One week from today a group of Hamilton County Schools teachers will hold a town hall gathering on teacher pay and public education funding.
We have frequently raised our voice for better teacher pay and certainly support their freedom in making their concerns known. But we wonder what they believe can or will happen before fiscal 2021 budget discussions begin next spring.
Earlier this year, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger presented a budget for fiscal 2020 that would have given district teachers a 5% raise and used whatever clout he had to persuade Hamilton County commissioners to approve it. But commissioners, objecting not so much to the teacher pay as to the large tax increase that would be required to fund those raises if passed, voted it down.
The Hamilton County Board of Education, in negotiations with teachers’ representatives, then sent Coppinger a budget that included no raises for teachers and certified staff (including the money allocated by the state for a 2 1/2% raise). Instead, a onetime bonus that would come from its rainy day fund was included.
Commissioners, believing this is what school board members and teachers decided they wanted, passed the budget.