Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9003300956
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I intend to keep that pledge," Wilder said. He told delegates to the Virginia Education Association convention that they should "pay very little attention to what people say. . . . Watch what they do."
He said suggestions this week that he had broken his promise were the result of a misunderstanding with a reporter from the Washington Times newspaper.
On Thursday, Madeline Wade, the teachers' association president, had said Wilder had apparently broken his campaign promise.
She said the salary goals that Wilder was currently talking about would move Virginia teachers backward compared with the rest of the United States.
Wilder drew applause from the more than 1,000 delegates at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium when he detoured from the text of his speech to promise to work to push Virginia teacher salaries above the national average.
Wilder was quoted Tuesday in the Washington Times as saying he would keep Virginia teacher pay at least at the "median average" of teacher pay across the United States, not the national average.
The difference sounds like hair-splitting, but it would mean thousands of dollars difference in pay for Virginia teachers.
Last year in Virginia, teacher salaries averaged just over $29,000 - about $1,400 above the median but about $600 below the national average.
The median is the middle figure of any ranking of numbers from highest to lowest. The median for the 50 states and the District of Columbia would be the state that ranks 26th.
After his speech today, Wilder told reporters that he had been in a rush when he had made his comments to the reporter from the Washington Times. "When I talked to him, I was moving very fast."
If he said the "median average," he did not mean it, Wilder said.
He said he showed his commitment to education by fighting for a $200 million reserve fund that may be used to help with teacher raises next year.
He told the convention delegates that he was working to increase teacher pay, but that the salaries "must be consistent with budget realities."
This winter, facing a serious budget crunch, Wilder recommended a 4.5 percent raise for teachers for the next school year. The General Assembly increased the raise to 5 percent.
Virginia's current average, $30,667, ranks it higher than the median - 22nd - but still is $641 under the national average.
Next year, the predicted average of $31,863 would drop Virginia to 24th - $1,198 below the national average but still slightly above the median.
A Wilder campaign paper last fall on his educational agenda for the 1990s said Virginia teachers "will be paid professional salaries exceeding the national average of teachers' salaries."
The Washington Times reported that Wilder had said this Monday: "What I'm saying is that I want us to be past the national median. The median average is what I thought I said [during the campaign], so I really haven't, uh, didn't think I was changing."
by CNB