it easy to track dollars earmarked for employee compensation.

Another plus: The Equality State is currently enjoying unequaled oil and gas revenues, which should generate a surplus of some $1.86 billion in 2006-07. As a result, record state aid is flowing to school districts, and average salaries have taken a jump.

Yet another positive factor: The Wyoming Education Association (WEA) is linked with other public education stakeholders -- including school boards, parents, and administrators -- in the statewide Education Coalition, which lobbies and litigates aggressively to protect and fully fund the state's unique funding model.

But that's where the Equality State's pluses peter out.

Wyoming, in the best tradition of local control, block-grants 99 percent of school funding to districts, trusting them to spend cash in the right way and negotiate with employees fairly. But without a state bargaining statute, districts can legally implement regressive teacher or support staff pay structures and refuse to bargain with WEA.

WEA's Long-Term Tactics

If a surprising number of Wyoming districts now start at 40K-plus, it's happening sooner because WEA insists on acting like a union in a "bargaining" state. Matt Kruse, the affiliate's bargaining and research coordinator, says that WEA has focused on three basic strategies to impact compensation for public school employees: funding lawsuits, legislative lobbying, and local Association bargaining and education. And, he adds, "we tie everything to Association membership."

WEA's long-term tactics for achieving professional, competitive pay include:

• Use of extensive, reliable data. While some local friction exists over bargaining rights, nothing impedes WEA-district cooperation in salary/benefit data collection and analysis. WEA, in consultation with other Education Coalition affiliates (particularly school boards), sends an annual questionnaire to local Association presidents, superintendents, and district business managers, reminding them that their assistance is "crucial in having solid data upon which to base any cost-based funding model."
  
  The final research product, compiled by WEA and shared via CD with business managers, legislators, and the state Department of Education, is a detailed breakout of data for all 48 Wyoming districts, documenting everything from teacher and education support professional "training-and-experience grids" (scattergrams) and extra-duty pay, to district pay comparisons by many benchmarks (from BA minimum to doctorate) and the number of steps needed to reach maximum.
  
  "We find that when everybody [in labor, management, and state government] is working from the same data, things go a lot smoother," says WEA Information Specialist Cherie Cox. 
  
  
• Intensive member training. WEA shares its salary/benefit data with grassroots bargainers and lobbyists at both its regional REBEL (research, bargaining, and lobbying) conferences and day-long annual Bargaining Summit. "We train people how to use this information in lobbying," notes Kruse, "and we tap into their collective intelligence."
  
  No subject is untouched in WEA training workshops. Among other things, local activists learn about legislative and compensation issues -- and study how to analyze good and bad salary schedules, set local goals, leverage information, and develop and deliver effective messages. In recent years, "we've had a more enhanced emphasis on giving out good strategies and connecting lobbying and bargaining," says Kruse.
  
  
• A focus on bargaining -- regardless of the law. Even without a bargaining law, WEA "tries to get people to the table, and to introduce power into the equation," says Kruse. One useful tool to get a foot in the door with bargaining-averse employers is non-confrontational interest-based bargaining (IBB). Kruse, who gives annual refresher training to IBB bargainers, reports that 13 Wyoming districts now use the process.
  
  Once at the table, through whatever process, WEA is remarkably disciplined about its compensation goals. "We bargain for career employees and heads of households," emphasizes Kruse. In technical terms, that means ensuring that local affiliates bargain bonuses into schedules and work to maximize lifetime earnings.
  
  For guidance at the table, this 5,800-member organization employs these guidelines borrowed from two larger NEA state affiliates, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania:
  
  1. Starting salaries should be increased by at least the same amount as maximums and never be decreased.
  2. Increments should be paid without devaluating or adding steps.
  3. Increments should be uniform throughout the salary schedule.
  4. There should be as many columns/lanes as possible, with uniform differentials.
  5. Employees should reach maximum as quickly as possible. 
  
  
• Member organizing and involvement.  WEA knows that successful bargaining, in whatever form, depends on strength in numbers. In its annual statewide membership campaign, WEA enlists some 70 volunteer "membership specialists" to talk on-on-one with non-members about the value of the Association.
  
  And on the front lines, "The local Association's organizing efforts relating to any given bargaining [campaign] directly impact immediate and future negotiations with the school district," stresses Kruse. "The local Association's capacity to organize around bargaining affects the health of the local."
  
  In preparation for bargaining, WEA reminds local affiliates to ensure that grassroots Association reps can answer members' contract/bargaining questions, and to select representative bargaining teams. Locals are also urged to adopt a "philosophy of [healthy] salary structures as long-term policy/goals," while creating and properly evaluating member surveys and seeking support/training from the state Association.
  
  During bargaining, WEA recommends that each local develop a membership communication plan, resurvey members during prolonged bargaining, and report on progress "as it relates to the salary structure philosophy and goals." And following ratification, locals are urged to "assess progress towards long-term goals" and to survey members about "procedural justice," or the perceived fairness in the process. 
  
  And in the final analysis, it all boils down to fairness. And equality.

--Dave Winans, July 2006