Stiffed Again

Teachers in Virginia are once again hoping class supplies and healthcare costs don’t rise too much.

Last year when Virginia teachers, whose pay had been either frozen or falling behind inflation for ten years, marched on the Capitol, the General Assembly and Governor responded by adding an extra 2% to the 3% the educators were slated to receive on the second year of the 2018-2020 budget.

Even after that teachers in Virginia, the tenth richest state in the union, still lagged around $8,000 below national average pay and $31K below their non-teacher fellow graduates. Yet, a premiere school system was cited by Amazon as a primary reason for locating in Virginia, and is used by the state to advertise to other global businesses.

So, it was all the more shocking when on Monday Governor Ralph Northam announced in his 2020-2022 budget proposal that teachers were to get zero pay increase for the first year, and a less than inflation covering 3% in year 2; all while announcing in the same presentation a budget surplus of more than $500 million in current budget ending in July and revenues continuing to come in above projections.

Teachers and school employees are not only credited with contributing substantially to Virginia’s attractiveness to business, but they were highly active in campaigning for Democratic legislators and significant participants in helping flip the House and Senate: sending postcards, making phone calls, interviewing and endorsing candidates, walking neighborhoods, attending forums and house parties, conducting social media outreach, working at the polls, and contributing from their meager funds.

Yet, in a year when virtually every candidate of both parties was running as a “friend of education” and even the Governor in his budget presentation claimed great regard, respect, and value for Virginia’s educators and students, it was all the more stunning that just six weeks after the historic elections a Democratic Governor would deliver such a deliberately provocative rebuke and pointed insult to the educators and students of the Commonwealth.

In spite of studies and summits on teacher retention and much public hand-wringing over teacher shortages in the last year, when budget time came, the Governor and his administration not only gave instructional staff a funding rate that will leave them with a net 1% pay cut after inflation, but refused to address three other deep concerns voiced by educators last year-

• Ill-maintained, disintegrating, unhealthy, and unsafe buildings around the state,
• the long-standing cap on hiring support staff while enrollments have risen substantially, and
• the much needed reconstituted Standards of Quality (the state’s own minimum requirements for quality schools) which he left with large funding gaps--again.

Adding to the blunt message was a package of tax measures that left big loopholes in place for the already micro-taxed or non-taxed mega companies while creating a series of regressive taxes that would place more burden on the very communities that the newly minted “progressive” Democratic party had campaigned to bring equity to.

All the more remarkable is that Northam counted $808 million, which is the amount needed to maintain current services and accommodate rises in enrollment, as a part of his “increase.” Excluding rebenchmarking, we’re left with less than a 4% increase in education spending. That false equivalency attempts to hide that the state Board of Education’s stated needs are not being met.

The very smooth messaging campaign during and after the announcement hailed the Governor’s budget plan as “a good start” toward better funding our schools. It was assumed no one would notice the falling salaries and number of teachers, the neglected 6 to 18 year olds of the Commonwealth, or those in poor neighborhoods making $17K a year who are still paying the same rate as our illustrious titans of commerce. After all, there were some new initiatives for pre-schoolers and poor college students, if they pick the career that the state decides they should. We definitely should help pre-schoolers and college students, but it is not necessary to help one instead of the others. Virginia can and must take care of all it's children and youth.

As shocked and frustrated as educators and those who care about schools are, we could make one suggestion. We invite the Governor, his top education staff, and our legislators to visit our schools on the day we teach our students what it means to be a friend, how to be a friend and to get one. It’s one of our proudest lessons about honesty, fairness, and considered faithfulness to those we care about. Then maybe, they could visit one of our civics, government, or economics classes.

There is a saying often used in politics in Virginia, “No permanent friends, no permanent enemies.” Let us assure you Governor Northam and General Assembly members, that is not what we teach the children. We teach them to not take advantage of their friends because a friend wouldn’t do that. Or if you’ve already learned that lesson, you could just break down and do the right thing. #FundOurSchools