Reducing pay is like a special tax on teachers and state workers and not other businesses and workers, the head of a teachers union said today before the governor’s State of the State speech.
“It’s balancing the budget on backs of teachers, who are not adequately paid for what they put into eduction,” said Ken Buhrmann, Washoe County Education Association president, who taught for 43 years.
Buhrmann and other Nevadans anxiously await Gov. Jim Gibbons state of the-state address at 6 p.m. tonight to deal with a $800 million budget shortfall over the biennium and a shrinking economy. He’s expected to call the Legislature into special session in late February and tell lawmakers where to focus their attention.
If part of the answer is a shorter school year, Buhrmann said he questions how Nevada schools will meet federal progress standards and compete for the state’s estimated $175 million share of federal education stimulus dollars. Gibbons wants to change a state law prohibiting student tests to be used in teacher evaluations to get a chance of getting that money.
School teachers as well as professors are worried about their jobs.
“Teachers are freaked out,” said Steve Mulvenon, spokesman for the Washoe County School District.
MoreWCSD teachers had BETTER be "freaked" if they don't have family connections already in the district. And if they are over 50 or if they have been "disciplined" in the past, they better be doubly and triply worried, for the corrupt human resources department will work overtime to target them for termination, and then rig the termination process if they can't bribe the teachers to resign.