The reaction to Gov. Nathan Deal’s announcement this week of a 2 percent raise for teachers met with skepticism on social media.
One teacher on Facebook posted: “2%? Just throw it at our health care please.”
Another said, “Skeptical? More like insulted!”
Why? Deal promised a 3 percent raise last year — really a one-time bonus — but many teachers saw their paychecks unchanged or diminished due to higher insurance costs.
That was because only 40 percent of Georgia school systems passed the money along to teachers as bonuses. Still reeling from austerity cuts, some rural systems used their share of the $300 million from the state to eliminate unpaid teacher furlough days or plug budget holes.
Since 2003, local school system budgets have been decimated by state austerity cuts cumulatively totaling more than $9 billion, including back-to-back annual cuts of more than a billion-plus from 2010 to 2014. The consequence of those budget slashes — furloughs, larger class sizes, stagnate salaries — likely played a role in the 36 percent decline in enrollment in Georgia’s teacher education programs between 2010 and 2015.
To read more about school funding woes in Georgia and how more of the burden is shifting from the state to districts, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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