Indiana Senate Bill 309

Public Education Matters

1.25.10

Indiana Senate Bill 309

One of the things that is confounding about education budgets is that you can’t (if you are a school superintendent) just transfer money from one place to another whenever you want. For instance, say you have a whole bunch of cash in your transportation stash that you end up not needing to use to repair the busses but you don’t have enough in technology to buy those new computers for students; you can’t just move it.

There are good reasons for this. It means you can’t rob Peter to pay Paul and then say “Too bad Peter” when Peter is hurting. It’s a protection of sorts for both “Peter” and “Paul” really. In fact, many years back, I worked for a director who had it in her head that she would shortchange the technology part of our budget every time she needed a little extra cash somewhere else in her budget. The problem grew to the point where she’d absolutely depleted the student technology budget for the whole year within 3 months time and perhaps two items of actual technology for student use had been purchased thus far. I was a bit steamed when I went to her with the requisition form to purchase something that was necessary for a student to succeed (and required by law for us to provide) and she said “oh, well you’ll have to wait until next year.”

You really don’t want that kind of thing to happen and what a shortage in one area of your budget should tell you is that the next year, you need to examine whether or not you need to allot more or less for that area of the budget in the first place, NOT that you should steal from something else. At all times, I do think you must be a responsible steward of the public money.

So of course, right now, our overall state budget is in dire straits and so our Governor, Mitch Daniels wants to cut school funding. Also, how much federal funding for education that we can count on is uncertain due to the Race to the Top agenda. RttT is also going to be somewhat specific about how it’s dollars can and can’t be used. So I guess (per the Indianapolis Star on 1.24.09) our state lawmakers are scrambling around saying “Whatever can we do?” and a Senator from Noblesville named Luke Kenley has decided to propose a bill to his fellow Indiana State Senators to say “Hey, Superintendents, it’s ok, if you move your little funds around!” (not exact quotes, of course)

Specifically, according to the article, the bill would allow school districts in Indiana to take money from transportation and capital projects accounts and use those funds for operating expenses, at their discretion. “WHOO HOO!” say the Superintendents, I would think. I mean what’s not to like about that?

EXCEPT THERE IS A CATCH!

The catch is that Mr. Kenley has tacked something on to this bill. The bills says that this great new flexibility in funding will only be a deal IF school districts guarantee that their teachers and their staffs will forgo pay raises in the 2010-11 school year. And if by chance the 2010-11 teacher contracts have already been settled then this bill would require those districts to reopen union contract negotiations to change those agreements.

Never-mind that the proposed bill’s ban would apply even to increases in benefits and to “step increases” which are required by state law. Never-mind that there were numerous objections to this proposal from school officials. Never-mind that already 100 of the local unions of the roughly 300 public school districts in Indiana have refused to sign off on Race to the Top proposals that want them to have contracts that allow for merit pay rather than the current negotiated salaries through collective bargaining and that’s an indicator that union agreement to this wage reduction is never going to happen. Never-mind that there are lots of other things that might be looked at besides cutting teacher pay. Things such as eliminating newer programs, spending cash reserves and rainy day funds and dropping testing that goes above the state requirements, or cutting other non-instructional costs.

I also have a problem with Mr. Kenley’s bill because of what it seems to imply. Call me “touchy” but because it ONLY has the stipulation of cutting teacher pay and nothing else, it rather seems that he’s saying the reason the schools (and the state) are in such a fix is because teachers make too much. And, it almost comes across to me like he’s blaming teachers for “bankrupting” the state in the first place. At the very least it certainly seems like he’s saying “Teachers ought to be the solution to the state’s budget problems."

Now I feel pretty bad for Mr. Kenley. I do. He and his fellow Senators and their brethren members of the House must feel compelled to do something about the state’s budget woes. They certainly must feel compelled to do something about school budgets. However, I also feel that he is one more legislator who sees the easy way out of the mess that we are in is to vilify teachers and teachers’ unions as money grubbing folk who don’t care about children.

It seems as if he’s saying that if we teachers just wouldn’t demand these “exorbitant” salaries for our work, the whole world (or at least the state) will be peachy.

As a person who works in education, I have to object.

I supported my family and raised two children putting them through college on a teacher’s salary with the help of government grants and loans for their higher educations. (There was not a second family income involved in most of those years.) A teacher’s salary is what pays my mortgage on a modest house and my car payments and the educational loan payments. It buys my groceries and my utilities payments and my phone bills and I admit it- sometimes I go out and buy things like clothing or dinner for myself. Last night I bought dinner for my my mother, my son, his wife, and my grandson and it cost me a little over $50. Sue me, I felt like being generous and supporting the state’s economy after the Colts big win.

But I would beg to tell Mr. Kenley that I’m not extravagant. I shop at places like Wal-Mart and the dollar store. My house needs painting and new carpet and repairs of all kinds. I drive a Ford Focus, one of the cheaper cars on the market. I have an older model tv and a refrigerator with no icemaker. My newest major appliance, for that matter, is over 15 years old. I’ve never owned a boat or a recreational vehicle or a summer cottage or a time share. My family took 5 vacations total in the time my kids were growing up and two of those were camping vacations and one was financed by my father. My children did not wear designer clothing or have the latest electronic gadgets and toys. I do not have a savings account of my own, although I maintain a small one for my grandson. Everything I make is eaten up by bills with none left over for savings. I’m NOT getting rich off this salary, even after working in the field for over 30 years.

I get by. I do. By the standards of much of the rest of the world, I get along quite nicely and I’m not complaining. Thanks to my contract I have a very modest retirement fund and healthcare. Thanks to my parents I learned that you can’t throw your money away, this way and that, and you have to think about “tomorrow.” I am OK, really.

However, if you ask me if I’m paid what I’m worth, I’ll flatly tell you “No.” If you ask me how my younger colleagues make it on their pay with the costs of living being what they are, I’ll tell you “I really do not know.” If you ask me who in their right mind would go into the field of education right now with the prospect of merit pay coming down the pike, I’ll tell you “I’ve got NO idea and I certainly would never advise a child of my own to go into the field, not if they have an alternative.”

I recently cited in a reply to a comment on one of my posts a blurb that I believe I saw on twitter. (I apologize for not saving it when I saw it.) It cited that there is currently starting to be shortage of pediatricians in this country. The reason cited for that was that they no longer make enough to make it a worthwhile profession to go into given the cost of living and the cost of malpractice insurance. This raises a shudder down my spine to be honest. Why? Because it makes me fear that the only people that will go into pediatrics now are the people who couldn’t cut it elsewhere. And I don’t know about you, but I really want our best and our brightest dealing with our children’s health care needs, not those who are just scrambling for something/anything. In a similar vein, I also really want our children’s educational needs being served by people who are the best and the brightest as well.

I just do not feel that you are going to attract those types of people as our current teaching force retires if you do not offer a competitive wage. And honestly, gone are the days when a teacher’s salary was just a side dish to the entrée of a man’s salary. (Also please refer back to my post about merit pay if you are tempted to think I believe that’s the answer. In short, I believe that you have to offer a decent wage in the first place to get people of quality to entertain entering the field.)

Senate Bill 309 could be eligible for amendments in the full Senate as early as Monday (meaning today.) The Star reports that the Senate is also likely to take a final vote on the legislation this week. If it passes the Senate, it would move to the House for consideration.

This might be a good time to speak up regarding your thoughts about this. Your state Senator’s number or email is just a “google” away.