Georgia District May Ask Teachers to Give Back Raises
Plummeting property values and state budget cuts are forcing many school districts to make tough decisions. Case in point: A cash-strapped school district in Fayette County, Ga., is considering asking teachers and other school employees to give up recent pay raises. Teachers there are not too happy about it.
The paycheck givebacks would save the Fayette County Public Schools $2 million and might help the district avoid layoffs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. But for the district—which faces a $1.8 million budget deficit—to recover the money, all school employees would have to agree. (A survey is going out to all employees this month.) Several school board members favor the idea, citing a similar gesture on the part of teachers in a school district in Maryland. But several teachers in Fayette County who were interviewed on the first day of the new school term seemed leery of the idea.
Fayette County teachers don't have union representation. Jeff Hubbard, president of the state teacher union, has criticized the proposal.
If the district's employees agree to give back their raises, they would take unpaid leave and would not have to return any money. Two board members said they had received calls from teachers saying they would give up their raises to avoid seeing colleagues lose their jobs.
What's next? School districts cutting down to four days a week? Never mind—that's already happened.
Tags: Georgia | public schools | salaries | teachers | education
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Ga teachers salaries and part-time teachers
I agree part-times often have advance degrees - the reason being that most part-time teachers are teacher retirees and spent 30 years in a profession where there is an incentive (pay increase) to earn advance degrees. These retired teachers are also allowed to double dip - keeping their retirement checks (which is very generous) and being paid to work part-time on a pay scale equaled to that of active teachers. Where is the tax money going? Our tax money is being uses to lure NCR to Georgia. We must question the state of Georgia about it's support of our state run public school systems. Locale government entities such as Fayette, Fulton, etc. supplement what is given by the state (the richer the county/city the more the supplement), but it is the state's responsibility to educate the children of Georgia. With every public school system naming their educational domain, this fact is oftened overlooked.
GA job losses for teachers
Most counties are not re-hiring part-time teachers. These are some of the MOST qualified teachers in a school-system. A part-time teacher is MORE qualified than most full-time teachers, b/c school systems make part-time teachers submit a proposal justifying why they should be hired. Now, ANY full-time teacher (Cherokee County) has gotten a contract, but part-time are being let go. This means, a first year teacher w/ a bachelor's degree who was hired in 2008, get precedence over 2 part-time teachers who have master's and specialist degrees and multiple endorsements. Part-time teachers work part-time because they have other obligations that usually prohibit them from going full-time into the workforce. They are happy and refreshed and teach b/c they really want to teach...even if for half a day instead of a full one. What a shame that Cherokee County can do this to children!
job losses for teachers
Forsyth county schools are displacing 300 full-time teachers and moving within the county. Many have not found a job yet. All part-time teachers have been let go.
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