Markell’s Budget
3-27-09
Teachers in this state from Brandywine to Delmar are horrified. We helped to elect Governor Markell and now face a devastating blow in terms of our salaries and benefits based on his latest budget announcement. Markell wants to balance the state deficit by initiating deep cuts into teachers’ salaries. His consolation to us is that he won’t eliminate positions!
Wait a minute. As state treasurer for eight years Markell should know how to raise revenue and lower the impact on all state workers (including teachers). During his campaign he promised to look at programs and eliminate waste. He also promised fair taxation. None of this is reflected in his budget proposal if you are a looking through the eyes of a teacher (and especially paraprofessionals). Teachers give Markell a D for research to solve the budget problem.
This budget bleeds red from the teachers who will be impacted and the state workers who will be denied. In fact, his proposal is disproportionate in every way. He not only seeks to cut our salary, he is also cutting our length of contract and raising the cost of our health benefits. This is a triple whammy. Cut, cut, cut. Teachers give Markell an F for fairness.
Teachers across the board will be affected. Teachers who have just entered the profession will be cut and teachers who have been working for thirty years will be cut.
Administrators will be affected. They collect state salary. Their salaries are indexed on the teacher scale but of course, they make much higher salaries due to length of contract and years in administration. So proportionally, the first year teacher is sacrificing far more than the administrator, and may be reconsidering being in education at all based on the low pay and high accountability. Teachers give Markell an F in equality.
We have been asked repeatedly to raise the level of instruction, raise our expectations, and to do more about becoming effective teachers. Now we feel as if we have been thrown under the school bus, our professional credentials marginalized and our benefits devastated by this budget. Why must the state seek out teachers and punish us for their inability to generate enough revenue? Teachers give Markell a D for innovation.
What about raising Delaware’s Personal Income Tax? The brackets for this tax stop at $60,000 meaning that people with income above that limit all pay at the same rate. So private sector workers who earn six digit salaries pay the same rate as a teacher who has been teaching for 30 years. Why not create a more progressive tax that allows private and public sector citizens to shoulder the tax deficit burden?
Many teachers work summer school to supplement incomes and realize that this opportunity has been eliminated because there is no summer school. No money. No summer school.
Teachers are talking. We serve the children of this state but soon you may see us in another capacity. We may be serving the citizens of this state as waitresses and fast food servers. You may see us this summer cutting lawns, working retail and lifeguarding at the beaches instead of in classrooms to learn and to teach.
State budget problems? Just ask the teachers to take a hit by creating a budget that is unfairly places the burden on teachers and watch what happens.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Great piece!
Our tax system is unfair and frankly, irresponsible: an obsolete Personnel Income Tax schedule; corporate income tax structure that has lots of room for ’shared sacrified; and no taxation on inherited wealth. If the later were reinsituted (it was eliminated in 2005), it could bring in $48 million – half of the $90 million cut from state worker and teacher salaries!
Cutting essential services and education? This is not the way to restore economic health or provide for the long-term viability of our state. We need to grow our economy for the long-term and our public schools are a vital part of that strategy.