Sunday, January 27, 2008
Editorial: Montgomery County teachers need a raise
The school board wants to pay them more. Will supervisors deliver?
From the RoundTable blog
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For a community with a major university that attracts smart people, Montgomery County certainly has slipped on its schools. The county's teachers are among some of the worst paid in the state. When the school board asks for money to award raises this year, county supervisors should listen.
Last week, the school board proposed a $100 million budget for next year, up from $90 million this year. That plan includes $6 million to fund an 8.9 percent employee raise. The board hopes the county will come up with $4.3 million of the increase.
In other words, the school board wants a lot more money so it can pay its teachers a lot more, and it needs the board of supervisors to pay for a hefty chunk of it.
Yet the county has been stingy in recent years when it comes to schools. Indeed, teachers were supposed to get a big raise last year, but it wound up being only 2 percent after county dollars came up short.
Current teacher salaries are untenable for a community attempting to grow and attract smart workers and their families. Having Virginia Tech nearby is nice, but potential residents will think twice if they have to worry about their children's education.
The starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is $30,968. That is the lowest in Southwest Virginia and better than only six school divisions statewide. In inflation-adjusted dollars, they are making less today than they did 15 years ago.
And even with 15 years of service, teachers' salaries languish at middling levels.
Unless they have some compelling reason to come here, talented educators will look elsewhere. The county's students will learn from those who could not land jobs with better pay.
The question is whether supervisors can find the money. Maybe it can come from cutting other services. Maybe it can come from raising taxes. It had better come from somewhere. If the county allows the current embarrassingly low teacher salaries to persist, people will start to notice.
