Gov. Inslee pitches $4,300 pay hike for starting teachers statewide

The South Whidbey School District may become an attractive landing spot for young teachers in coming school years.

By Evan Thompson • December 30, 2015 4:01 pm
South Whidbey School District teachers may see a pay hike if Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent proposal for a salary increase is adopted by the state Legislature. District teachers successfully negotiated a raise in September when they went on strike. Pictured above is math teacher Tom Sage on a march through Langley during the five-day event.
South Whidbey School District teachers may see a pay hike if Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent proposal for a salary increase is adopted by the state Legislature. District teachers successfully negotiated a raise in September when they went on strike. Pictured above is math teacher Tom Sage on a march through Langley during the five-day event.

The South Whidbey School District may become an attractive landing spot for young teachers in coming school years.

Due to a statewide teacher shortage and retention difficulties by school districts, Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a plan in his 2016 supplemental budget that will increase the state’s starting pay by $4,300. The state portion of the teacher starting pay would increase from $35,700 to $40,000 per year, adding $100 million dollars annually to the current $38 billion, two-year state budget that was adopted earlier this year.

The governor’s plan would also provide a minimum 1 percent salary increase for all other teachers starting in the 2016-17 school year. Administrative and classified staff would also receive 1 percent raises.

The potential raise for teachers could serve as another victory for teachers on South Whidbey. School teachers went on a five-day strike in early September in response to a collective bargaining agreement offered by the district. The teachers association’s bargaining team successfully negotiated a 5 percent salary increase for the 2015-16 school year and another 5 percent for the following year, in addition to voter-approved cost-of-living increases.

Val Brown, a representative of the South Whidbey Education Association, said that both the teacher’s strike and support from the state have been on the minds of educators for years.

“Both of them have been a long time coming,” said Brown, in a Tuesday interview with The Record. “We’re definitely grateful and it does feel like we’re finally moving in the right direction.”

South Whidbey was among four districts in Washington State that went on strike this summer. Like its counterparts, South Whidbey added extra money in addition to what the state provides for basic pay, in order to compete with neighboring districts.

Brown said that the plan proposed by Inslee may be another piece of the state’s plan to address the Washington State Supreme Court’s 2012 McCleary decision. The court ruled unanimously in January 2012 that the state violated the constitutional rights of children by failing to amply fund the education of K-12 students. The court ordered the state legislature to make measurable progress each year to fully fund K-12 public education by 2018.

The state has spent nearly $5.7 billion on total education since 2013.

“It’s nice to see on some legislative level there’s support,” Brown said. “Our community was really supportive this year, we’ve been waiting for years and lobbying every year, so it’s nice to see there’s some movement there.”

The additional support from the state is a welcome gift, said school board Director Julie Hadden.

“I say it is way overdue,” Hadden wrote in an email. “This is not a new problem and not specific to Washington State. Teachers nationwide are underpaid for the work they do with our most valuable resource, our children.”

Inslee announced the proposal on Dec. 17, stating in a news conference that a state survey found a shortage of qualified teachers and substitutes. The survey also found that school districts were struggling with teacher retention.

Brown said that while teacher retention is not an issue for the district — a large portion of current teachers have 20 years of experience or more — hiring newcomers is. With the increase in base salary for starting teachers, Brown believes the plan could help draw young teachers fresh out of college looking to join the profession.

“The way it helps us is that it makes the position more attractive to new graduates,” she said.

Inslee said that the plan will lead to more than 8,700 teachers receiving a raise ranging from $1,000 to $4,300. To make the plan a reality, the governor proposed the modification or repeal of four tax preferences, which would raise about $101 million in the next fiscal year, according to The Seattle Times.

“Additional funding for teachers will certainly be a welcome event for all districts,” Hadden said.

Hadden said that while the proposal may be incentive for potential teachers to join the profession, it most likely will not result in additional teacher hirings. The district hires based on enrollment, which has been declining at a rate of about 30 to 40 students per year.

David Nelson, a math teacher at South Whidbey High School who was also apart of the bargaining team during the strike, said in an email that the proposal is “one way of recognizing/acknowledging the efforts and demands of teachers and all educational staff.”