Teacher raises prove tough across midstate

Across much of Middle Georgia, state cash that the governor said was intended for teacher raises did not exactly go into educators’ pockets.

At least, not as the people at the Capitol intended.

About 40 percent of Georgia’s 180 school systems did give educators 3 percent raises after an infusion of state money this year, according to a state survey.

In Bibb and Houston counties, educators will get the raise. But in some other systems, such as Twiggs County, the cash went to help end furlough days.

“When you’re in furlough, you’re not making the minimum,” Twiggs County school Superintendent Elgin Dixon said. He said it’s been about eight years since the system went without furlough days.

“You can look at that glass as half-empty or half-full. We’re looking at it half-full that we restored back to 190” work days, he said.

But plenty of systems are like Twiggs: When the new funding came from the state, permanent teacher raises were not the first thing in line.

Except for Houston, no other county surrounding Macon-Bibb reported giving educators a permanent 3 percent raise.

The talk of raises for educators statewide came first from Republican Gov. Nathan Deal in January, when he proposed an increase in school spending and said that he intended for school boards to give teachers a raise. But the cash came as part of a bucket of funds that school boards can spend with few strings attached, rather than adding money in a way that would ensure that teachers receive it.

Indeed, very soon, some educators foresaw that smaller districts, where budgets are tight, might rather end furlough days or give one-time bonuses instead of promising teachers more money in their yearlong paychecks.

And folks in education are quick to point out that the state has long shortchanged its own school-funding formula, even if the gap has been getting smaller as the economy recovers from the recession and the governor and the Legislature spend more on K-12 education.

For plenty of local education leaders, the millions of dollars between actual funding and full funding is a figure close to the tops of their heads.

Jen Ryan, a spokeswoman for Deal, said in a written statement that “Gov. Deal has given local school systems large increases in funding for the past three years and given them the flexibility to decide how to spend it. These additional resources, totaling $894 million, were sent to local school systems to restore instructional days, eliminate teacher furloughs and increase teacher salaries.”

Between that and other measures the governor has taken to help cities and counties offset their education costs, she wrote, teachers should have received the 3 percent raise.

“Since so many did not, Gov. Deal is left with no other option; silo the pay raise in QBE, which will mandate teachers receive it,” she wrote, referring to the Quality Basic Education formula, the state’s education spending rule.

As for how that will apply to teachers who did and who did not get the raise, if it will bring them to some kind of parity, Ryan wrote that those questions are part of an ongoing discussion.

And even where educators did get the raise in the midstate, budgeting was something like squeezing a balloon: relieving pressure on one part increased pressure on another part.

“We could not get the raises to fit into our budget without the need for a millage rate increase,” Bibb County school board President Lester Miller said. “In order to remain competitive in attracting qualified teachers, we felt … that we needed to give a raise. Plus, they deserve one. It’s been a long time since they got one.”

The Houston County school district is giving a 3 percent raise and is not raising property taxes, Superintendent Mark Scott said.

A raise is “something that we’ve had our eye on a long time, we’ve wanted to do that,” Scott said.

He describes Houston’s school budgeting as “conservative” — a place where they watch their energy bills closely and where a good argument has to be made for adding new staff.

But he also described some ongoing budget pressure: The system made deep cuts when the recession started, he said, and has been slow to add back staff or days that were cut from some employees’ schedules. And for several reasons, the school system dipped into savings for $2 million for its latest budget.

And he’s got an eye on other costs, like more and more students joining the system and educators’ health insurance.

So he and others are watching to see if the people under the Gold Dome next year act on some key reports from this year about schools and teachers.

Not long before Deal announced raises, a blue ribbon panel set up by the governor recommended overhauling QBE. And in January, the Georgia Department of Education released a survey that found the majority of teachers would not recommend the profession to young people.

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Teacher raises prove tough across midstate."