Teachers' pay tied to competition
By Alice Felts
The school board and administration continue deliberations over whether to ask for teacher pay increases that go beyond what Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Lewis has suggested in his proposed budget.
Teachers are in the final year of a multi-year plan developed to make their salaries more competitive. In Fauquier, teachers' pay will have increased $9,000 over the past four years if the approved budget allows their last scheduled $1,500 raise. Still, some neighboring school systems report higher wages for their teachers and appear to be a threat to local recruitment and retention efforts.
“Loudoun and Prince William each hire several hundred teachers each year, while Culpeper may hire 100 and Rappahannock hires a dozen,” said Jake Lemann, director for a regional field office for the Virginia Education Association. “So in terms of where the jobs are, the competition for excellent teachers is with Loudoun and Prince William to a much greater degree than with the smaller localities.”
But a Fauquier County human resource report of exit interviews for the 2006-07 school year indicated that only one percent of those responding said that they were leaving over compensation issues. Of 84 certified employees who reportedly knew where they were going to be next employed, eight respondents were going to Prince William County, with most of the remaining teachers moving out of the geographical area.
Since the 1920s, most U.S. teachers have been paid according to a step system that is proported to recognize both knowledge and experience. Administrators find it easy to use and teachers seem to have readily accepted it as a predictable payment schedule.
Those outside school walls, however, often question the equity of the long-held practice, citing accountability issues. Merit pay increases or pay-by-performance standards, they argue, are important for improving schools.
Critics contend that the step system doesn't recognize teachers' specific skills, makes job assignments difficult, and that it does not contribute to student performance.
The Center for American Progress maintains that “Pay-for-performance proposals are designed primarily to improve student academic outcomes.” The Center also issues the caveat that changes to the step system require time and money to develop analyses of student learning, teacher evaluations, and professional development.
The Southern Regional Education Board noted that “while the idea [of performance and incentive pay] is gaining popularity with policy-makers, teachers continue to voice displeasure with many of the efforts.”
The SREB listed teacher objections to a new pay system: too much emphasis on student test scores in determining raises, and disadvantage to educators who teach in subjects in which students are not tested.
The National Education Association also objects to alternate pay systems.
“Merit pay systems force teachers to compete, rather than cooperate,” the organization maintains. It advocates the single salary schedule as “the fairest, best understood, and most widely used approach to teacher compensation — in large part because it rewards the things that make a difference in teacher quality: knowledge and experience.”
The Times-Democrat erred last week in a front-page story that said teachers are in line for both a step salary increase and a flat $1,500 increase. The $1,500 increase has already been built into the step system.
Superintendent Lewis unveiled his proposed 2008-09 budget to the school board two weeks ago. Sally Murray, Center District, asked him to investigate adding one percent raises for those teachers making more than $43,000 per year.
E-mail the reporter: afelts@timespapers.com.