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Make no mistake about it
 We all know that you shouldn't spend more money than you make. No argument there. So when Ron Bennett of School Services spoke out on that subject and was quoted in the Los Angeles Times July 8, his words should have carried weight. But they didn't.
What he said was, "Last year most school systems handed out higher raises than they could afford." Did they, really? Let me tell you about last year. The public schools received 40 percent of the largest state budget in California's history. In addition to that money, CTA negotiated with Governor Gray Davis, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton to obtain an additional $1.84 billion for schools. That amounted to 11 percent on top of the 40 percent.
Based on that amount of incoming money, many CTA locals negotiated 10 percent and 11 percent pay raises for classroom teachers. Were those raises more than the districts could afford? Absolutely not. The money was sent to school districts without strings attached, and it was understood all around that it could be - and most likely would be - used to shore up lagging teacher salaries statewide.
Moreover, there was no endangerment to future budgets. This year your local district will receive the exact same amount of money from the state as it did last year, plus an additional 3.87 percent cost-of-living allowance (COLA). No cause for panic, no need for special economics.
It is hardly necessary to point out that teachers deserved the increased salaries, but maybe some of the dimmer wits in administration and such outfits as School Services - a consulting firm made up of ex-administrative types who push their (surprise!) anti-teacher counsel to client school districts for a hefty fee - need to be reminded of something that even they must consider important: It's teachers who are the bedrock of schools, and they've been underpaid for a long, long time. Plainly, teachers had first call on the increased funding.
School Services hands out different advice, however. Its conservative word is to put more money in reserve accounts. The state requires most districts to maintain at least a 3 percent reserve, and some districts carry 10 percent to 15 percent reserves. While School Services counsels districts to put more and more money into reserves and "programs," it says nothing about district bureaucrats employed at inflated salaries or the fact that California has one administrator, coordinator or supervisor for every 13.9 teachers, librarians and counselors, according to numbers reported in the summer issue of Education Statistics Quarterly. In effect, School Services is advising districts to deny money to the classroom. And now, not surprisingly, it's also urging districts to keep teacher salaries at a minimum!
With the backing of such "authorities" as Bennett and Ken Hall, also of School Services, districts like Berkeley, Saddleback Valley, LAUSD, Eureka and Irvine are all saying they have to make cuts this year because of last year's salary increases. They are crying wolf, trying to make you and the public believe that they overspent last year and must tighten belts (yours, not theirs) this year to make up for that extravagance. Don't you believe it. Last year's raises were fair, they were deserved and, above all, they were affordable. The money came from that extra $1.84 billion we negotiated and it took nothing away from any other part of a district's budget.
And in case you need a reminder of why you deserved the raises, take note of the fact that the Digest of Educational Statistics 2000 reports that California has the largest class size in the nation. We're number 50, dead last. Add to that the fact reported in The New York Times by Gail Collins in June: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that "Teachers in the United States spend more time in the classroom (about 30 percent more) and get less pay than teachers in most developed countries." Overworked. Underpaid. And, we might as well add, being conned into thinking they don't merit a respectable, professional salary. That's what the bureaucratic and administrative levels of the educational world apparently want. As for the severe and growing teacher shortage, they don't care enough to keep active teachers in the classroom, let alone attract new ones to our vital profession.
School Services and many districts are trying to set you up to accept lower pay increases and even cuts by telling you they can't afford to treat you right. Don't you fall for it! At the bargaining table, you must demand what these districts can really afford to pay you. CTA will tell you what the real figures are, based on the district's actual budget, not on the mushy math the "experts" want to use to scare you into taking less than you deserve and they can pay.
Make no mistake about it: You deserve all you can get. You work longer hours and receive lower pay than other teachers in the industrialized world, and it's high time for a change. Organize your people. Don't settle for less than what is fair.
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