THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
For two frantic days this week, Portsmouth middle school teacher Dotty Dray haunted the Capitol building in Richmond, collaring every legislator she could find to make sure they knew that Virginia's teachers are fighting mad.
Many of the state's 75,000 public school teachers are feeling mistreated after the General Assembly's finance committees this week unveiled budget proposals that exclude them from pay raises granted to state employees and college professors.
Dray, a seventh-grade English teacher at Cradock Middle, used the Presidents Day holiday Monday and took a day of professional leave Tuesday to make the case for local teachers.
``It's a slap in the face,'' said Dray, vice president of the Portsmouth Education Association. ``At the same time they're asking us to raise academic standards and improve education in Virginia, they're asking us to go without a salary increase. It's ludicrous.''
Teachers say they feel betrayed by Democratic legislators, who left unchanged Republican Gov. George F. Allen's plan to delay teacher raises until the final six months of the two-year budget. Allen has proposed paying the state's portion of a 3 percent salary increase in December 1997.
State employees and college faculty members would get raises ranging from 6 to 8 percent under the General Assembly's budgets.
``Teachers do not feel appreciated, and that's sad because the future is in our hands,'' Dray said. ``What good does it do to provide more money for college professors if we can't educate students to get them there?''
By midweek, legislators were feeling singed, as teachers and school representatives from across the commonwealth descended on them.
``I think we're all trying to see if there's some way we can work something out to take care of that problem,'' said Del. J. Paul Councill, D-Southampton, who chairs the House Education Committee and serves on the Appropriations Committee.
The Virginia Education Association spent the past two days rallying the troops. President Robley S. Jones left a message on his answering machine urging teachers to call their legislators to complain.
Gary Miller, who teaches gifted and talented students at Cox High in Virginia Beach, said teachers applaud legislators for increasing money for critical classroom needs, such as technology and smaller classes. But, at the same time, ``We've got families, too, and our expenses and bills. It'd be nice to get a raise.''
Miller said teachers in financially troubled school districts couldn't rely on local school boards for raises. Virginia Beach, which ended last school year with a $12.1 million deficit, already has had to cut spending and turn to the city for help.
``I don't think teachers are going to come away unscarred from that,'' Miller said.
The pay issue has taken on a more strident tone because of a steady drop in Virginia's nationwide standing on average teacher pay, which since 1990 has fallen from 18th to 26th. This year's average salary of $34,687 in Virginia is an estimated $3,300 below the national average, according to the National Education Association.
Teachers in poorer districts have felt the pinch disproportionately, educators say. Last year, for instance, the average teacher pay in the bottom five school districts lagged top-paying districts by nearly $14,000, ranging from a high of $44,939 in Falls Church to a low of $23,840 in Highland County, according to the Virginia Education Association.
In the Tidewater region, teacher salaries are about $2,000 below the state average and $8,000 below the average of the top five districts.
Carolyn Smith, an eighth-grade math teacher at Hunt-Mapp Middle in Portsmouth and president of the education association, said: ``I think Virginia teachers have been patient, but I think the patience is wearing very thin.''
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY TEACHER SALARY RAISE by CNB