Bill HaslamLess Grief, More Explaining Needed
No good deed goes unpunished, eh? Gov. Bill Haslam, head of a state where even by the accounting of the left-leaning National Education Association teacher salaries “have increased at double the national average,” is finding all manner of chalk dust raining down on his head after saying a state budget shortfall will cause him to cancel a 2 percent pay hike for teachers and a 1 percent increase for other state employees.
If Haslam had seen the shortfall coming or believed the state needed to watch its pennies and protect its rainy day fund, he never would have made such a proposal in the first place. And wind up with egg on his face in an election year? C’mon, Democrats and Tennessee Education Association (TEA) heads, you’re not that politically naive, are you?
Even with no raises for teachers, the governor’s budget still increases overall education spending for local schools by $60 million, and he, understandably defensive, pointed out the state is one of only six in the country which have “consistently increased education funding” in the last year.
Now, should Tennessee teachers get raises? You bet. They’re well below the national average. And perhaps something — a bonus? a smaller raise? — could be worked out if revenues pick up. But comments by the likes of TEA President Gera Summerford that “the governor’s cuts” — what cuts? — “to teacher salaries and higher education continue the state’s race to the bottom in education funding” only perpetuate worries about Tennessee’s public schools and those who speak for them.