As we enter the 2011 Legislative Session we have more questions than answers. We do not know what the court will decide in terms of a “new” election for Governor. We do not know if the Speaker of the House will agree to sign off on bills with the Acting President of the Senate. We do not know what to expect in some committees in the Senate as some committee chairs have been changed. What we do know is that AFT-WV is not in favor of an $800 salary enhancement (bonus) for teachers and $500 for other public employees. Teachers and service personnel are in the fourth year of no pay raise. Classroom teachers average salary ranks 47th in the country, and are well below the salaries in our border states. Retirements have almost doubled in the past year, and we have more and more classrooms without highly qualified, content-certified teachers. Our students deserve better.
What we do know is that AFT-WV will work every day of the session to turn this “bonus” into a meaningful pay raise for teachers, service personnel and higher education employees.
The Governor also mentioned a few other education related bills in his speech. They are:
- Decreasing the drop-out rate of high school and college students
- Eliminating high levels of teacher vacancies in certain areas of the state
- Developing vocational skills from the middle school level up
- Designing classrooms that foster the development of the 21st century skills
While we agree with the concept of each of these proposals, we will wait for the bills to be introduced before taking a position or recommending changes to each bill.
As we wait for the Governor to have his education bills introduced, we will move forward with our agenda (go to link at bottom of this page to view our legislative agenda) to address our pressing needs. Our priorities will be to pass legislation that creates a higher quality of education for all students, higher salaries for all education personnel, contains healthcare costs for all public employees, overhauls higher education to protect employees and students, creates parity for early childhood educators and provides cost-of-living increases for retirees.
Although it is still very early in the session, we are cautiously optimistic that the 2011 legislative session will be productive. Stay tuned…..