I was very pleased and honored to be invited by Chairman
Charles Poindexter to address the House Appropriations Committee’s Compensation
and Retirement Subcommittee this afternoon.
I had all of five minutes, but I pled our case for increasing educator’s
salaries and providing a statewide health insurance option.
I provided substantial documentation to subcommittee
members, and here is what I said:
Chairman Poindexter
and members of the subcommittee, I deeply appreciate this opportunity to
address you this afternoon.
Mr. Chairman, I hope
if this old teacher finishes talking before using my allotted 5 minutes that I
can give your subcommittee a homework assignment.
Let me first commend
Governor McDonnell for adhering to the phase-in contribution rate schedule for
VRS in his introduced budget. We urge
you to stay the course and fully fund the Virginia Retirement Board of Trustees’
certified rate by 2018.
I thank each of you
for the provision of the 2% salary increase for educators in the last
session. I thank you, too, for including
all SOQ positions, and for making it a full year raise.
I have provided
information regarding Virginia’s current status for teacher salaries including
division-by-division information.
Delegate Chafin is
carrying our teacher salary budget amendment, and we must make progress on
salaries if we are to attract and retain the best teachers for Virginia’s
students. Virginia is the 9th
wealthiest state, but we rank 31st in teacher salary. We pay a rate which is 88.45% of the national
average, and we are $6,514 below that average.
VEA’s Legislative
Committee seeks a 6% salary increase.
Last year, we asked for 4% and got 2%, so we figured that if we asked
for 6% this year, we’d get 6%.
We also asked you to
look with favor on legislation carried by Delegates Yost and Kilgore to provide
a statewide health insurance option to Virginia school divisions.
Mr. Chairman, I’m way
short on my time, so here is the homework.
Please review the materials I have provide to you carefully.
Thank you Mr. Chairman
and subcommittee members.
The Senate Committee on Education and Heath reported Senator
Favola’s SB 43, which increases the time a teacher has to appeal dismissal from
5 days to 10 day, on a 12 to 0 vote.
Senator Garrett abstained.
Senator Obenshain’s SB 457, which would allow school boards
to deny VRS participation to charter school teachers and to hire unlicensed
teachers for charter schools, was reported and re-referred to the Senate
Finance Committee. This same bill died
in Finance last year. Interestingly,
when Senator Saslaw asserted that the bill had a fiscal impact and should go to
finance as it had the year before, Obenshain asserted that the bill had not
gone to Finance last year. The committee
clerk stepped in to correct Obenshain.
Let’s hope this bill long “lingers in the bosom of the committee” as the
late-great Hunter Andrews used to say.
That’s one way to kill a stinker!
