Second in a series
Gov. Tom Corbett, in defending his education funding proposal last spring, asked public school administrators and teachers statewide to consider taking a pay freeze, a move he said could save $400 million.
"I am here to say that education cannot be the only industry exempt from recession," he said at the time.
When the governor came to Paxinos last week, an even more contentious school funding battle in 2012-13 having played out locally with 21 furloughs at Shamokin Area School District OK'd just eight days earlier, he noted how teachers in Carlisle had recently voted to reduce their 4 percent pay increase to 2 percent to avoid layoffs.
"My question: has that happened here? Has that been requested here?" Corbett said about Shamokin Area.
To answer those questions, it has not happened, but it apparently has been requested, of both teachers and administrators.
Last year, it did happen at Line Mountain, said Superintendent Dave Campbell.
"Everyone, from the cook to me, got no increases. Nothing," Campbell said. And that included, beyond any raises spelled out in the teachers contracts, the annual 2.5 percent "step" increases that are virtually guaranteed for teachers statewide in each of their first 15 years.
Contracts and freezes
Corbett, backed locally by Sen. John Gordner (R-27) and Kurt Masser (R-107), fellow Republicans, said school board members need to shoulder more responsibility for the education funding crisis. They have been handing out raises to teachers and administrators that their districts can't afford, and schools have been adding staff even while enrollment declined, they argue.
Cuts to staff did begin locally last year. Four local districts, Line Mountain, Mount Carmel Area, Shamokin Area and Southern Columbia Area, had 39 fewer teachers, a total of 497, when the current school year began, according to data collected last summer.
Line Mountain had the biggest reduction, 13, from 110 to 97; Mount Carmel trimmed 12 teachers, from 121 to 109; Shamokin Area had 10 fewer, dropping from 185 to 175; and Southern Columbia eliminated four positions, down from 120 to 116.
The reductions, however, came after each of the four districts experienced at least five straight years where teacher numbers increased every year. Even with the reductions, Mount Carmel Area, Shamokin Area and Southern Columbia all have more teachers in 2011-12 than they did in 2006-07. Line Mountain is the exception, with 97 to start this school year and 101 six years ago.
Shamokin Area's most recent teacher contract was approved in June 2010 and took effect July 1 that year. It was a two-year extension that came a year before the previous contract's expiration. Raises were to be given at $2,500 the first year and $2,200 the second, with no new health benefits.
At Southern, a new three-year contract approved in 2010 gave teachers an average salary increase of 3.3 percent the first year, about $1,700 for the average teacher, 3.19 in 2011-12 and 3.09 in the coming school year. The new contract cost taxpayers nearly $200,000 a year, it was reported at the time.
At Mount Carmel Area, a three-year contract that expires this year increased salaries by $3,000 in 2009-10 and $2,000 each in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
In addition to Line Mountain's across-the-board salary freezes, Mount Carmel Area administrators early last year - prior to Corbett's suggestion - accepted a one-year pay freeze for the current school year. Teachers there did not approve a pay freeze.
Southern's administrators agreed to freeze their salaries last year, but not for 2012-13. The teachers union voted again this year not to take a pay freeze for 2012-13, it was reported in February.
Salary impact
Gordner cited state Labor and Industry statistics in advance of Corbett's visit last week that teacher contracts, especially with the "step" raises, have doubled that of private-sector raises for white-collar jobs, which have averaged 2.59 percent over the past 10 years. He said the contracts are "smothering" school districts, and that with enrollment declining and staff levels increasing, Corbett decided "enough is enough."
But Wythe Keever, assistant communications director at the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) points to a 48-page report, "Sounding the Alarm, PSEA's White Paper on the Increasing Number of Pennsylvania School Districts at Risk of Financial Distress," issued in March, to refute the claims of rising salaries impacting school budgets. It shows that salaries and benefits as a percentage of school district budgets declined from 68.1 percent in 1995-96 to 65.4 in 2002-03 and to 61.8 in 2009-10. He acknowledges it is forecast to climb slightly by 2017-18 to 62.7, but that it will still be more than 5 percent lower at that time than 20 years prior.
"So the argument that salaries and benefits are driving up school costs is simply not accurate," Keever said.
He asks "for how many years?" are educators supposed to take cuts or wage freezes to "make up for" the governor's cuts?
"That won't balance Shamokin's budget," he said. "It won't balance any school's budget."
What it will do is harm students, he says, with larger class sizes and the loss of course offerings, extra-curricular activities and support programs for struggling students.
PSEA argues the administration must look at reforming the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax and the "Delaware loophole" to generate revenue, and noted the Legislature chose only to impose an impact fee on the Marcellus Shale industry rather than an extraction tax that exists in most states where natural gas or other drilling takes place.
"The revenue is out there," Keever said. "It can't just be a 'cuts-only' argument."
But Gordner said to continue giving raises that are in the neighborhood of 6 percent annually is "simply unsustainable."
"When it comes down to eliminating positions or freezing salaries," he said, "I would hope and I would encourage local teacher unions to look (at the latter)."
(Coming Tuesday: Transportation becomes a concern with new "block grant" funding structure.)