Teacher Raises

Times being tough is one of the few things most people can agree upon. As a result I certainly understand why some people can become upset at the notion of teachers getting raises. However acutaly teachers aren’t getting raises they are getting steps.

A step says a first year teacher will get paid this much, a second year teacher will get paid a different amount and a third year teacher something different and so on. It’s the equivalent of a company paying a wielder a certain amount, a mason another and a carpenter yet a third sum. The steps themselves unless you are at the top end of the pay scale are very small and teachers haven’t seen an actual raise in several years. Okay if some of you are thinking maybe a step increase and a raise is actually a distinction without a difference, fair enough but here is where some real differences come into play.

Many teachers annually spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on their students and their rooms’, money that is not reimbursed by the district. Then this year teachers saw their out of cost payment for health benefits rise substantially. As a single person my payment went from nothing to forty-seven dollars a paycheck or nearly a hundred dollars a month (my step increase as a tenth year teacher would be 22 dollars a paycheck). Single mothers and teachers with families saw their costs increase even more dramatically. Finally and this is just my opinion, I think people complaining about teachers step increases during tough times is a bit disingenuous unless they called for teacher to get raises during good times.

I doubt above is going to change anyone’s mind. I just thought some accurate information might be beneficial.

To see the teacher pay scale, click on the link below.
http://www.duvalschools.org/static/wearedcps/employeeinfo/teacher_salary_schedule.asp