Is Ware Shoals cutting educators' pay?

A note was published last week in the Greenwood Index-Journal about a proposal to cut educators' salaries to help balance the local district's budget, but I haven't heard whether the issue has been resolved, or how.

This was the original note, by reporter Erin Owens:

Ware Shoals School District Board of Trustees discussed possible ways in which the district can cut its budget for the 2012-13 school year during its meeting Monday.

Though the state's budget has not yet been set, school districts throughout the state could potentially see a decrease in funding should the current state budget pass. To make up for the losses, Ware Shoals discussed raising millage and reducing pay for retirees in the district, though no official decisions were made Monday.

"This is just an exercise in frustration right now, because we have such little information and it's my understanding that we won't get any more information until June," Superintendent Fay Sprouse said.

Sprouse said the district is eligible to make a 3.2 percent increase in millage in the county, which would affect mainly businesses and rental properties. Sprouse said a 3.2 percent millage increase would not generate a significant amount of money, but could help the district. Board members will consider the millage increase and discuss it further next month.

Cutting pay for retired district employees was another option discussed during the meeting. Sprouse said the district has six full-time retiree employees and two part-time, who are currently paid at the 11-year experience level on the pay scale. About three years ago, the retired employees' salary was decreased from the highest experience level to the mid-experience level. Decreasing retiree pay further to the zero experience level next year would save about $81,000 for the district, and would be a 20 to 25 percent salary cut for the employees.

"We value our retirees for their commitment to the district and for their expertise," Sprouse said. "But we also have to make sure we take care of those who are not retirees and that we are able to maintain our budget. We want them to continue working for us for a fair wage, but we have to weigh it in light of all the other things we've had to endure."

In other words, retirees who are collecting their meager retirement benefits while continuing to teach, in order to make ends meet, should learn to eat less to cut back on their grocery bills, turn up the thermostat to consume less electricity during the coming summer months, and make fewer trips to the doctor's office to save on gas.

Scholastic/Gates study: Teachers are happy workaholics

Today's Washington Post features the summary conclusions of a study conducted by Scholastic and the Gates Foundation, which include the news that educators work a lot, educator don't mind being evaluated, and educators are "satisfied" in their jobs.

I know, I know: This study was funded by the Gates Foundation, so rest assured that I'm not taking the results too seriously -- especially the conclusion that a majority of teachers -- 89 percent, the study reports -- are "very satisfied or satisfied in their jobs." I'd love to see the poll question that led to this outcome. Did it ask, for example, "Would you say that you are very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisified or very dissatisfied to have a job?"

I think I'd rather have a neutral arbiter of such matters conducting the survey, and asking more detailed questions to get to real data.

At any rate, here's what the Post's summary -- written by a representative of Scholastic -- offers:

Teaching is a much talked about yet often misunderstood profession. Educators frequently hear well-meaning comments from parents and friends like “It must be so sweet to spend your days with children” or “How wonderful to be done for the day by three o’clock.” Are they serious?

Teaching is joyous, but it is also hard work! It is fast-paced, multi-faceted, and complex. I should know. I spent many years as a teacher and it is the hardest and most satisfying work I’ve ever done.

A new report from Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession, finally quantifies just how hard teachers work: 10 hours and 40 minutes a day on average. That’s a 53-hour work week!

Let's be honest: That's too low to be real. Which means that the study may have included teachers of half-day kindergartens, lowering the average somewhat.

What teacher in South Carolina doesn't spend at least 12 hours a day on their job, whether it's at the workplace or at home after hours?

These numbers are indicative of teachers’ dedication to the profession and their willingness to go above and beyond to meet students’ needs. It never was, and certainly isn’t now, a bell-to-bell job.

Sweet sentiment, but it contributes to the hackneyed and offensive notion that education is the field of missionaries and martyrs, devoted to the cause, squeezing out every drop of life's blood to do what's right and good, never seeking nor expecting an honestly competitive salary because, after all, who can put a value on sparking the love of learning in a dear child?

This, dear reader, is a crock. True, no one comes to teaching to get rich. But the reason why educators work such long hours for such low pay isn't because they harbor masochistic tendencies. It's because there are too few of them hired to work in their chosen field. Cut class sizes by half, and you'll find educators better able to perform in the classroom, and working shorter, less-stressful days.

But that would require doubling the education workforce, wouldn't it? Which costs money. Hence, we have not as many educators as we need, and those doing the job work 12-hour days.

The 7.5 hours in the classroom are just the starting point. On average, teachers are at school an additional 90 minutes beyond the school day for mentoring, providing after-school help for students, attending staff meetings and collaborating with peers. Teachers then spend another 95 minutes at home grading, preparing classroom activities, and doing other job-related tasks. The workday is even longer for teachers who advise extracurricular clubs and coach sports —11 hours and 20 minutes, on average. As one Kentucky teacher surveyed put it, “Our work is never done. We take grading home, stay late, answer phone calls constantly, and lay awake thinking about how to change things to meet student needs.”

Our work is never done.

Enlarge the education workforce, and our work could get done -- better and more efficiently.

The 10,000 teachers surveyed in Primary Sources 2012 convey a very real portrait of the challenges and joys of the teaching profession. They share their thoughtful, nuanced views on both their daily practice and critical issues at the heart of education reform. Here are some more key findings:

* Teachers are seeing the effects of joblessness and a difficult economy on their students’ families and in the classroom. Fifty six percent of teachers who have been teaching in the same school for five years or more are seeing more students living in poverty, and 49% are seeing more students coming to school hungry.

Suggestion: The Gates Foundation, upon reaching this particular conclusion, might actually serve the public good by donating a sizable portion of its vast wealth to addressing the immediate needs of these impoverished students, and to hiring more educators to serve in public classrooms, and by improving the compensations and benefits afforded to those educators.

It's easy to point out problems; it takes a little money to fix them -- and I mean the folding kind, not the jingling kind.

* Teachers welcome and are even eager for more frequent evaluation of their practice. Again and again, teachers spoke of the need for feedback on their practice in order to become the best teachers they can be. Plus, they are open to hearing from a variety of sources including principals, peers and parents - and students!

No doubt of it. No one wakes up each morning saying to themselves, I hope I can fall short of the standard I reached yesterday -- and escape notice of it.

But let's cut even a millimeter below the surface of this trite bit of data. Yes, educators welcome evaluation. But they don't want to have their livelihoods -- their jobs, their opportunities for advancement and achievement, their lifetime earning potential -- threatened by the evaluations of uninformed, unqualified, uncredential evaluators who may or may not have an agenda. And while no one should fear constructive criticism from any source, even from students, no one wants their livelihood to be jeopardized by a popularity rating that superficial student scores represent, or to be tied to student test scores.

Educators govern their own performance; they cannot control the performance of a student on a single standardized test, administered on a single day.

This is too important an issue to leave unaddressed. Educators deserve to have their views considered indepth, not merely to be represented by a happy, hollow declaration: "Teachers welcome and are even eager for more frequent evaluation of their practice."

The Gates Foundation has enough money to do better than this.

* Challenges facing students are significant and growing. 46 percent of veteran teachers say they are seeing fewer students prepared for challenging work than when they began teaching in their current schools. The percentage of children who struggle with reading and math is increasing at all socio-economic levels.

I reckon the Gates Foundation has just spent a chunk of money to learn that No Child Left Behind has left a lot of children behind.

If the Gates Foundation had been listening to educators in 2002, the year that NCLB was implemented, it might have learned collected this same information a decade sooner. Somebody took their eye off the ball, but it wasn't the educators who were suddenly subject to a 1,100-page federal law imposing a death spiral on public schools.

* The majority of teachers are satisfied in their jobs: Eighty nine percent of teachers are either very satisfied or satisfied in their jobs. They also share their reasons for satisfaction and for frustration, and identified the kinds of resources teachers need to be as successful as they can be.

Notice how the sugar and salt were blended evenly in this conclusion: Nine out of ten teachers love their jobs! But they also get frustrated, and they tell us why...

I have no doubt that nine out of 10 teachers are satisfied to have their jobs. But that's very different from asking if they're satisfied with their jobs, and I'd feel more confident in the results, as stated earlier, if the questions were asked by a neutral party and not an organization with a decided philosophical bent.

Riley: America depends on quality teachers and schools

Former South Carolina Governor Dick Riley is one of the handful of elder statesmen who can be called "education governors," alongside former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.

In fact, Riley is one of only two South Carolinians to serve in a presidential Cabinet in the twentieth century; he served as education secretary for former President Bill Clinton, and former Governor Jimmy Byrnes served as secretary of state for former President Harry S. Truman.

So when Dick Riley speaks -- especially on the topic of public education -- it behooves reasonable people in his home state to listen.

Today, Riley published a column co-written with Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, and now president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Their topic? Addressing the need to improve America's public schools by addressing the needs of their teachers.

The latest national teacher survey brings tough news.

Previous research shows that a good teacher is the single most important in-school factor in improving student achievement, but this latest report reveals that the teaching profession in the United States is deeply troubled.

According to the bellwether MetLife Survey of the American Teacher released last week, teacher job satisfaction has dropped from 59 percent to 44 percent just in the last two years, to the lowest level in more than two decades.

Why might that be? Perhaps the well-funded public relations campaign waged against traditional public schools by education deformers -- thanks to Diane Ravitch for that term -- has something to do with it. Perhaps it's the well-orchestrated effort to undermine respect for one of the nation's noblest professions. Perhaps it's seeing your life's work denigrated by elected leaders at the local, state and federal levels. And perhaps it's seeing every challenge and difficulty in society and our economy laid at the feet of overworked, underpaid and highly-stressed educators.

Or, maybe, the architects of "No Child Left Behind" have finally achieved their goal, and teachers are collectively reaching their breaking points.

At the same time, the number of teachers who say they are planning to leave the profession has doubled in the past three years; three out of 10 public school teachers are now looking to take their talents elsewhere.

And why not, when private contractors are sucking every spare dime out of public education budgets, and lawmakers with their hands out for campaign cash know where the bread is buttered.

We are not alarmists, but we believe the combination of decreasing satisfaction and indications of increasing turnover raises serious concerns about the future of the teaching profession. These data suggest that we are actually losing ground on recruiting and retaining top teaching talent.

It's not Governor Nikki Haley and Superintendent Mick Zais who should be reading this column; they're already hopelessly wedded to their ideology. Instead, it's the next wave of lawmakers -- the ones who will run and begin serving during the next decade -- who need to take this expertise to heart. They're the ones who will have to clean up after the devastation of "No Child Left Behind" and the blind obedience to lucrative high-stakes testing regimes.

The root of the problem is the convergence of two powerful forces. The first is that many of the nation's fastest-growing job categories require more education and more advanced skills and knowledge than ever before. So it is essential that our schools perform at higher levels than have ever been expected of them in the past. Graduation rates and student achievement must rise dramatically.

The second force is the economic recession, which is requiring states to make substantial budget cuts. Since education is such a major portion of their spending, it cannot be exempt. Connecting the budget and dissatisfaction dots of the survey data, it's clear that teachers are bearing the brunt of these cuts.

The result is that at precisely the moment we expect and need more from our schools, they are being subjected to deep and debilitating cuts, producing declines in teacher staffing, down-scaled programs, loss of services, increasing class sizes and fewer opportunities to update teacher skills. In other words, schools are being asked to perform at new heights using resources that are at new lows. It's no wonder that teachers are frustrated with the profession.

God bless Dick Riley. Is there any real reason why he shouldn't run for re-election as governor in 2014? Jim Hunt served four terms in North Carolina; can't we afford Riley three?

And if not him, where do we find another like him?

So what do we do?

Let's start with improving teaching and recruiting the best candidates. A September 2010 report from consulting giant McKinsey & Company shows that top-performing countries such as Finland, South Korea, and Singapore have no trouble attracting their nation's top college graduates into teaching jobs. All of their teachers come from the top third of their graduating classes, compared to 23 percent of teachers in the United States who do so.

The long-overdue focus on robust professional development and quality evaluation must continue, but that's only part of the solution. To bring in the talent we need, we must also upgrade teacher preparation and induction programs to make them worthy of high achievers. That means supporting scholarship programs targeted at attracting the best students to teaching, raising the quality of teacher education at the nation's universities, creating more high-quality clinical experiences and residencies, extending and enhancing student-teaching experiences with the kinds of students they will teach, building in mentorships with master teachers for the first three years, and placing teachers in schools with strong instructional leadership.

That way, when the nation's economic growth kicks into higher gear and funding returns to the nation's schools, we'll have high-quality, highly trained teachers both in the classroom and in the pipeline, ready to maximize resources and leverage their upgraded expertise.

All this will cost money, but it will also save money: Using estimates from the Department of Labor that attrition costs an employer 30 percent of the leaving employee's salary, a 2004 analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education calculated that the nationwide cost of teacher turnover, not including retirements, at least $4.9 billion every year.

We also need to spend our education funding more effectively. For example, the 2010 McKinsey report says that the United States could more than double the proportion of top graduates who teach without raising pay by subsidizing teacher-preparation tuition, creating more effective administration and training opportunities in high-need schools, improving working conditions and providing performance bonuses.

The MetLife survey results are a warning bell. The future of our country is dependent on the quality of our schools and our teachers. As a nation, we acknowledge this rhetorically, but our education policies and practices too often move us in the opposite direction. We need to change this if we want the economic prosperity that rises with the quality of our education. We need to stop pretending that it somehow doesn't matter who teaches our children and start investing wisely in a new generation of teaching excellence.

Is there anyone who will take up Dick Riley's charge?

Anyone?

Brack: South Carolina can do better for its public schools

Andy Brack does a great job producing a handy legislative summary called Statehouse Report, and I've praised him for it many times before. In the current edition, he outdoes himself with a superb analysis of our lawmakers' unwillingness to meet their responsibilities when it comes to public education.

To wit:

Despite overwhelming evidence that investing more money in early childhood education will yield huge dividends in the lives of South Carolina’s children, the typical refrain from Republicans who lead the legislature is cold and disheartening: “Well, you just can’t keep throwing money at education. You just can’t.”

Ahem. Yes, you can. And yes, you should.

You can invest more money by paying teachers better than average. You can invest more to give them the support they need so they can teach. You can upgrade technology. And you can get rid of old schools that aren’t good enough to be used as warehouses.

Yes, South Carolina’s leaders can do more for her children, more than a half million of whom live in poverty.

See what I mean?

But what does the legislature do again, year after year? It tries to get education on the cheap. Why? It certainly doesn’t help that we rank 49th from the top in state and local tax burden and 50th in state tax collections per capita, according to the Tax Foundation. All of the wailing and moaning about high taxes in South Carolina is a bunch of ridiculous hooey. We have a stressed-out system of public education because our leaders aren’t bold enough to innovate or courageous enough to do what’s right for the 693,000 children in our schools.

If you asked a financial adviser to characterize a business strategy that relied on tucking away a little money every month for retirement, the adviser would immediately agree that it was a conservative business strategy.

If families can do that for retirement, why can’t our leaders invest in our people -- to ensure them a better chance in life, a chance that would pay off to all of us with lower rates of poverty, incarceration, drug use, welfare and on and on?

A substantial investment in early childhood education -- making it possible for every 4-year-old in the state to attend some kind of pre-kindergarten program -- would pay off massively. If the state spent just 10 percent of its enormous $900 million in new revenues this year, it could guarantee pre-K programs across the state.

And look at the payoff in reducing poverty and giving more people a chance, according to the Riley Institute’s Don Gordon:

“The Pew Foundation uses national data to show that for every $10,000 spent on high quality pre-kindergarten programs which render children more ready for school and less likely to drop out, we save society a quarter of a million dollars in a dropout’s reduced contribution to society,” he told a group of state leaders at a late February conference.

Furthermore, “According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, if the number of male South Carolina students who graduated from high school increased by just 5 percent, our state’s economy could see a combination of crime-related savings and additional revenue of $151 million each year.”

Unfortunately, South Carolina legislators continue to underfund public education, year after year. State law requires K-12 education to receive “base student funding” calculated through a long-accepted formula that may be due for an overhaul. But based on that formula over the last 20 years, state lawmakers have fully-funded education only five times.

If memory serves, those years were 1988, 1989, 1990, 1998 and 1999. If that's not accurate, I'd appreciate the correct data.

Last year, for example, the formula called for $2,790 in base student funding, but lawmakers provided about two thirds of that with $1,880 in funding, an improvement because the original plan was for funding to be $1,788 per student. (They upped the formula funding by moving around some funds and adding some one-time monies.)

For 2012-13, the House Ways and Means Committee is calling again for a base student cost of $1,788, which is $1,002 per student less than what is called for fully-funding education. If you extrapolate that to reflect the 693,431 students projected to be in public schools next year, lawmakers are considering a budget that would underfund South Carolina education by a whopping $694,817,862 less than the law requires.

Wow. And you wonder why South Carolina’s students lag the rest of the nation? Not investing $700 million a year certainly is one big reason. We can do better.

Watch: Today's press conference on educators' salaries

Thanks to the South Carolina Education Association for the links to this pair of videos!

This is brilliant, and I'm hopeful that all 19 of my readers will forward this blog link far, far, far and wide, wide, wide to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, long-lost cousins, brand-new acquaintances and people you encounter at gas stations, convenience stores and the Piggly Wiggly.

Remember: When educators organize, educators and their students win.

Patrick Hayes and Lindsey Egloff with Harry Ott and Jackie Hicks, Part 1.


Patrick Hayes and Lindsey Egloff with Harry Ott and Jackie Hicks, Part 2.

Far and wide, friends and neighbors. Spread the word.

Hicks: Where would state scores be without NBC teachers?

This week's edition of the Free Times of Columbia takes up the topic of national board certification and the stipends paid to educators who earn that credential.

It's a topic of discussion again because, just as we've seen every year for the past six or eight years, lawmakers looking for more ways to undermine and dismantle public education are trying to eliminate those stipends.

I have to give tremendous credit to the Free Times for covering the issue. The state's major newspapers, ahem, seem to have a hard time grasping and giving coverage to the matter.

To offer a little general background, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has been around since the mid-1980s, thanks to an effort begun in those days to improve educator quality. Great goal, right?

So the board created a credential -- a certificate -- that required a pretty labor-intensive process to earn. Simply applying costs a chunk of money, two or three thousand dollars or more. It's a three-year process. It requires a ton of research, writing and documentation, even a process of filming an educator's work in the classroom.

And the whole thing is peer-reviewed.

Which makes it completely worth the additional funds that South Carolina's lawmakers chose to invest back in the late 1990s -- hey, that was while Governor Jim Hodges and Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum were our leaders -- in the form of grants to cover the application costs and stipends paid to successful candidates.

Now, here we are:

State coffers may be booming thanks to a rebounding economy, but some teachers across South Carolina could lose out because of proposed cuts put forward by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Last week, the committee voted to halt the funding for at least a year of an annual supplement paid out to public K-12 educators who have successfully completed a grueling, three-year National Board Certification process.

Teachers already enrolled in the program wouldn’t see their supplements end, but new teachers who want to attempt certification would not be allowed to receive the money.

That supplement, doled out in $7,500 and $10,000 annual bumps to some of the top teachers in the state, costs $68 million a year. There’s no projection available for how much more it would cost to add newly board-certified teachers to the program.

Keeping new enrollees from benefiting from their increased credentials comes as the Ways and Means Committee voted for a budget that was nearly $1 billion higher than the last fiscal year’s budget, thanks to increased tax revenue collections.

S.C. Superintendent of Education Mick Zais and some legislators, such as House Education Committee chairman Phil Owens (R-Easley), don’t believe that it makes economic sense to continue the program. Zais’ office, supported by several legislators, contends that there is no direct correlation between the millions of dollars paid in national board supplements and student achievement increases.

In short: no bang, big bucks.

Owens said that he would like to see the $68 million redirected back into baseline student funding, so that all the teachers across the state could benefit “and not just the ones whose lives allow them to go through the [certification] process.”

Owens argued that in South Carolina’s “current economic state” it doesn’t make sense to keep spending money in this manner. He also said that South Carolina’s teacher pay is $300 higher than the Southeastern average.

Let's pause and unpack that last little nugget.

So the information being offered to the media is that the average teacher salary in South Carolina is $300 higher than the average teacher salary across all the states in the Southeast. That's impressive -- is it, really? -- until you take it apart and look at the numbers.

In South Carolina, educators who hold certain jobs and credentials get stipends -- additional amounts of money, above the base contract salary, that reflect the additional roles and responsibilities they accept. Coaches and band directors, for example, get stipends. Some student group advisors, like student newspaper advisors, also get stipends. And our national board certified teachers receive stipends.

I don't know if this is still funded, but at one time, teacher specialists -- master teachers who were hired to travel across various regions of the state, "coaching" teachers in consistently low-performing, high-priority schools -- were paid great "bonuses" equal to half of their base contract salary. (Which, I thought, brought them much closer to what educators in South Carolina should be paid.)

When calculating the "average" salary of teachers in South Carolina, our leaders pack into the formula all of those stipends and bonuses on top of the base contract salary.

What's the base contract salary? That's the dollar figure established by the state of South Carolina in its salary schedule for teachers who hold bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctorates, or master's degree plus so many graduate hours, etc. The salary schedule assigns dollar figures to these categories at each "step" of the salary schedule -- I think there are 22 steps -- and these "steps" are supposed to correlate to an educator's years of experience (up to the top step, and then you just stay on that step until you retire).

In an honest world, the state's average teacher salary would include only those dollars paid to teachers as base contract salary. But we don't live in an honest world; we live in South Carolina, where our lawmakers throw in everything plus the kitchen sink -- all the local salary supplements, all the stipends, all the bonuses, every jot and tittle they can pack into the bag.

Which means, friends and neighbors, that the resulting figure is waaaaay inflated beyond a real average teacher salary in our state. When anyone tells you that our average teacher salary is $300 higher than the Southeastern average, back them up and ask how South Carolina fares in that ranking when you take out all the condiments and fixin's. You might find that the sumptuous barbecue dinner they're trying to sell you is little more than a dry chicken leg and a hush puppy. Better to know that up front.

Currently, the state spends $1,880 on each student annually, despite state law requiring a number closer to $2,700. The committee’s budget plan would increase that amount to close to $2,100. The Legislature would have to vote in a special law, called a proviso, to circumvent the higher amount; it has consistently done so in recent years.

Owens, in lock step with Zais,

Well, that tells us a lot, right there...

Owens, in lock step with Zais, has argued that a better way to reward good teaching is to implement “pay for performance” raises open to all teachers.

Democrats in the House have pledged to fight the issue on the floor. And if it should get to the Senate, Owens should expect an even chillier reception.

Sen. John Courson (R-Columbia) chairs the Senate Education Committee and has already vowed to fight against dropping the annual supplement.

“We are currently number three nationally in the number of National Board certified teachers,” said Courson, who sees the supplement as an integral piece of the state’s economic future.

And thank God for that. It's nice to say we're third in the nation for some good reason, isn't it? Usually, it's some rotten ranking, like third in the nation in cardiac incidents related to pork fat.

Courson worries that if the supplement disappears, there would be an exodus of some of the state’s best-prepared teachers for greener economic pastures.

You think? North Carolina pays national board certified teachers a 12 percent differential above the bachelor's degree; it only pays a 10 percent differential above the bachelor's degree for teachers with master's degrees. If I were one of those teachers in any one of our counties bordering North Carolina, I bet I'd be keeping an eye on opportunities across the border.

Jackie B. Hicks, president of the S.C. Education Association, wonders how the Legislature paid for the supplements during the lean times of the Great Recession, but now wants to cut them.

Excellent question. We found the money when times were bad, so why cut off the stipends now, when our state is "surging"?

We are "surging," aren't we? I mean, I heard Governor Nikki Haley say we were "surging," so I figured that meant we were well on the road to recovery. Apparently, the Obama administration's economic policies are working overtime for South Carolina, so good that we're "surging." At least, that's what Haley said. "Surging."

Hicks responded tersely to sallies by Zais and Owens that there’s not been direct student improvement due to the money spent on the certification supplements with a question.

“Where would South Carolina’s scores be without them?” she asks.

Hicks, while not satisfied with the state’s standardized testing scores and national rankings, said she thought they would be lower without the teachers that have gone through the certification process. She also wonders how pay-for-performance would work for special education teachers working with some of the most seriously affected student populations, as some of those students have little realistic chance of meeting grade-level expectations.

Spoken like someone with some years of experience in South Carolina's public school classrooms.

And what a powerful final summation from the Free Times editors:

Crystal ball: Cutting National Board supplements might make some fiscal sense, but it makes no political sense. One Republican representative who supports cutting the money said he knew it was going nowhere in the current political and economic climate. That being said, observers are wondering about the future of K-12 education in the state when education is so clearly undervalued by so many state leaders.

Read that again: "when education is so clearly undervalued by so many state leaders."

Ain't that the truth.

Press conference brings attention to educator salaries

When was the last time you saw The State and the Charleston Post & Courier publish stories about restoring educator salaries, on the same day?

Both are trailing the Charleston City Paper by a day, but better late than never. Nothing beats a trend, and news of this one may reach the Upstate by this evening or tomorrow.

The spark for this feeding frenzy by the media is a press conference held just a couple of hours ago at the State House, featuring fourth-grader teacher Patrick Hayes of Charleston. Hayes initiated the online petition -- at the advice of his wife, we've now learned -- in frustration at having his salary frozen for four years. Hayes previously taught in California, where he was a member of an educators union, and where educators are accustomed to organizing in support of their interests.

Thanks to that experience, Hayes is a motivated fellow.

Hayes used a fellow teacher, Lindsey Egloft, as an example. Egloft said she makes $36,679 teaching fifth grade at Drayton Hall Elementary. According to the salary schedule or her district -- given the credits she has earned in a Master’s degree program -- Egloft said she should be making $38,050.

Next year, with lawmakers’ 2 percent raise, Egloft said she would be making $37,360.
...
“I’m going to stop talking about this issue when I’m being paid the salary I was promised when I took the job,” Hayes said.

A pretty pithy summary of the press conference, according to non-media sources who were there. Still, it's coverage. Maybe a later iteration will offer more detail of the dialogue between Hayes and Egloft.

The Post & Courier published a bit more background in its report:

His online petition, Restore Teacher Salaries, has amassed nearly 7,000 signatures since he posted it about a month ago, and his goal is to reach 20,000.

"There's a huge well of resentment about the way teachers have taken the brunt of the state's mismanaged finances," Hayes said.

South Carolina has seen a 24.1 percent drop in per-pupil spending from 2008 to 2012, which is the biggest decrease of any state, according to the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Hayes, a married father of two, isn't one of the district's well-known teacher leaders, but he stays informed on local and statewide issues.

When he heard about the governor's "inflammatory" budget proposal -- which would decrease education funding by nearly $80 million despite a statewide surplus -- he said he felt compelled to act.

Hayes wrote emails to lawmakers and encouraged his co-workers to do the same, and his wife suggested an online petition. He told fewer than 100 people about it, but support grew fast.

"It's the nature of the cuts we've seen the last few years," Hayes said.

Lawmakers have slashed the funds that go to school districts, and they've given local education officials permission to ignore the salary schedule that dictates what teachers are supposed to be paid.

In Charleston, that has meant teachers haven't had a cost-of-living adjustment in three years or a step increase for additional experience in two years.

"It's the only career advancement we have unless we leave teaching and become administrators," Hayes said. "It's not a lot of money, but it's something that's going to happen every year and makes life a little easier."

Charleston County Superintendent Nancy McGinley has said giving teachers the pay they deserve is her No. 1 budget priority, and Hayes said some teachers plan to focus their advocacy on the local school board.

Hayes knows that part of the challenge is raising awareness, and he said a lot will have been accomplished if teachers' salaries can be restored in one year.

"It will take a combination of the state spending more money and districts prioritizing it," he said. "Most people have no idea that this has been going on, but when they hear about it, they want to help."

Educators need full restoration of salaries before bonuses

This is embarrassing.

A salary is compensation for work. A bonus is a reward.

For four years, South Carolina's electeds have frozen -- withheld -- restricted -- effectively cut educators' salaries. Educators went on working, prices went on rising, cost of living went on growing, so the real value of educators' pay went on shrinking.

Now, despite South Carolina's uber-regressive tax policies and thanks to deep budget cuts in recent years, it is enjoying a windfall revenue surplus of nearly a billion dollars.

Time to restore those frozen salaries, right?

Sure, that would be logical, so that wouldn't be our lawmakers' first instinct. In South Carolina, we finally come around to doing what's logical, rational and good a century or two after everyone else. We're not what you call "early adopters" of good ideas. Bad ideas, on the other hand, get us out of bed in the morning before the roosters.

That is the only thing that explains today's news that a proposal to give state workers and educators a one-percent "bonus" has floated to the top of the pool.

House Minority Leader Harry Ott says he will try to push through a 1 percent bonus for state workers and teachers in the state budget.

Harry Ott's a good guy. His intent is noble: Get a few more dollars in the pockets of people who are struggling and who are working hard for South Carolina.

But they don't need itty-bitty one-time bonuses. They need their salaries to be restored, four years' worth of withheld step-increases, tout suite. If the post office can't handle the load, UPS delivers.

Ott said the money would come from the state’s reserve funds, meaning it would be one-time money and not carry over to next year. State employees will have to pay an extra 4.6 percent for their health insurance and will most likely have to pay an additional 1 percent toward the state retirement fund.

Here we have a dictionary definition of highway robbery: Those with power and resources rob those without power and resources of all they're worth, for fictitious reasons such as "We can't afford to do it ourselves." Take this out of the legislative chamber and put the same action in the intersection of Gervais and Main streets, and someone would call the police department to come and make some arrests. But since it's occurring inside the legislative chambers, it's legal.

“I believe they deserve (a bonus),” Ott said.

Me, too. Anyone who's spent a week in a public school classroom agrees that educators deserve a bonus. But before we discuss a bonus, they deserve to have their salaries restored -- that's four years' worth of step-increases, joyfully accepted in cash, cashier's check or money order.

I doubt that a one-time, one-percent bonus is equal to four years' worth of withheld step increases.

State workers and teachers would receive a 2 percent raise under a spending plan approved last week by the House Ways and Means Committee. But Ott said he was worried the 2 percent raise would not be enough to cover the increases in health insurance and retirement contributions. Ott said an extra 1 percent bonus would cost the state about $14 million just for state employees. It was unclear how much money would be required to give teachers a bonus.

State Rep. Brian White, R-Anderson and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he has not decided if he will support Ott’s bonus plan. But he was skeptical of how the state would pay for it.

“Where are you going to get the money?” White said. “Reserve accounts are for reserves.”

Funny that the chair of House Ways and Means should ask where lawmakers should find necessary funding for its obligations and institutions. I consulted the ultimate authority on such matters -- the South Carolina Constitution -- and discovered the answer there in Article III:

SECTION 15. Bills for revenue; other bills.

Bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but may be altered, amended or rejected by the Senate; all other Bills may originate in either house, and may be amended, altered or rejected by the other.

What tremendous luck! The men and women who are looking for ways to restore state workers' and educators' salaries are precisely the men and women who are empowered by the state Constitution to file bills for raising revenue.

Whew. I was worried there for a minute, thinking that the Constitution might only empower the city council of Stone Mountain, Georgia, to raise the necessary revenues to pay for South Carolina's essential obligations and institutions -- because, as we all know, the city council of Stone Mountain, Georgia, has absolutely no interest in helping raise revenues to pay for South Carolina's needs -- but the authors of our Constitution used great wisdom to put that power squarely in the hands of our General Assembly.

Sounds like this can be resolved pretty quickly, then. All we need is for members of the House to introduce legislation that restores those salaries, and legislation to raise the revenue necessary to do it, then send both bills over to the Senate for its approval. Done and done.

Okeydoke, who's going to do it?

When educators organize, educators and students win.

I'm a great believer in organizing.

I believe that when educators organize, educators and their students win.

Even better, when educators and parents organize together, nothing stops them from achieving their mutual goals, because even in a state like South Carolina -- where the legislature has total control of everything -- what motivates lawmakers is motivated, organized voters.

So I'm so proud to see an educator -- a fourth-grade teacher in Charleston named Patrick Hayes -- stepping up to help organize educators, parents and others behind a single, simple message: To use the windfall revenue surplus to restore educators' salaries.

Today's Charleston City Paper tells what motivated Hayes:

"I was shown a piece of paper when I took this job that showed how much money I was going to make in 2012, and I made my plans around that," Hayes says. While state legislators hash out the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July, Hayes still has a mortgage to pay. In the spring of 2010, as Charleston County schools forced teachers to take unpaid furlough days and the state legislature debated whether to cancel its requirement for the "step increases," as the annual raises have been called, Hayes was about to become the father of a baby girl. To plug a hole in the family budget, he took on two extra jobs, working as an in-home tutor and helping to organize a summer camp at the school.

And what suggested to Hayes that stepping up and organizing educators works?

Experience.

"It's almost embarrassing the amount we're looking for here," he says. "It's embarrassing that we have to go out and fight for this."

Hayes previously taught in California, which allows teachers to join unions. In South Carolina, teachers are barred from collective bargaining. "With the salary, the tradition is I just sit back and wait and see what they hand me," he says.

We cannot change our history, but we can learn from it and change our future.

Where we have come from doesn't have to be where we remain, or where we should go.

All it takes to change is to organize.

So, go here. Sign the petition. And say something.

Need inspiration?

Need help?

Need a reason?

About seven thousand have already volunteered to help you. Take a look:

Matthew Wilt Feb 27, 2012 Sumter, SC
But we're only babysitters, right?

Brian Davis Feb 27, 2012 Pamplico, SC
We need to be paid for all the work that we do...We do way more than teach to those who think we do nothing!!!!

Patsy Rankin Feb 27, 2012 Seneca, SC
Teachers are the people who shape America's future. We pour ourselves into students and inspire them to be great! Pay teachers what they deserve.

Elizabeth Humphrey Feb 27, 2012 ORANGEBURG, SC
I am a young teacher, and I am not getting paid enough to teach my Science class. My materials are becoming scarce. Also, if our pay continue to decline, then that will leave our classrooms with 35 students plus, and a higher drop-our rate because we will not be able to meet the needs of our students one-on-one. Please unfreeze our salaries, because we are the ones that make a difference as we teach, touch, and inspire our future visionaries.

Bonnie Friedman Feb 27, 2012 Mount Pleasant, SC
We need to pay teachers what they deserve. They are teaching and caring for our future! Without good teachers SC will stay in the bottom for education!

Erin Campbell Feb 27, 2012 Marion, SC
Please honor our salaries. I have been teaching for 4 years and struggle to take care of my son. I only make $28,000/year. I could work retail and make more money. I could substitute teach up north and make more money. South Carolina's education is going to start suffering and we already don't have a good reputation.

Carolyn Mayton Feb 27, 2012 Rock Hill, SC
I will support our teachers always! God Bless them and our children. I have a son who graduated last June and a daughter who is a Junior this year.

Tricia Wells Feb 27, 2012 Gilbert, SC
I support the SCEA's efforts to rebuild and restore teachers' salaries.

We're not alone. Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Brandy Eubanks Feb 27, 2012 Ladson, SC
Students can't be put first if you put teachers last.

Michele Peacock Feb 27, 2012 Rock Hill, SC
I won't be voting for Haley next go round either.

Olga Pickering Burke Feb 27, 2012 Charleston, SC
Our teaches deserve more pay. Our children deserve great teaches. Gov, Haley you understand our needs.

Lisa Hawkins Feb 27, 2012 Florence, SC
Use returning revenues to honor our state's commitment to fully fund our schools.

Robert Shank Feb 27, 2012 Georgetown, SC
Teachers need raises now, we are falling behind every day further and further.

Mary Ingrassia Feb 27, 2012 Saint Helena Island, SC
As a former public school teacher I can't imagine Ms. Haley's outrageous attitude regarding the SC teachers. They deserve to have their salaries raised! Hers should be cut!

Sarah Johnson Feb 27, 2012 Mt. Pleasant, SC
Invest in our schools, our teachers, our children - not in Teach for America, Common Core, and punitive high-stakes standardized testing.

Debbie Murphy Feb 27, 2012 Prosperity, SC
Please not I have taught for 31 years in TN and SC last years salary was my lowest for 9 years. I think this is a sad fact for the BUSINESS of education.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Nancy Bradshaw Feb 27, 2012 Irmo, SC
Has your operating funds been cut by 24%? Are you being paid the amount listed in your contract? Why are we different?

Monica Y. Williams Feb 27, 2012 Camden, SC
Please give teachers the step increase this year which is 2012. We haven't had a raise in 3 or 4 years and everything else is going up. Gas is going up, grocery prices are going up, and daycare prices are going up. Please help teachers live a life that is fit for a public servant!

Tamayu Wiles Feb 27, 2012 Ridgewood, NY
Being one of the most important jobs teachers help shape what our world is to be for the next generation, a top salary is indicative of that work, a low salary is not! A happy teacher is a happy student

Melissa Sadek Feb 27, 2012 Blythewood, SC
Teachers deserve more than we could ever give them. Have you seen the children they have to deal.with on a daily basis! !!

Brenda Roy Feb 27, 2012 Columbia, SC
Restore SC schools and stop the privatization of our public schools.

Tim Moore Feb 26, 2012 Andrews, SC
Honor your promise

Willette H Williams Feb 26, 2012 Denmark, SC
Restore retired teachers' salaries also. Retired teachers are being discriminated against yet we are paying retirement from our wages and still frozen with retirement pay. Not right. We should not be penalized because we are retired.

Harriett Davis Feb 26, 2012 Orangeburg, SC
For the last four years, we, teachers, have continued to do an exemplary job in the classroom despite our pay. We have been overlooked for far too long. We deserve a raise for the extraordinary jobs we do despite our pay.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Stephanie Bowling Feb 26, 2012 Blythewood, SC
Do we value our children's teachers or not? Would the state cut the pay of their doctors and dentists if those were state jobs? I don't think so. Teachers are just as important, if not more, in the lives of children.

Jean Bowers Feb 26, 2012 Greenwood, SC
Teachers give their all to the good the bad and the ugly, and their parents. They deserve a raise and more respect.

Cynthia Layton Feb 26, 2012 Orangeburg, SC
Teachers put in more hours than most people with their job. It is very difficult for them to raise a family and pay bills with what they make. Without teachers you would not have politicans, doctors or lawyers who make alot more than teachers. Please support education and give teachers a well deserved raise.

Debra A Cherubini Feb 26, 2012 Chapin, SC
SC has cut more from education than any other state! WOW. While we are at the bottom of the states when it comes to getting a good education. Making more cuts makes no sense!!

Beverly B. Ramsey Feb 26, 2012 Charleston, SC
Teachers put in more hours than most people with their job. Please give them what they deserve and you will keep the qualified teachers. It is very difficult for them to raise a family and pay bills with what they make. Without teachers you would not have politicans, doctors or engineers who make alot more than teachers. That is not right.

Michael Eippert Feb 26, 2012 charleston, SC
I have 2 dedicated teachers in my family and they're both grossly underpaid for the amount of work that they do.

Rebecca Lauder Feb 26, 2012 Greenville, SC
The children of SC are more important than most of the issues our legislators have chosen to debate! Please be a responsible representative and speak for our children!

Kayla Griffith Feb 26, 2012 Orangeburg, SC
Teaching is on of the only jobs you plan on going into without ever getting a raise. If this happened in the business world people would quit.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

T. Clanton Feb 26, 2012 Catawba, SC
Our dedicated South Carolina teachers should be rewarded by giving them decent salaries they deserve. The lies and deceit the Government continues to practice will discourage future students from perusing teaching degrees. Give them what they are promised and what they deserve!

Renee Cogburn Feb 26, 2012 Blythewood, SC
For my sister-in-law, Cassie Cogburn and all other teachers out there. No one in a working position of any kind could have made it without a teacher!!!

Benjamin Edge Feb 26, 2012 Central, SC
Teachers are more important than corporate tax cuts

Kathy Dezern Feb 26, 2012 Seneca, SC
Why has South Carolina always put education in last place on it's list of priorities? We have the most ill educated population in the Nation and it shows in levels of income, crime, teen pregnancy you name it and we are plagued by ills due to lack of education.

Gabrielle Clossman Feb 26, 2012 Bluffton, SC
I am a fourth grade teacher who has had my pay frozen for two years now.

Ghussan Rouse Greene Feb 26, 2012 Orangeburg, SC
Teachers deserve a raise for dealing with the students of today; they are a handful.

Cheryl Fiedorczyk Feb 26, 2012 North Charleston, SC
When the men and women running our state show that they have faith in the educational system of SC, everyone will win. I have worked in other states and never have I seen such a negative attitude toward teachers as that which is displayed here by our government officials, county board of education systems, and the public.

Darlene Swope Feb 26, 2012 Lexington, SC
The future of SC and the USA lies in the education of our youth.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Robert McManus Feb 26, 2012 Lexington, SC
Put OUR money to use for better performance from our teachers; too many of them have to use their own money to buy supplies that our administration types will not! I Further, cut the administration if that is what is needed to accomplish this!

James A. Stuckey, Jr. Feb 26, 2012 Charleston, SC
Quality education needs to be a top priority, certainly in dumb, illiterate, and poor South Carolina.

Mary Crum Scholtens Feb 26, 2012 Mt. Pleasant, SC
Teaching is one of the few professions where we must pay for our own continuing education in order to renew our license to practice. This alone is reason enough to compensate us fairly for our years of experience and service.

Dr. Gloria D. Winkler Feb 25, 2012 ORANGEBURG, SC
Everyone seems to applaud athletes and the like and forget the ones who actually taught these individuals. Why must teachers suffer financially?

Tomalyn Jamison Feb 25, 2012 West Columbia, SC
Please show that education is a priority in our State by putting the $$ back into it!

Beverly Diane Frierson Feb 25, 2012 Columbia, SC
Let's honor those who are entrusted to teach our children with salaries that make it clear we appreciate professional educators.

Deborah Galloway Feb 25, 2012 Anderson, SC
I have friends with children in the school system. Friends and family members in the school system teaching. I see them by supplies for their student out of their pockets. If they want to see them succeed. Building more schools and employing no more teacher. How will the students get an education? Teacher not getting raises. But trying to help the students.

Amanda Haffenden Feb 25, 2012 Summerville, SC
The children and teachers of SC deserve better. Teachers spend their vacations and evenings working for their students and should be compensated accordingly. If my husband were paid hourly for all the time he spends teaching and preparing for teaching, he would be making approximately $9 an hour. SC can't afford to be last in education. We need to increase salaries to compensate our teachers and to ensure that our children receive the best educations possible.

Katherine M. Blake Feb 25, 2012 Andrews, SC
Apparently, Gov Haley and the legislators forget that it all starts with teachers. NONE of them would be where they are without the dedication of the teachers of the world! They should be compensated accordingly.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Kristin Sigalas Feb 25, 2012 Summerville, SC
Restore SC teacher's salaries!

Kelly Mitchum Feb 25, 2012 Bamberg, SC
Teachers deserve to be compensated for all they do. Their job is hard enough as it is, so don't make it worse by having more budget cuts or salary freezes. They also need to be able to punish unruly kids so they can teach those willing to learn!!

Loree B. Paschal Feb 25, 2012 Lugoff, SC
Considering the responsibllity given to teachers, I (a retired educator) feel it is almost criminal to withhold money from our teachers. Sometimes a teacher is the only person who calls a child by his/her name during a day. Many bright teachers leave the profession because they have no promise of earned income increases. Cut somewhere else; maybe stipends for legislators travel, etc.

Eileen Sullivan Feb 25, 2012 Cayce, SC
I am a teacher in Lexington 2. We teachers desperately need a raise in order to keep up with the cost of living during these terrible economic times. I have spent a great deal of my own money on school supplies for my students & classroom. Please use returning revenues to raise teacher salaries!

Dottie Baker Feb 25, 2012 Bishopville, SC
Gov. Haley needs to remember her roots! I do sign the petition, gladly

Patti Parker Feb 25, 2012 Greenville, SC
To Governor Haley and our Legislature: Please PROVE that education IS a priority in this state. It is our only hope for the future. Teachers work extremely hard for their students, but are not paid wages that will support a family. If you want to continue having quality teachers, better pay is the way to prevent their talents from going to other professions and industries!

Rhonda Brummel Feb 25, 2012 Bamberg, SC
Gov. Haley I voted for you because I thought you supported ALL educators - I am quickly losing faith in what you say and do

Mike Vaughn Feb 25, 2012 Great Falls, SC
End your assault on education of our children. I will remember your actions on election day.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Leigh Ann Osborne Feb 24, 2012 Bamberg, SC
Education in SC cannot survive more cuts in funding. Teachers are educated professionals working with the state's most precious resource for the future -our students. Send the message to teachers and students that education is important in SC!

Nichole Yoch Feb 24, 2012 Augusta, GA
I live in GA, but I am a SC educator. Pay us what we are worth. I just completed my Master's degree and my increase in pay does not even cover my student loans. Unacceptable!!! We work hard for our students and we deserve to be justly compensated for it!

Rose Harris Feb 24, 2012 St. Stephen, SC
Restore teacher salaries.

Mary Evelyn Martin Feb 24, 2012 Richmond Hill, GA
I have many teachers in my family in SC and they are living below the poverty line. PLEASE PAY THEM A DECENT WAGE!

Gail Moore Feb 24, 2012 Greenwood, SC
I think we deserve our salary plus all of our National Board Compensation. We work hard to better ourselves as educators. Not only do we work a full time job at our schools but the work comes home with us where we work at night and on weekends for the betterment of our students as well as ourselves.

Kellie Conner Feb 24, 2012 Lake Wylie, SC
The public schools need more funds to better educate our students and teachers need their salaries they were promised.

DOROTHY ELAINE GAUTIER Feb 24, 2012 MT.PLEASANT, SC
Why do we continue to punish teachers? It is so unfair. You make their jobs harder, and and cut, cut, cut. My daughter is a wonderful teacher, and can only teach, because her husband has a good paying job. If not, she would have to leave a job she loves, to make more money.

Joetta Balsley Feb 24, 2012 Plymouth, IN
My daughter has been teaching in south Carolina schools for four years. My husband and i have to supplement her income so she can pay a car payment, pay rent and buy groceries and pay a few other bills. There is not enough money in her paycheck tp live

Katie Johns Feb 24, 2012 West Columbia, SC
It's a shame when a professional National Board Certified teacher with 7 years experience in the classroom and a proven record of success cannot support a family of three on her salary.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Davis Marret Feb 24, 2012 Charleston, SC
This is my 4th year teaching and I make the same as I did my first year!!! This is horrible! Help us please

Jon Crawford Feb 23, 2012 Mt Pleasant, SC
Please honor the daily commitment of SC teachers to their students, our children, and our future. Fugitive corporations do not deserve any more breaks than they already get; teachers need a raise, and legislators should match at least the mid-range of salaries nationwide for qualified instructors in public schools.

Evelyn Anderson Feb 23, 2012 Greenville, SC
If only our State leaders were as dedicated as our teachers...

David L. Rice Feb 23, 2012 Charleston, SC
I can't think of a better way to spend the tax money than in support of education and in particular teachers. Are we as South Carolinians doomed to eternal last place?

Maureen Adkins Feb 23, 2012 Hanahan, SC
Education should be our biggest investment in our future. Although I have no children left in school, I fully support paying my taxes that go to our education system. Give our teachers the raise they deserve.

Peggy Edmunds Feb 23, 2012 Sumter, SC
My husband says I had the only job in America where I was expected to pay for my own supplies. I was a teacher.

Allison Poston Feb 23, 2012 Scranton, SC
You're reading this because someone taught you how. Juss sayin'. :)

Stacey Schmidt Feb 23, 2012 Columbia, SC
Teachers should be some of our highest paid officials. They are preparing our children for the future. Teaching is one of the hardest yet most thankless jobs!

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Megan Spradlin Feb 23, 2012 Mount Pleasant, SC
My mom is first grade teacher and her job is super important. Non only are they educators but teachers are the guardians of our democratic society, and it is their purpose to prepare their students to enter into the society and sustain it.

Rebecca Freeman Feb 23, 2012 Aiken, SC
Return revenues to honor our state's commitment to its teachers and fully fund our schools.

Karen Flowers Feb 23, 2012 Columbia, SC
I was a public school teacher for 30 years and now have worked with teachers for 12 more. My son is a teacher, but I am sure for how long. He cannot afford it. Just because teachers are treated poorly doesn't mean they have to be paid poorly. Please restore the teachers salaries that have been cut over the last few years by using returning revenures.

Joni Carr Feb 23, 2012 Murrells Inlet, SC
Education is the path for a successful future to all South Carolinians. In addition to the doctors, lawyers and "chiefs", the butchers, bakers and "candle stick makers" need a high quality education to survive. You KNOW that we get what we pay for, so RAISE the amount of taxation to pay teachers more competitive wages to keep them in SC with our children and grandchildren!!

Eleanor K Linder Feb 23, 2012 Greenville, SC
Please help our children and grandchildren. They deserve good, better paid teachers.

Karen K Wehman Feb 23, 2012 Columbia, SC
How can we continue to cut education funds whe we still rank 47th , or very near the bottom, in education?

Georgia Arnold Feb 23, 2012 Orangeburg, SC
I ask that salaries be restored to teachers and funding to schools.

Alan Gramet Feb 22, 2012 Pawleys Island, SC
It is deplorable the way this state values education! How do yo expect to draw additional industry to this state with sub standard education. DO NOT CUT any additional funds! We should be allocating more not less

Marilyn M. Davis Feb 22, 2012 Charleston, SC
I am in full favor of the state reinstating raises for teachers. I bet if the Governor was told that she could not get a raise she deserved she wouldn't be happy about it. Teachers in this state already make less than their counterparts in other states. I am sad to say that I cheered when Ms Haley won the governorship, I thought that she would be an advocate for educators. Boy was I wrong!!! She wants to keep slave labor alive and well in SC. Too bad we went from good ol boy, to bad ole girl. So sad. Can't wait for election time. We need to correct this wrong. SC is finally making headway in improving education levels and it is thanks to its teachers. How about giving more than a pat on the back for a change.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

JAMES W. GARRICK, JR. Feb 22, 2012 Greenville, SC
Even my evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist brother voted against SC's governor and, obviously by now to thinkers, he was right again. More embarrassment for dear sad SC.

Judy Powell Feb 22, 2012 West Columbia, SC
If you want to see the quality of teachers decline, beat them down by diminishing their pay. Teaching is so very much more demanding than most people realize. The best and the brightest are so talented that they could easily succeed at careers that pay much higher salaries than teaching. So if you want to skim the best off the top and take second and third tier quality teachers, be prepared to pay the cost in the quality of instruction that students receive. You have cut >20% from education and now have a billion dollar surplus in the budget. I dare those in power who cast a vote that has such far-reaching effects to spend a week in a classroom, teaching standards, maintaining discipline, being a counselor, mentor, parent, encourager, etc. See how much you think you should earn. We truly have our priorities misaligned in this state. I am a retired educator who loved every position I ever held. I made a difference. I hope and pray that you restore teacher salaries before the great ones buckle under the decisions that reflect a lack of appreciation and less money.

Connie Gecy Feb 22, 2012 Simpsonville, SC
Teachers deserve so much more than they are paid. I hope you sign this and pass it on to others. Teaching is a difficult job and getting harder every year!

Karen Rhodes Feb 22, 2012 Florence, SC
We need to take care of our teachers!

Thomas Powell Feb 22, 2012 CHESNEE, SC
With what all the teachers have to do these days they deserve every penny you could give them. How do you expect to educate our children if you do not support our teachers?

Marian Martin Feb 22, 2012 James Island, SC
I am making the same salary I made 6 years ago but paying higher prices. I can't afford to pay my family's medical and dental bills. You people in government jobs don't care about public school servants. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Anne T. Heles Feb 22, 2012 Port Royal, SC
As a retired teacher I agree whole heartedly that the teacher's salaries to be be restored. Visit classrooms and see what goes on.

Emily Knight Feb 22, 2012 Florence, SC
As someone new to the teaching profession (3 years) I am still hopeful that I can make a difference in students' lives and help them succeed in school and in life. It his hard to keep this hope, though, wondering if I will ever get paid more than 29K a year (what I made my 1st year of teaching.) Some day, I would like to buy a house, have a family, and be an adult. I net about 2k a month. I grew up Catholic. If I wanted to take a vow of poverty, I would have just become a nun teacher.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Kathleen France Feb 22, 2012 columbia, SC
Return us to our days of honor and do the right thing.

Robert Gowan Feb 22, 2012 Taylors, SC
I am a public school teacher and recently a father! I can't afford to support my family even with my wife working full time as well. I am a very qualified 6th year teacher whose salary has been frozen for the past 4 years. If this continues through next year I am in danger of losing my home, which will cause me to move. Talking to fellow teachers, we all feel the same. South Carolina is in danger of losing qualified teachers, only to replace them with less qualified ones, or even worse, none at all.

Leigh Watson Feb 22, 2012 Anderson, SC
The teachers in this state deserve better. You will find less and less people going into this field without better funding. We already see it in math and science.

Brittany Hilley Feb 22, 2012 Abbeville, SC
We can't move forward as a state, if we don't have teachers to educate the future generation. If we can't pay them or they can't find a job, they WILL go somewhere else that will and we as a state will fall behind every other state and be the laughing stock of the nation.

Victor Cruz Feb 22, 2012 Charleston, SC
Shameful we have to be doing this. Please, paid teachers what they deserve, fund schools properly.

Virginia Clark Feb 22, 2012 LADSON, SC
You are shortchanging our children and grandchildren. The corporations make billions of dollars of profit as it is.

Bob Bouton Feb 22, 2012 Greenville, SC
Use returning revenues to honor our state's commitment to its teachers and fully fund our schools

Rod Mattingly Feb 22, 2012 Beaufort, SC
Which comes first? Industry requires a skilled/educated workforce. We are way behind. Pay our teachers; bonus superior results. Motivated teachers and principals will lead their students to success. Nikki, wake up!!

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Jeannette DuPree Feb 22, 2012 Columbia, SC
Teachers deserve higher pay than athletes, actors, politicians...and they deserve RESPECT! No wonder this country is going to the dogs!

Patrick Nasarre Feb 22, 2012 Charleston, SC
Education should be a priority for every government of every country who wants to lead the world. That's the only way this world will get better!!!!!!

Deborah Bannister Feb 22, 2012 Charleston, SC
Please acknowledge the hard work of South Carolina teachers. I easily work 12 hours a day and six days a week on behalf of this state and its students. Cost of living is rising, but legislators seem to think I can live on what I did 6 years ago. With stipends and programs that have been cut, and no cost of living raises, I am making several thousand less than I did 4 years ago. I have not cut my service to YOU. I work just as hard, pay out of my pocket for what you have taken away, and do all the duties and extra-curricular activities that I did before. I support South Carolina education. When will you support me?

Cara Spitz Feb 22, 2012 Mt. Pleasant, SC
Teachers have not received a pay increase in 4 years, contrary to what our signed contracts state our salaries should be. This makes it very difficult to live with the cost of living continuing to rise (groceries, electricity, etc..) and no salary increase.

Erin Hudson Feb 22, 2012 Spartanburg, SC
As a first year teacher who is leaving the field, I can say that I have stood side by side with incredible people every day who work hard for next to no pay because they love students. It isn't right, and the fact is, many of these people have to leave the field or get second jobs because the salaries are not enough.

Tim Huber Feb 22, 2012 Summerville, SC
No school administator should be making significantly more money than a classroom teacher earns. Get that worked out and some of the funding issues would autocorrect.

Deborah D. Wimberly Feb 22, 2012 Bennettsville, SC
Not only is the Govenor and the State Superintendent targeting teacher salaries they are also keeping the base student cost at a level that goes back to the 1990s, despite state law. How can this be?

Bonnie Poore Feb 22, 2012 Abbeville, SC
How can the children get the education they need in over crowded class rooms? We need teachers and they deserve to be paid for what they do. Let the governor work without pay, give up her salary for the budget.

Elita Pillin Feb 22, 2012 Irmo, SC
Gov. Haley, Didn't a teacher educate you???

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Winnie Williams Feb 22, 2012 Seneca,, SC
Please be rminded that our Education Programs determine the condition of SC. Please do not fail our children nd the future of SC.

Thelma L. Cummings Feb 22, 2012 Anderson, SC
Governor Haley, Pleasse honor the commitment as promised to the Teachers of S.C, so that our children can get the Education needed. That's what our Taxdollars pay for.

Joyce Roberts Feb 22, 2012 Camden, SC
Education funding should be a priority. Growing the economy starts with our school-age children and the BEST teaching staff possible.

Gwendolyn Smith Feb 22, 2012 Little River, SC
I knew that Nikki Haley was against education from the start that's why I didn't vote for her. Wish all educators did the same.

Daniel Craig Lathey Feb 22, 2012 Sullivans Island, SC
Since moving to South Carolina, it has become very evident that the government of this state cares very little for public education. It is a shame to see the people in charge constantly asking more from us while taking away our resources for both doing the job and living our lives. All that will be accomplished by this course of action is forced movement by our quality teachers to go elsewhere where we are appreciated.

Marilyn Turturici Feb 22, 2012 Spartanburg, SC
Our teachers and students deserve the respect and commitment by the state to fund education.

Michael Schilter Feb 22, 2012 Folly Beach, SC
A world superpower cannot exist unless its citizens are educated.

Cara Finley Feb 21, 2012 Sumter, SC
We need to only restore teachers salaries, but increase it so that it is equal to our level of education and other occupations with the same level of education and expertise.

Elise C Hind Feb 21, 2012 Honea Path, SC
The future looks very bleak for public education. I imagine recruiting new teachers will become very difficult if the class loads continue to grow and the working conditions continue to decline. Couple that with decreasing salaries and lack of job stability and you have a budding crisis on your hands.

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Amy E. Campbell Feb 21, 2012 Pelzer, SC
I'm a teacher that loves her students and the job that I do. It's not about the money for me, but I work hard and I'm educated. I use much of my own money to provide the things that I need to do my job well. I also buy my students things so that they do not have to do without. I pray that SC will not let us down.

Erica Skibinski Feb 21, 2012 Charleston, SC
4th year teacher...still getting paid 1st year salary. This makes it difficult when I bought my house considering I thought my salary would increase with my experience. I am dedicated to my job, I coach, and I work on committees. Now I want to be able to pay my mortgage without having to sacrifice groceries or supplies for school. You need to invest value into the people that train the children of the future, and you definitely need to get rid of the teachers that don't have success in the classroom.

Karen Oliver-Paull Feb 21, 2012 Indian Land, SC
It is a disgrace that our teachers are paid such low salaries and then expected to write lesson plans for each child who is not proficient for their grade level. Most of the teachers I know stay well into the night at school to get everything done that is required of them. Many of them are depressed because they feel like they are not valued as human beings because they get such low pay, have too many students, and are under pressure to teach children of people who treat our school system as free daycare. The least you can do is pay them properly. It makes me feel sad when people hear I'm from South Carolina because they assume that I come from a state full of ignorant people. Well, they could be right as ignorance is due to a lack of education.

Kathy Rackley Feb 21, 2012 Charleston, SC
I support the SC teachers and the need to raise their salaries in order to attract the best talent to teach our children. Give teachers the raise they deserve and need.

Lauren Vaughn Feb 21, 2012 Boiling Springs, SC
As a teacher, I certainly appreciate this petition!

Betsy Long Feb 21, 2012 Camden, SC
All funding for K-12 public education needs to be restored. Our children deserve to be educated for the future with adequate resources, starting with highly qualified, fairly paid teachers.

Richard C Goldie Feb 21, 2012 Gilbert, SC
Neither one's political party nor one's political orientation should come into play when the issue of priority for proper support for our schools arises.

Michael Scott Steedley Feb 21, 2012 Walterboro, SC
I'm a college educated teacher who never entered the public school sector because salaries are so low it makes it difficult to survive. This is a very sad fact! Teaching is one of the most valued professions of all and should be recognized as such!

Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Joyce Thomas Feb 21, 2012 McClellanville, SC
It is embarrassing that these professionals are paid so poorly. They are, after all, the people who are preparing OUR CHILDREN FOR THEIR FUTURE. What could be a more important job?!?

Susan Best Feb 21, 2012 Salem, SC
SC should make education a top priority! Broken promises to honorable public servants is disgraceful! Put our children first if you care about the future of our proud state!

Stevie P Shirey Feb 21, 2012 Summerville, SC
They are held to high professional standards but not paid or treated like professionals. With public universities costing $10,000/semester, how do we expect to attract new teachers at $24,000/yr starting pay? HUGE problem on the horizon.

Jo Carlisle Feb 21, 2012 Chapin, SC
The dedication and caliber of teachers in this state is threatened by cuts to our educational system. These are people to whom we entrust the future of America, our children. We must reward these dedicated individuals not penalize them for choosing such a demanding career!

Susan Arentsen Feb 21, 2012 Pawleys Island, SC
Having been in an excellent system in Illinois, I have been impressed by the talent and dedication of teachers in this area. Our children desperately need to continue to have this level of public school teachers if our state is to thrive. It takes generations of excellence for families to inculcate the value of education for their children if they themselves are not educated. Please help us to live up to the public's promise to our teachers.

Kelly Herring Feb 21, 2012 Rock Hill, SC
I am so disappointed in our govenor and legislature. Our children are the future of this state and I can not believe you want to put there education in jepordy. I have personally talked to people who deciced to live in NC because the SC schools are so bad. I am a retired teacher and am proud of my contribution to helping SC youth. Please wake up. SC polliticians are putting our chances of encouraging business growth in peril. I have NO confidence in my state leaders..

Laural Christine Webb Feb 21, 2012 Taylors, SC
Education level is South Carolina is not very high. Our so called intelligent governor thinks will increase the level of education. Tell her to stop sitting on her brains and do what is best for our kids.

It's your turn. Go here. Sign the petition. Say something.

Our lawmakers giveth, and our lawmakers taketh away

Tears of joy may have erupted across South Carolina last week as a House committee approved a plan to raise state employees' and educators' salaries by two percent (and law enforcement officers' salaries by five percent), effective July 1. These folks have had their incomes frozen by the legislature for years, with some not seeing an increase since 2007.

But they've dried up pretty quickly as the rest of the proposal has come to light.

They would have to pay an extra 4.6 percent for their state health insurance and most likely will have to pay an extra 1 percent of their salaries into the state retirement fund to help make up for its $13 billion deficit.

Result: Net loss in salary.

That's right. Same work, one more year, more students in classes, fewer colleagues to share the burden, greater expectations, fewer resources for classroom instruction, no advocacy from the state's highest-ranking leaders, no rights to take collective action, and for all of this bounty, state employees and educators will take home less pay.

And this is called a good start.

For lawmakers, maybe. It's an election year. There's a budget surplus of nearly a billion dollars. So throwing public workers a bone looks good, feels good, and gets a little media coverage. It's a great day in South Carolina.

But not so great a start for public employees.

For years, Jo Ellen Dowdy, a high school math teacher in Lexington-Richland 5, considered her job as “secondary income” to her husband, a mortgage broker. But when her husband lost his job during the housing crash, their family of four had to depend on Dowdy’s teacher salary.

A raise would “mean a lot,” she said.

“We’ve made it through, but there were a lot of sacrifices to be made,” she said. “The salary should get to the point where a male can raise his family as a teacher instead of having to look at it as a second salary sort of profession.”

But Carlton Washington, executive director of the S.C. State Employee Association, called the pay increase “disappointing and short-sighted.”

For months, lawmakers have said state employees will have to make sacrifices to help resolve the $13 billion deficit in the state’s retirement fund.

“They have a billion dollars in new money this year, and 2 percent is what they recommend?” Washington said. “A 2 percent raise when employees are 20 percent behind inflation and a 4.5 (percent) increase in health insurance last year and a proposed increase in health insurance this year? That (salary) recommendation just does not represent shared sacrifice.”

The 2 percent increase for teachers would apply to all school district employees. It is possible because lawmakers agreed to give an extra $152 million to education in the state’s fiscal year that starts July 1, bringing the basic amount the state pays school systems for each student up to $2,012 from its current $1,880. Most of that money is dedicated for teacher salaries.

“Every single employee is important to the district. Everybody is needed in their role and everybody should be rewarded,” said state Rep. Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington. “With the retirement issues we are all dealing with, if we don’t provide them some remuneration, we are going to be in trouble.”

Update: We're not going to be in trouble. We're in trouble.

We've laid off educators. We've cut public employee rolls. We've furloughed. We've hiked health care premiums. We've done little else but give away massive corporate tax breaks.

The cupboard's bare; even the mice and cockroaches have vacated for Georgia and North Carolina. Now, Providence has defied our regressive tax policies and delivered an additional billion dollars to the kitchen, and the best our chefs can do is serve up some crumbs -- claiming that the meat and potatoes have to go to pay down old obligations.

Law enforcement issues also weighed on the committee.

The state Department of Public Safety had requested $4.2 million to hire an additional 56 officers, including 40 new state troopers. It did not get the money. Instead, its workers would get a 3 percent raise in addition to the 2 percent raise for all state employees, for a total of 5 percent. That raise also applies to Class 1 police officers at the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole Services.

“We are losing tenured officers to local governments who are now paying more,” said state Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, chairman of Ways and Means’ Law Enforcement subcommittee.

That extra 3 percent raise does not apply to officers at the State Law Enforcement Division. Instead, lawmakers gave SLED roughly $2.5 million to hire 45 new SLED agents.

“We had a discussion about that. The bottom line is ... I needed the agents to be able to do the jobs that SLED is supposed to be doing,” SLED Chief Mark Keel said, noting the additional raise only would have applied to the agency’s Class 1 police officers, not its full staff.

Here's a thought. How about restoring all the step increases in public employee compensation that have been frozen for the past two, three, four, five years -- all of them, not just two percent's worth of them. And how about addressing class size by bringing back educators to the classrooms?

And if we've lost so many law enforcement officers, how about slicing off a big chunk of revenue to bring back those folks, too?

What? All of that will mean raising revenues on South Carolina's wealthiest? Assessing taxes on fair market value for those mansions on the golf courses? Maybe even levying a millionaire's tax? A luxury tax?

Well, if that's all it takes, what's the hold-up?

What a blessing it is that God gave South Carolina so many blessed entrepreneurs and wealthy folks who can afford to shed a little excess change to help the rest of us. How godly of them to exhibit the generosity. And how blessed we would be to have lawmakers who take seriously their charges to South Carolinians.

Public employees, I guarantee, would settle for only sufficient blessings to have a little money in their pockets at the end of the month, so maybe they could save a little bit, too. They don't need the mansions of gold and titanic yachts and Humvees; I suspect they'd be happy with finishing out their mortgages, knowing their health care is safe and having a little retirement security.