Kentucky Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on January 10, 2006, to provide public school teacher salary increases for school years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008

The vote was 95 in favor, 0 opposed and 5 not voting

(House Roll Call 392 at House Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

New teachers can hardly make ends meet on the salary they are paid. Teachers work an average of 50+ hours a week without compensation for extra hours above contract time,All other state employees are paid overtime or receive comp time when they work overtime. Teachers salaries should be treated just as any other state employee.

First of all, teachers get 3 months off a year, so their salaries should be divided by the 9 months they're working. Second, according to the John Lock Foundation, when you control for cost of living and benefits, Kentucky's teachers are the 5th highest paid in the nation.

Before Legislature and Administrations increase 2006 Appropriations implement "revenue neutral" tax strategy to review all Kentucky taxes to eliminate, modify and enhance. Then, review all state tax expenditures to modify, eliminate, enhance to reduce the projected $1.58 billion in 2008 if left untouched; update 1995 Commission On Quality and Efficiency and implementing a reduction in appropriations of $1 billion dollars over a 5 year time frame including: Reduce Legislative Research and Administrative Offices of the Court personnel saving and estimated $10 million with reduction excluding estimate of savings from elimination of Legislators retirement benefit increase legislation. (assumes $30,000 avg. annual LRC & AOC salaries) reduce the number of state testing centers from 15 to 6 move from a "defined benefit" to a "defined contribution program" for new state employees merge administration and support services of the Kentucky employees retirement system, the county employees retirement system, the state police retirement system and the teachers retirement system re-engineer and automate front end processing of documents entering the Revenue Cabinet and activate microfilming at the cabinet level to achieve same day deposits require sheriff departments to remit payments every two weeks design and implement systems and processes for measuring the costs of revenue generation raise teacher salaries commensurate with their performance establish child care centers for state workers accelerate the date property escheats to the state to five years; raise the $25 floor on advertising to $100 to eiminate claimants advertising. finance & administration cabinet review & update and implement 1987 automated purchasing study Save $40 million annually by reducing number of PVAs from 120 to 50 placing PVAs and all PVAs computer assessment records under authority of Revenue Cabinet as a result of passage of H.B.538 in 2000, elevating PVAs to full-time merit state employees subject to Kentucky Revenue Cabinet’s general authority as outlined in KRS 13.020 – 030; 131, 132, 133, 134 and 136 revisit the 1992 comprehensive economic impact study of the "extended weight haul road system" on the coal producing economy looking to reduce appropriations revise copier procurement practices and require that agencies purchase copiers consistent with their needs require that each state agency publication be supported by a needs assessment document approved at the secretary or commissioner level contract with a private firm to review the state's monthly telephone bills use electronic fund transfers to pay telephone bills streamline the process of issuing checks from the state treasurer direct deposit of the state payroll directly into the accounts of employees--- savings estimated to be $1.2 million in ‘95 Establish investment pools---as recommended by the national association of state treasurers for counties---allowing individual county instant liquidity---yet it yields a greater return on their investments since large sums of monies are being invested uniformity. a pool acts as a voluntary, state-managed investment option for the surplus operating the funds within a state each local government pools its excess operating funds with that of other local governments in an operation much like a money market mutual fund, but with the added benefit of being structured to meet the unique needs of government investors although all funds are pooled for investment purposes, each locality's participation in the pool is reported separately. Study the cash management practices of state universities and explore the possibility of a pool of investment funds from which universities could draw down. Recommend electronically transferring funds more efficiently by lowering thresholds allowing maximum interest to be earned. Electronic fund transfers (eft) can be used to pay large sums of monies to vendors, and to control the date funds are withdrawn from the state's account for better controls to ensure that bills are not being paid before their due dates. recommend better ways for state to stop payments on checks w/insufficient funds legislation tightening up enforcement of collecting insurance surcharge amend legislation making it illegal for general assembly to use state retirement dollars for balancing state budget after merging Transportation Cabinet’s division of vehicle enforcement and division of motor carriers with Kentucky Justice Cabinet amend statutes making all vehicle enforcement officers subject to state police job duties and appropriate employee requirements and training and defining their duties as having total responsibility for truck safety and all motor vehicle titling and registration and u-drive-it tax compliance while cooperating with Kentucky Revenue Cabinet motor vehicle and truck tax compliance add 50 or more permanent employees to Revenue Cabinet’s motor vehicle compliance section before or after merging and adequately funding Revenue Cabinet to be organized in most efficient manner to accomplish collecting all taxes, omitting none reduce by 25% all “field jobs” not involved with “tax compliance and apply savings to personnel collecting taxes eliminating all state & local personnel "double dipping" review estimated 85,000 personal service contracts and eliminate contracts found unnecessary or political reduce current state Medicaid appropriations THEN, BUDGET PAY RAISE FOR TEACHERS TIED IN WITH PAY FOR PERFORMANCE---FULLY FUND ALL TRAINING FUNCTIONS FOR MANAGEMENT RAISING ODDS MANAGEMENT WILL EVALUATE TEACHER PERFORMANCE FAIR AND ADEQUATELY.

KY's future (and every other state's) depends on who wins the education game---who can recruit the best teachers and produce the best students. If we continue to lag behind other states, that's where we'll find ourselves in 10-15 years.

Teacher salaries should be divided by the 9 months they work, not the 12 months they get paid. If you break it down by hour, teachers make well above $25/hour. That's a great salary. If they can't educate kids for that much money, they should pack it in and try another line of work.

Teacher salaries are based on a minimum of 185 days. (In some districts, teachers are required to work more days and salaries are based on the number of days worked.) Regardless of the exact number of days the pay is based on, most teachers work many more days than what they are paid. Until you have done the job or are married to someone who has done the job, you don't realize the amount of time a good teacher puts into the job. It simply can not be done in 7.5 or 8 hours per day, and it can not be done in only the 185 days. If there is a teacher that only works 7.5 hours a day for 185 days, I would most certainly say they are not educating the students the encounter every day.

Teachers in Kentucky, on average, make more than 40K per year. That's higher than most *family* incomes. I can't feel sorry for people who make more than I do. Even if these folks decided not to deliver pizzas in the summer or take tutoring jobs, I don't feel bad for 'em. If they don't like their jobs, they should at least consider taking another line of work. There is no problem with teacher pay. The only teachers who make too little are the really great ones. The others can suck it up and deliver a few pizzas in the summer.

Your wrong to assume that teachers paid for a full year. They only get paid for the time they work. They have the option to get it one sum while they work, or to have it spread out over the summer months.

Your argument is perfectly irrelevant. Just because teachers can opt to be paid in varying amounts at different times doesn't have anything to do with this fact: Teachers get paid well whether they're working 9 months or 12 months. They don't pay social security. They pay a tiny fraction of the cost of their own health insurance. More than that, teachers get a gold-plated pension and health insurance system that pays all the bills until death. No Kentuckian in the private sector gets such a sweet deal. Only the teaching lobby can cut such a sweet deal for their constituents.

At the rate they work teachers, some teachers are required to stay after school, some til 9:00 pm, there is no comp time for teachers, that work over the standard time. Then you have to go home and do lesson plans, and grade papers. How would you feel to work 8am-9pm then go home and work, then just recieve a teacher's salary, you would be making about minimum wage with a Master's Degree that you are mandated to get in 10 years. So, I think its more than fair, its necessary to pass this bill.

This level of work would put them on par with, say, most other educated professionals in careers. We ALL take work home with us. We ALL work overtime on a salary. We ALL come in on weekends sometimes. It's just how it goes if you want to get ahead. Unfortuantely, the teacher pay scale doesnt let us reward these hard working professionals. We have to pay them all the same. We should pay for performance, just like the rest of us. Let their bosses decide, just like the rest of us. What a radical idea! That your supervisor can determine your relative value and your pay. Shocking, I know.

Poor teachers. Teachers are required to get a masters degree in anything they want to improve their job prospects. Too bad most of them get the easiest and most useless masters degree available: education. Boo hoo.

The reason that most teachers pay is divided by 12 months, is for the benefit of the school district. The school district gets to keep that money and draw interest on it longer.

I have a Bachelor degree and I work many nights until 10:00 PM and I am in the office every morning at 7:00 AM - AND I DO THIS ALL YEAR LONG FOR A MEAGER $40,000 A YEAR. Now, teachers do this for 9 months and make at least the same if not more, with extremely good benefit package. I don't have benefits - I pay for them out of my own pocket at a rate of $400 a month, just for health insurance, with a $5,000 deductible. Teachers get nothing taken out of their paycheck for the insurance they have and IT PAYS FOR EVERYTHING. I am tired of paying extra taxes to support all these teacher - besides the fact the I homeschool my children because of all the things my kids pick up from public school - which are mandatory topics - PLEASE GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY POCKET BOOK