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Good for education is good for business

Competitive teacher pay translates into a qualified workforce

By Jim Griess, Executive Director of the 25,000-member Nebraska State Education Association

On Sept. 28, the Legislature's Teacher Salary Task Force made its final recommendations to the Legislature's Education Committee.

Twenty Nebraska citizens, representing a cross-section of Nebraska society, spent nearly 16 days this past summer at six separate locations studying the teacher shortage crisis.

They reviewed countless pages of data provided by legislative staff and heard hundreds of people describe the difficulty Nebraska schools are having filling classroom teacher vacancies.

They concluded that the crisis is very real and provided the Education Committee with nine recommendations, all of which require a change in state education policy. The recommendations were drawn from the direct testimony of Nebraska citizens and from the data presented.

Following the September presentation, the Education Committee began a round of hearings on the recommendations. Hearings across the state drew hundreds of interested citizens. Parents, business leaders, farmers, teachers and administrators urged the committee to enact the plan into law. There were differing views on how to fund the proposals, but thus far no one has spoken in opposition to the recommendations.

It, therefore, came somewhat as a surprise to hear that Chamber of Commerce members do not like the Task Force's teacher pay proposals. In October, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce surveyed its members at regional meetings in 24 communities. While teacher pay was not the top item of discussion at any of the Chamber meetings, members were asked their opinion about the issue. The Chamber's teacher pay question asks businesspeople to select one of four responses:

a) The Legislature should earmark a percentage of sales and income taxes to fund teacher pay increases.
b) The Legislature should make all teachers employees of the state and thus be responsible for their salaries.
c) The Legislature should mandate a minimum salary for teachers that would be paid for by local school districts.
d) The Legislature should not involve itself with teacher pay and should leave the matter to local school boards.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed chose "D".

The results of the survey do not give a fair reading of the Task Force results. The questions asked were about taxes, not the need to address the impending teacher shortage crisis.

What attempt, if any, was made to educate Chamber members on the issue before the survey was taken? Did the Chamber share with its members the facts and findings of the Task Force?

Did Chamber leaders explain what the Task Force found – that Nebraska will lose about 1,000 teachers to retirement every year for the next 10 years? That is one half of Nebraska's current K-12 teaching force.

Did Chamber leaders explain what the Task Force found – that 30 to 50 percent of all beginning teachers leave the profession in their first five years in the profession, often for higher salaries in the private sector? Did they explain that while Nebraska's teacher colleges graduate nearly 1,500 teacher candidates annually, only 37 percent actually teach in Nebraska's public school classrooms after graduation?

Did Chamber leaders explain the Task Force finding – that 25 percent of Nebraska's teacher college graduates go directly into the private sector for higher-paying jobs and never become teachers? Or that another 25 percent leave Nebraska to accept higher paying teaching jobs in other states?

Do Chamber members know what the Task Force found – that for the past nine years, Nebraska's average teacher salary ranking has fallen from 38th to 44th in the nation? Do they realize when adjusted for inflation that in four of the last nine years the percentage of spending for instruction for all Nebraska schools has actually decreased?

Based on this information, the Task Force concluded that Nebraska teacher salaries must become competitive if we are to attract and retain quality teachers in the teaching profession. Faced with this kind of evidence, I believe that Chamber members would understand that market forces demand that teacher salaries be competitive. But the Chamber's suggestion that this is a local problem and can be solved locally is in error.

Farmers, ranchers, homeowners and parents understand that solving this problem locally would demand higher property taxes. To a person, citizens who have attended the Task Force meetings and the legislative hearings have rejected that notion in favor of finding funding from some combination of sales and/or income tax.

In state after state, governors and legislatures are recognizing that the solution to this crisis requires state leadership and assistance.

Did Chamber leaders explain what Task Force members know — that 27 states have minimum salaries that guarantee teacher salaries substantially higher than those in Nebraska, and that 23 states have statewide teacher salary schedules?

Were Chamber members informed that the business community in Iowa, along with the Iowa governor, is advocating a minimum starting teacher salary of between $29,000 and $31,000 for the 2000-01 school year? (Nebraska's average starting salary is just over $22,000.) Were Chamber members asked to consider how Nebraska might compete for quality teachers when all of our surrounding states, except South Dakota, pay substantially more?

If the Chamber's point was to suggest that the state has no role in providing all of Nebraska's students with equal access to a quality education, then it is our responsibility to remind them that Nebraska's Constitution clearly places that responsibility in the hands of the Legislature. Article 7, Section 1 of the Nebraska Constitution provides:

"The Legislature shall provide for the free instruction in the common schools in this state of all persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years."

As businesspeople, Chamber members know that one of the key ingredients in economic growth and development is a highly educated work force. They also understand that when local employees (including teachers) spend their wages on Main Street, it helps grow the economy and create jobs. They understand that paying competitive wages makes good sense if you want to attract and retain quality employees.

After Task Force members, 20 reasonable people from all walks of life, reviewed the facts, they concluded that solving the teacher shortage crisis required making teacher salaries in Nebraska competitive. They also concluded that to do that required assistance and policy changes at the state level. I believe other people of reason, including businesspeople across the state, will come to the same conclusion if given all the facts.

There is no doubt about it, it is in the best interest of every Nebraskan to help grow Nebraska's economy. Providing every Nebraska child with a quality education is a key ingredient in doing just that. And making Nebraska's teacher salaries competitive in order to attract the brightest and best must also be a key ingredient in that formula if we are to maintain Nebraska's academic standing of fifth in the nation.

After examining the facts, the Task Force members realized that without state assistance and changes in education policy, the teacher shortage crisis will have a negative effect on our educational and economic future.

The solution is to work together to make Nebraska Teacher Salaries competitive! Now, it is time for all of us to ask the Nebraska Legislature to help solve this problem. Our collective futures depend on it.