December 05, 2008
Teachers forgo raises--in Maryland
Teachers in Montgomery County, Md., have agreed to forgo their 5 percent raise to save Maryland's largest school district $89 million.
As the Washington Post reports:
Leaders of four employee associations, representing more than 22,000 workers, agreed Tuesday to forgo the raise all workers would have received in the fiscal year that begins in July....
School officials said it was the first time since the early 1990s that Montgomery school employees had given up a contractual pay raise, a sign of the magnitude of the economic challenge. However, about two-thirds of the teachers will continue to receive annual step raises based on longevity. The school district has 139,000 students.Employee groups reluctantly agreed to renegotiate their contracts, which were approved in more prosperous times and called for three consecutive increases of about 5 percent each. The contracts have become a symbol of overspending to some of the county's fiscal critics. Meanwhile, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is weighing a plan to require 67,000 state employees to take two to five days of unpaid leave by June. Union leaders are being asked to react to a proposal requiring employees to take at least two days of unpaid leave, including the Fridays after Christmas and New Year's Day.
Back in New York, taxpayers are objecting to large pay raises given to Long Island school superintendents, including a 7 percent raise for Oyster Bay-East Norwich School Superintendent Phyllis Harrington, which was approved in November.
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