Court decision to equalize pay may mean big raise for local teachers
|
“We haven’t heard anything official yet, other than not to count on anything for at least three to five years. Everything else we’ve heard have just been proposals or rumors,” Hale said.
The ruling in question, made in October by the Tennessee Supreme Court, was in agreement with a lawsuit brought about by a consortium of rural school districts, including Warren County Schools, which argued the state’s education funding formula is unconstitutional and denied equal educational opportunities for students.
According to the most recent Report Card released by the state Department of Education, the average Warren County teacher salary is $35,210, or $3,305 less than the state average of $38,515 and $12,326 less than the average salary of a teacher in Oak Ridge, the state’s highest paying school system.
To rectify the state-wide imbalance, the General Assembly, already grappling with how to balance the state’s budget deficit, is now charged with equalizing funding, particularly teacher salaries, between high-paying and low-paying school districts. The cost of complying with the court ruling is estimated to be between $200 million and $570 million over the next several years.
Hale noted the ruling did not mandate all state teachers receive the same salary, rather that their salaries be “comparable,” the exact definition of which has yet to be determined.
In fixing the inequity, several solutions have already been suggested. One is to make all state teachers state employees (they are currently employees of their local school systems), using the current pay formulas but increasing the minimum salary schedule. Another option calls for capping the local supplement teachers receive from their individual school districts.
If the legislature fails to find a solution to the pay equity issue by the end of the current session, Hale said the rural school systems may go back to court.