Bill altering teacher pay statute meets union opposition

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BY EVY LEWIS
Missouri News Network

Jefferson City — Union representatives and longtime teachers testified Wednesday against proposed legislation that would allow school boards to surpass set salary schedules in order to staff difficult-to-fill positions.

Currently, the statute mandates school districts to maintain a single salary schedule for all teachers, with pay increasing the longer teachers have been employed.

The proposed bill, House Bill 190, would allow school boards to offer higher salaries than the usual schedule in order to fill positions that had been unfilled, or filled by an unqualified person, for more than one year.

“I just think that we need to give the superintendents latitude, and the school boards latitude, to try and recruit teachers in hard-to-fill areas and also in hard-to-staff schools,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ed Lewis (R-Moberly).

LOW PAY
Representatives from both the Missouri National Education Association and the Missouri State Teachers Association argued against the bill’s removal of language that explicitly states pay schedules must apply to all teachers.

“I’m afraid you could end up with a district that does not have a salary schedule for any teacher,” said Mike Wood, representing MSTA. “If everybody’s not on it, then you could end up with a situation where nobody’s on it.”

Both Wood and members of the committee noted that school districts already have some leeway in deciding where new hires should be placed on the salary schedule. The bill would just codify a specific form for that practice.

“There’s only so much money within a district,” Wood said. “You start putting money in hard-to-staff positions, you’re going to leave your ‘easier’ positions with less money. It’s going to be like trying to squeeze a balloon. The issue is not, strictly, hard-to-staff positions. It’s low pay for all teachers.”

DISCRIMINATION
Another concern raised by Democrats on the committee was that allowing divergence from the established salary schedule with little to no oversight would enable discrimination.

“What safeties are in place to ensure that women aren’t paid less? As a general rule? Because I lived through that,” said Rep. Paula Brown (D-Hazelwood), who has a background in teaching.

The bill was supported by representatives of Kansas City Public Schools and by the Missouri School Boards’ Association, among others.

There was a consensus in the hearing, both among supporters and opponents of the bill, that difficulties with school staffing are far larger and more complex than anything that would be addressed by a single law.

“This is just a little piece, a symptom, if you will, of a broader issue that we as a state, because you all fund our public schools, really must address,” said Otto Fajen, legislative director of MNEA. “And the sooner the better.”


 

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