First in a series
With the passage of Prop. 30 two months ago, the Culver City Federation of Teachers must feel the time is right to start laying the groundwork for another negotiated raise in salary. I say this because at the last School Board meeting union spokesman/president David Mielke started the union’s proven methodical approach. They win over the community's hearts, and therefore the School Board, by publicly suggesting its short-sighted, partial reasoning for giving teachers a new raise.
Premature Public Bargaining
I guess it doesn’t matter to the union that our district still is reeling from the effects of the past five years of state-wide cuts and deferrals that were dealt to most districts. Even with the passage of Prop. 30, our district still is going to be deficit spending into the foreseeable future.
Step-and-Column Marches On
Mr. Mielke is correct when he points out our teachers have not had a raise in five years. But that doesn’t mean their salaries have remained stagnant for all that time. Teachers still in the original Step-and-Column program have accumulated salary increases between 16 percent and 22-plus percent over the past five years. Even those highly-experienced teachers who are beyond the original program and in the added higher steps in Columns 4 and 5 still accumulated increases of $3,000 or $3,750. As a bargaining unit, the teachers, have received over $1,700,000 in annual Step-and-Column payments over the last five years.
Don’t Cry For Me, Culver City
I wonder how many of us working in the private sector can say the same. How much has your salary increased over the past five years? 15 percent? 20 percent? I doubt many of us can claim even a meager five to ten percent increase in our salaries during the last five years.
(To be continued)
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
