Local teachers are wondering how much of Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed 4% teacher hike they might see this year if his budget passes.
Lee is proposing to spend $117 million on educators’ pay in his new budget, part of a nearly $650 million increase in education funding, but last year Lee’s budget also included funding to increase teacher pay – and yet Hamilton County teachers didn’t receive a raise.
Instead of a promised 2.5% raise, which Hamilton County Schools officials said would have actually ended up beinig around a 1.5% increase for all certified staff positions, including those not funded by the state, Hamilton County teachers instead received two one-time bonuses totaling $2,055 after the Hamilton County Commission voted down the district’s initial budget proposal.
“We want to make sure that we state that any forward movement on pay is a good thing, however, when you look at the numbers, there are several key parts of this that play into this,” said Kendra Young, a science teacher at East Hamilton Middle High School and co-founder of Hamilton County United, a new teacher activist group.
Hamilton County has more than 500 teachers not covered under Tennessee’s education funding formula, the Basic Education Program (BEP), so any dollars appropriated toward teacher salaries would be spread among all certified staff.