Show Me The Money

So the district and the union are already beginning to position themselves for this year's contract negotiations and I have already gotten the one-two punch as to why there will be no effort to substantially change our compensation in this year's contract negotiations. The right hit to the side of the head was a mind numbing announcement that the SEA-SSD at the conclusion of our five year contract had finally arrived at the agreed upon goal for raising educators salaries in the city of Seattle to be among the top five highest paid districts in the state. The announcement was that this year between the 4.4% state increase in the coming year and the 5.1% increase that the Seattle School District tagged on to our salary this year, that the SEA and SSD could claim a total success in their negotiations showing that we are now the highest paid district for beginning teachers and the 5th highest paid district for veteran teachers. Woo Hoo SEA-SSD. A promise made is a promise kept. But WAIT let's take a look

AT the GOOD FAITH EFFORT

So after the applause at the SEA's first representative assembly died down, I had time to think about just how significant was this raise. There were two points that were also discussed that made me a little less enthusiastic then the rest of my colleagues at the meeting. The first point was that fully 1/3 of the growth in our salaries over the past five years to bring us up from 12th in the state to where we are now was provided in this year alone. This means that for the first four years of our negotiated contract we still floundered around at the lower end of the district comparisons. What we can see here is not a real good faith effort. A good faith effort would have shown meaningful and sequential growth in our salary schedule, not the waiting till the last possible year to come up with 1/3 of the money. Along this same line when the question was asked where we were on the comparative pay scale with other districts it turned out that we are getting paid exactly $1.00 more than the sixth highest paid teachers (Lake Washington). Again this doesn't seem to me to be in the spirit of what is meant when we negotiate that we will be in the top five when we are just slipped over the sixth place group just to say we made it. And for my money, I just want everyone to know that SEATTLE is the richest district in the STATE, has on average the hardest teaching environment in the state, has the highest cost of living in the state and educators in this district should always be number one when it comes to being in comparison with other districts around the state.

So I'm not so excited about the good faith effort on the part of the SSD to come through on what we negotiated but lets look simply at what they have done in terms of going into this year's coming compensation discussions. What can the district and the SEA tell educators when they come in force and say it is time to pay us what we deserve? Well they can go to the papers and everywhere and tell the world that Seattle Teacher's are just plain greedy. "When the world is in a major financial melt down the teachers want another raise after they just got 9.5%." That is great PR for the district and great PR for the union but it is not so good for educators who know that they remain highly underpaid and they have to sit down and negotiate a new salary schedule for not just the coming year but for however many years they want to make this next contract for. PLEASE DON'T LET THEM NEGOTIATE ANOTHER FIVE YEAR CONTRACT. If this had been a 3 year contract which is the normal length of contracts we would have been negotiating at the top of a economic market cycle instead of the bottom.

Ok, that was mind numbing blow to the head punch one, but I hope you have unnumbed yourself so we can unbend you from the strike to the solar plexus from punch 2. But first let's take a look

Inside the Numbers

So I got my first pay check, and I have been working for 9 years and my monthly take home pay never eeks its way out of the 3,000.00 plus something category. So I was figuring with my new step 10 and 9 years experience and being on the highest track (except phd) available and this new 9.5% raise I would really finally crack the $4,000.00 mark but no such luck. The actual numbers are in 2007-08 my take home (net after taxes and before and after tax deductions) salary was $3,241.61 per month calculated off of an hourly salary of $35.43 for a grade 900 and step 09. My 2008-09 take home salary with all of the same deductions is $3,588.10 calculated off of an hourly salary of $38.36.

So let's look at the numbers. Remember we are looking for my normal step increase and my 9.5% addition to my salary.

My step increase from 35.43 to 38.36 is an 8% increase in salary from the state. (So I am looking for a total increase of 17.5% to my take home.)

The incremental difference in my monthly salary from one year to the next was $341.49 or a 10.5% increase. Wow, that's great but wait of that 10.5% increase 8% has to be accounted to my step increase on the statewide salary schedule. That only leaves 2.5% increase from whatever wages I had last year. 2.5% is way less than inflation, particularly this year. So what happened? SHOW ME THE MONEY.

Well it turns out that the cost of my medical has gone up 58% and my tax burden has gone up 22% and my union dues have gone up 3% (that's an interesting number. If my wages have gone up 9.5% how come my union dues have not gone up proportionately)

So the facts are the facts. After all of the confetti and balloons come down the facts are that our wages have increased no more than 3% because the rest has been eaten up by medical costs and taxes. And this number even includes the 4.1% increase provided to us by the state. SHOW ME THE MONEY.

So now for that hit to the solar plexus I was promising you. Well have you been reading your emails from the superintendent over the last couple of days. The first one congratulated us on our magnificent raise in wages but that we shouldn't expect to see that repeated. The second one came with a cry about the financial weakness of the district and that they want to hold 17.5 million dollars in reserve. This email was accompanied by a not so obscure allusion to the possibility that we might have a riff this year. Ouch, right to the groin area.

Well, educators, if you have made it this far you are now informed and you are seeing the sides lining up. The SEA is claiming victory for teacher salaries and will be focussing on raising wages for parapros. The SSD is claiming to have given teacher's an enormous salary boost, not acknowledging that most of that boost has gone to cover increasing medical costs and taxes. And the teacher's, WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE IS YOUR VOICE?

Well, I'm a teacher and here's what I have to say about it.

In the volume II letter of the HaleSeaOrganization newsletter I sent you a comparison of professional salaries across the country and what you saw was teachers can expect beginning salaries of 30-40k while any other professions that require anywhere near the education, ongoing training and expertise that teachers have are commanding 60k in their first year. (60k is what we teachers top out at after 15 years).

So what do I have to say.

SHOW ME THE MONEY.

I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR PROBLEMS. JUST FIND THE MONEY AND IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE MONEY THEN I GUESS YOU'RE RESERVE FUND WILL JUST HAVE TO GO WAY DOWN. RESERVE FUNDS ARE FOR WEALTHY DISTRICTS THAT PAY THEIR EDUCATORS AND WHEN THEY ARE DONE FULFILLING THAT OBLIGATION THEN THEY CAN CONSIDER HAVING A RESERVE FUND. SO DON'T TELL TEACHER'S YOU DON'T HAVE THE MONEY WHEN INFLATION IS 7 TO 8% AND THE SALARIES THAT THEY ARE GETTING ARE AN EMBARRASMENT TO ANY PERSON WHO SEEKS TO CALL THEMSELVES A PROFESSIONAL. IF TEACHERS ARE NOT RESPECTED IN OUR SOCIETY YOU MIGHT LOOK AT THE FACT THAT IN OUR SOCIETY RESPECT COMES WITH INCOME. WE WANT RESPECT, WE DESERVE RESPECT AND WE SEEK TO BE RESPECTED AMONG THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY. PAY US OUR WORTH. PAY US FOR THE PROFESSIONALS WE ARE AND PAY US COMMENSURATE WITH THE SERVICE WE PROVIDE TO OUR SOCIETY.

SHOW US THE MONEY

A PROFESSIONAL WAGE FOR A PROFESSIONAL

SHMUEL