Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 21, 1993 TAG: 9312210069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"I tell you what, the thing's full of tricks," said Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association.
Jones criticized Wilder's salary increase proposal, a plan he said would provide higher raises for state employees than teachers and pressure localities to pick up more of the slack.
Wilder's budget package includes a 2.25 percent pay increase for both teachers and state employees during both years of the biennium, plus a one-time, lump-sum performance bonus for state employees who meet or exceed job expectations during 1994.
About 88 percent of state employees are expected to earn bonuses of 1 percent or 2 percent of their salaries, according to Planning and Budget Director Karen Washabau. Another 10 percent are expected to earn 4 percent bonuses, with 2 percent or 3 percent of employees earning no bonus.
The budget package does not include a similar scale for awarding bonuses to teachers, Washabau said, but it does include an equivalent pot of bonus money. The budget includes $83 million for state employee pay raises and $112.4 million for teacher salary increases.
Each locality, said Washabau, "needs to determine how they give that money out."
"That's really going to be a bit of a problem for local school divisions," said Jones, explaining that localities don't have a system in place for awarding bonuses to teachers.
He said teachers actually would receive less than state employees - even with the bonus money - because the raises won't take effect until Dec. 1, halfway through the academic year and a teacher's 10-month contract.
In addition, said Jones, the plan unfairly rewards state employees by allowing agencies to give a second-year bonus if they can save enough money to cover it. Because teachers don't work for state agencies, they won't have that option.
Secretary of Education Karen Petersen defended the salary plan, saying that it included "absolutely equal" salary increases for teachers and state employees.
"The equivalent funding is there," she said.
Jones likewise criticized the Wilder administration's efforts to slash $150 million from the cost of projected enrollment increases.
The Department of Education requested $322 million to cover the cost of a 2 percent enrollment increase. But the budget allows for $172 million in increased spending by reducing the amounts allocated for inflation, for supplemental pay to Northern Virginia teachers and for other items, such as school maintenance.
by CNB