HUNTINGTON -- West Virginia's public teachers are asking for more pay, and state officials are talking about how much they can afford to give.
The two sides are at this point far apart, and the issue will be highlighted Monday when thousands of teachers descend on Charleston to lobby legislators for higher salaries. West Virginia Education Association members will rally on the Capitol building's steps in the morning before taking their case to lawmakers.
They will reiterate the fact that West Virginia ranks 48th in teacher pay nationally, but they'll likely focus on where West Virginia ranks regionally.
West Virginia trails its neighboring states in average teacher salary, which is why education graduates often leave the state, officials from both WVEA and the American Federation of Teachers said.
Gov. Joe Manchin proposed Jan. 9 during his State of the State Address a 3 percent raise for professional educators and a $400 across-the-board raise for classroom teachers. He made a 3 percent proposal last year, and the Legislature voted for a 3.5 percent raise.
Matt Stead, Cabell Midland social studies teacher and president of Cabell County's AFT chapter, said Manchin's proposal fell well short of teacher groups' expectations. The two organizations have asked for a $10,000 across-the-board salary increase, spread over three years. AFT wants a $5,000 increase the first year and $2,500 a year for the subsequent two years.
Their intent is to push the state's teacher salaries closer to the national average and higher up the rung of what other professions pay.
Stead, a Marshall University graduate, indicated there aren't enough teachers like him willing to stay because they want to be here.
"It definitely wasn't salary that kept me here," Stead said. "I love this state. It's where I was born and raised."
To stay, though, Stead waited a year and one-half on the sub list for a full-time position, and after four and one-half years of teaching, he said his salary is still not competitive with some other states' starting salaries.
"I could have gone to Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and started with a much higher salary than what I have now," Stead said.
There remains the question, though, of where the money will come from.
Delegate Brady Paxton, D-Putnam, House Education Committee vice chairman, said a cost-of-living formula is often used when legislators try to figure out how much of a raise teachers and school employees should get. If it were up to him, the teachers would get a competitive deal.
"I wish we could," Paxton said. "I would love to write a multi-year deal ... but getting money is like pulling teeth."
Qualified teachers
The focus of teachers' arguments is that West Virginia's lower pay means teachers are more likely to head to other states for jobs. Any gap with other professions also could mean that fewer people go into education.
"We're losing these young kids, and we don't have our very best kids going into education because of salary," AFT-WV President Judy Hale said.
The result, they say, is that many West Virginia schools face using teachers in subjects for which they are not well-qualified. That, teachers say, means that West Virginia students, who already often fall behind students in other states in academic achievement, lose further.
"When we have 56 percent of our chemistry teachers not certified in chemistry, that's a real problem," Hale said
Cabell County Schools Superintendent William Smith said some research shows that students are adversely affected by a shortage of highly-qualified teachers. To help improve educational success, he said the state will have to find money either to give higher raises or to train second-tier teachers.
The numbers
In a recent report from the National Education Association, West Virginia's average teacher salary was $40,531, more than $10,000 behind the national average. The 2006-07 average salary for classroom teachers was $3,000 to $16,000 higher in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
A starting teacher in West Virginia made just under $26,000 this school year -- the average for 2007-08 is expected to be $29,114 -- while starting salaries in neighboring states also are higher, depending on the county. West Virginia has a statewide scale that is intended to keep salaries level. Some neighboring states, including Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, allow counties or districts to determine teacher pay.
In Ohio, the average starting salary for a new teacher is just above $30,000, with new teachers in Lawrence County making more than $28,000.
Boyd County, Ky., starts its certified teachers with a bachelor's degree at $29,832. That is slightly higher than Cabell County's average starting salary of $29,437, which is currently 16th in West Virginia. Putnam ranks first at $31,214; Mason is 12th at $29,712; Logan is 13th at $29,587; Lincoln is 24th at $28,887; and Wayne is tied with 26 other counties at the bottom with $28,587. Second on the list is Boone County at $31,214.
Clouding the straight pay comparisons is the variance in cost of living from state to state.
For example, the average teacher salary in Loudoun County, Va., is $61,293. But, according to www.city-data.com's 2005 report, the median house value was $519,200. In comparison, Cabell County's average teacher salary is $42,802. The median house value, just $88,600.
In 2005, the median monthly housing costs for a Loudoun County household was $1,998. In Cabell County, it was $475.
But there are other areas, such as Buncombe County, North Carolina, where the average teacher salary is slightly below Cabell County. But the cost of living is slightly higher with median monthly housing costs in 2005 at $687, meaning, in both instances, living in Cabell County can be a bargain for teachers making the average salary.
Another factor in the pay argument is how teachers' pay compares with other professions. In Cabell County, where the average salary of a classroom teacher was more than $40,000 in 2007, U.S. Department of Labor statistics indicate that the annual wage was $31,920 for the Tri-State area in 2006.
Strategies vary
To get at the problem of having teachers teach subjects they're qualified for, the governor included $20 million in his budget for signing bonuses for teachers in critical shortage areas such as math, science and special education. A Manchin spokesperson said the bonuses would be $5,000 per teacher, and counties may ask the state to consider other teaching positions that remain vacant for one year as a critical shortage. Those would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. He's also discussed tax incentives and student loan forgiveness.
If you ask Marshall University College of Education professor and Assistant Chair Jim Sotille, he'll tell you there's a decline in student enrollment throughout the department. Even though the same percentage of education students are getting certified in math and science as before, that still yields fewer graduates with those specialties. And many of those students are taking their specialized education degrees and leaving West Virginia.
"Our students do get jobs," Sottile said. "Unfortunately, it's out of state."
He said students tell him all the time that they love West Virginia and want to stay, but often the job offers from other states are too good to pass up. Sottile said at the spring job fair, the southern states always have a good showing and usually walk away with commitments from dozens of graduating teachers.
Sottile said many students head to Virginia or the Carolinas, but some come back after gaining a few years of experience.
One possible way to keep those students with specialized degrees in the state is by designing a salary scale similar to that in higher education where chemistry professors, for example, make more money than a journalism professor.
Cabell Midland chemistry teacher Loretta Hayes indicated a pay scale similar to that used by colleges would be more attractive to college students in the education field. She said the issue goes back to how difficult and specialized a field is, and giving a one-time signing bonus, as the governor suggests, may not be the answer.
WVEA President Charlie Delauder and Superintendent Smith said part of the answer could be for high school counselors to encourage seniors wishing to pursue an education degree to get certified in other areas of teaching. The state also should work with higher education officials to possibly set up teacher-education programs that require certification in critical subjects. That would give graduates who want to stay in the state a better shot at getting jobs more quickly, they said.
Delegate Paxton, a retired teacher, is one who doesn't think students will suffer under the current circumstances, but acknowledged that the most highly qualified teacher might not always be the one in the classroom.
However, he said there are many tools available to help teachers succeed, and he believes teachers are and will continue to do their best.
"You don't go into teaching for the money, so there's got to be something that makes you want to be a teacher," Paxton said. "I would think there will be somebody to step up and take up the slack."
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