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Continued: Editorial: Teacher pay freeze is leading indicator

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So much non-sense

OK, a couple of things to clear up about teachers: 1) Teachers do not, for the most part get "summers off" they spend a substantial amount … read more of the time between school years preparing for the next year. They also are not compensated during school breaks (this is true for winter and spring breaks as well). It's more like an involuntary furlough than a vacation. 2) Teachers do not get merit pay. Almost all contracts are negotiated the same way. The more years you have been a teacher, the more you get paid. The more education you have, the more you get paid. This is mostly due to the flat organizational structure of schools. There are basically no opportunities for promotion in education. If you work in the corporate world, your boss probably has between 10 and 30 direct reports, creating multiple levels of management in even a moderately sized organization. A high school principal has more like 150. You can only be promoted about 4 or 5 times before you are the head of the organization. Also, you can't be promoted without getting a new degree and state license in a different area of expertise. 3) A freeze in cost of living adjustments is perfectly acceptable as (contrary to the article's assumptions) consumer prices did not in fact increase during 2008. A salary that stays constant is in fact a real pay raise of about 0.8%. 4) Teaching is a much harder profession than almost all non-teachers realize. A corporate analogy would be helpful here. Imagine you have been asked to run a meeting with 35-40 people. The meeting will be 5 hours long. About 50% of the attendees have not completed the work necessary to have a successful meeting. You will be paid for 1 hour to prepare for this meeting. Many of your employees are involved with each other in messy intimate relationships that spill over into work. Many of your employees are also hungry, smelly, tired, distracted by cell phones, put their job low on their priority list, and perceive you personally to be the incarnation of evil. You have no power to fire any low performers or hire more successful people. You will repeat this process every day.

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UNION VIEWS

"We understand that we all have to do our part in this economy. For the last decade, we've done without any cost-of-living increases. We're working longer hours for no extra pay and paying more for health care. Minneapolis teachers have already been giving back.'' Lynn Nordgren, president, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers

''We just can't ask for what we did in the past.'' Sandy Skaar, president, Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota

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No one likes the idea of a wage freeze. While the paycheck stays the same, the cost of living doesn't. Prices for things like food, clothing, health care, education and home and car maintenance almost always go up.

Yet, understanding the dire state of the economy, Forest Lake teachers recently agreed to a two-year contract that doesn't include a cost-of-living pay hike. Because Forest Lake is one of the first of Minnesota's 340 school districts to settle a contract this year, the agreement should help set the tone for other negotiations.

Many districts have gone as far as they can with nonpersonnel budget cuts. Now, with flat state school funding and declining enrollments, they have to find ways to reduce labor costs.

In addition to forgoing cost-of-living hikes, Forest Lake educators agreed to give up "step,'' or seniority-based, pay hikes during the first year of the pact. Step increases will be reinstated in the second year, and teachers will continue to receive "lane'' pay increases, which are awarded for additional education.

The adjustments will save the district about $1.7 million over its original two-year cost projections. As a result, school leaders say they can scale back on the $6 million in cuts they anticipated for the next two years.

Other Minnesota districts are hoping to have similar results at the bargaining table. St. Paul administrators have said they will ask employees for a pay freeze to help address a projected $25 million deficit. And Spring Lake Park school officials have included lower-than-usual teacher pay increases in next year's budget.

During the last round of Minnesota teacher negotiations, covering 2007-09, contracts cost the average Twin Cities district about 8 percent more than previous agreements, according to the Minnesota School Board Association. Even with federal stimulus funding plugging some holes in school budgets, many districts cannot afford those kinds of increases.

And during 2006-07, according to a national American Federation of Teachers report, educators across the country received the highest salary increases the profession had seen in 15 years. Average increases of 4.5 percent nationally brought the average teacher salary up to $51,000.

The study said that while teachers were making gains before the economy tanked, most U.S. workers and government employees were experiencing cuts. Still, the AFT report said, teachers earn about 70 cents for every $1 earned by professionals in 23 occupations that require similar levels of education. Minnesota ranks 18th in the nation, with an average teacher salary of about $49,700.

It's difficult to put a price tag on the value of talented, dedicated teachers, and surely many will suffer through this economic downturn with many of their private sector counterparts. But it's understandable that administrations are taking a hard line on compensation. In an era when many employers are eliminating jobs and many are cutting pay, wage freezes are a less devastating sign of the times.

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