Rick Scott said all spring he wanted to give teachers a 2500-dollar raise and to his credit the legislature after much foot dragging allocated some money. However they did not commit to allocating the money in future years which turns the raise into a bonus.
Before some of you say; teachers in this economy should be happy to get anything, first, this bonus does not make up for the money the state stole from teachers two years ago that they used to balance the state’s books with and second, life should be more than being happy your allocated crumbs because things could be worse. The state is not out of money and the only thing really broke is our priorities.
The hold up here in Jacksonville seems to be what to give to charter schoolteachers. I would like to say I wish all teachers well, and I imagine working for a charter school with out job security and often with unrealistic demands has to be tough. With that being said I don’t think they should get a dime. If public school teachers, and don’t think for a second charter schoolteachers are public schoolteachers, have to share the money, I would rather we share it with paras and office staff, unsung heroes who really have been given the short stick.
I also find it ironic that charter schoolteachers have to depend on Duval Teachers United to negotiate on their behalf. One of the selling features of charter schools for people like Jeb Bush and Gary Chartrand is they diminish the power of unions. Charter schools are not union shops. When the power of unions is diminished, it has pay, benefit, pension and working condition ramifications.
