Making Tough Choices About Teacher Compensation During Hard Times

Over the past several weeks, news media outlets have been buzzing about potential drastic teacher layoffs ranging from between 100,000 and 300,000 nationwide if the Education Jobs Fund isn’t passed in Congress. The Education Jobs Funds is a $23 billion program that has been proposed in both the House and the Senate that would help states pay for teacher salaries and benefits during the economic downturn. The fate of the proposal is unclear at this time. But the news media has framed the story as a false choice. The large estimated numbers of teacher layoffs cited by the media and advocates assume that nothing else can change about teacher compensation in the mean time. In other words, 100,000 to 300,000 teachers could lose their jobs in the coming year as long as state and local policymakers make no changes to teacher salary schedules, benefits, or planned raises in response to budget shortfalls. Now it looks like the Education Jobs Fund versus mass layoffs may indeed be a false choice for many school districts.

Yesterday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested another way to avoid massive teacher layoffs that doesn’t involve an additional $23 billion in federal spending. He announced that he plans to freeze all teacher and administrator salaries at the levels specified by the current salary schedule. Now, this means that the salary schedule will stay the same. However, teachers will still receive pay raises based on their increase in years of experience – otherwise known as “step” increases. So, even though teachers with five years of experience will be making the same amount this coming year as they did last year, a teacher that now has six years of experience will be making more than she or he did with only five years of experience.

According to the New York Times, this salary freeze, combined with the elimination of an estimated 2,000 teacher positions through attrition and retirement, would save $400 million and 4,400 teacher and administrator jobs. To be sure, the legality of this move is somewhat in question – Mayor Bloomberg cannot unilaterally decide the content of the teachers’ salary contract without union ratification – though New York City’s teachers are currently working without a finalized contract. Bloomberg could feasibly refuse to sign one if the union decides not to accept the salary freeze.

Regardless of these complications, the New York example suggests that there are ways to help shore up state and school district budgets rather than Congress enacting another bailout. One such approach is to freeze teacher salary schedules at the current level, as Bloomberg suggests, or even roll the schedules back to 2008 or earlier to help balance budgets. Another option is to cut the benefits teachers receive in addition to their salaries like healthcare, life insurance, and retirement. Finally, and likely the least attractive option, is furloughing teachers.

Obviously, these methods may not work in all states or school districts. In some districts in California, for example, freezing salary schedules maybe not provide sufficient enough savings to overcome current budget deficits. In other districts with particularly strong teacher’s union presence, they may be unable to receive approval for these strategies no matter how dire the consequences. For these places, continued federal action, like the Education Jobs Fund, may be absolutely necessary. But any additional federal funding should come with some strings attached, like requiring districts to exhaust cost savings options before receiving funds. Otherwise, the federal funds simply allow states and school districts to defer tough budget choices that are ultimately necessary.

In a critical mass of districts, however, making difficult decisions about teacher compensation may be the only lifeline left for districts to keep their budgets afloat and teachers in their classrooms. A full $23 billion Education Jobs Fund seems unlikely at this point – while education stakeholder groups have rallied behind the legislation, Congress seems less than enthused about spending that much money on education. Now appears to be the time to gather all the stakeholders at the table and start hashing out a teacher compensation system that makes sense in today’s economy. New York is not the first district to do so, and it likely won’t be the last.