During the last five years, even while education funding was being slashed back to 2003-04 state funding levels, District employees still continued to take their 3 percent to 4.1 percent automatic step-and-column increases. This combination of continued state funding cuts and the automatic annual teachers' increases makes teacher compensation take even a bigger slice out of the District’s ever-shrinking budgetary pie.
Deferral Days
When these funding cuts started hitting close to home and the state Legislature stopped school districts from using their traditional cost-cutting measures, what was offered as a solution? Deferral days. What exactly did these deferral days actually accomplish? For one thing, they caused our students to lose almost 150,000 hours of instruction.
All for One …
Now that our School District is still being flat-funded by the state – even though Californians passed the now not-so-magical Prop. 30 – and with the federal government starting to reduce its commitment to education, the Teachers Union boldly has said its members are feeling under-appreciated and that it will not leave the negotiating table without an across-the-board raise for its membership.
…And One for All
Of course, in the CCUSD, everyone needs to realize that whatever the teachers negotiate in salary raises usually goes to the other District employees also. So when our District talks about giving teachers raises, it is talking about giving more to every other District employee.
District Cost of Employment
Board members need to realize that the average cost to the District to employ each certificated employee is not the $64,343 salary that is now being bantered about. It is almost $87,000 for each teacher and $77,000 per classified employee.
Not Immune to Increases
Nobody has even mentioned publicly that in the past five years, as the Legislature continued to sidestep the voter- approved funding guarantees of Prop. 98, that School District costs also have gone up. Take Statutory Benefits: In 2007-08, certificated benefits were 12.605 percent and Classified benefits were 23.561 percent. Now, in 2012-13, they are about 3 percent higher, at 15.20 percent and 26.66 percent, respectively.
Like Old Times?
Listening to Gov. Brown speak about the future, it seems that his grand fiscal plan is to gradually restore the state's funding for education from its current 2003-04 levels back up to 2007-08 levels in the next three to four years—maybe by 2015-16.
If his timeline is valid, it makes one wonder once the governor’s goal has been reached, will our District employees do their part and go back to their 2007-08 salary schedules?
Don’t hold your breath!
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
