Teacher pay outpacing inflation

LINCOLN — The contract that Omaha Public Schools teachers rejected last week included an average pay raise of $1,800 — a figure that would make workers suffering through freezes, furloughs and layoffs salivate.

The vote came after a decade of raises that matched or outpaced inflation for most teachers, according to a World-Herald analysis of teacher salaries in some of the state’s major school districts, including those in the metro area.

The state teachers union continues to push for higher pay to compete with surrounding states.

And Gov. Dave Heineman gave unions a big boost this summer when he urged educators to negotiate competitive pay increases after an injection of federal stimulus funding.

As state senators prepare for a special session to drastically reduce the state budget, Heineman said in an interview it’s possible that significant teacher pay hikes might have to wait for a better economy.

But he hasn’t backed off his goal of raising teacher pay.

“This is a long-term priority that we need to focus on,” Heineman said. “There are going to be some years that are better than others.”

Do the math and it’s clear that education cuts could result from a special session to slash more than 93 million from a two-year state budget. Education for students in kindergarten through grade 12 accounts for about 30 percent of state spending, and Heineman has said that “nothing is off the table.”

Over the past two decades, growth in teacher pay has fluctuated as the economy has ebbed and flowed.

The leaner years of the early 1990s were followed by bigger pay increases when the economy picked up later in the decade, said Mike Griffith, senior policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States.

Raises shrank again in 2001. Then pay increases rebounded until about 18 months ago.

Districts in states from Hawaii to New York are slashing jobs, furloughing teachers and freezing pay.

In Nebraska, though, districts haven’t furloughed, and most are giving raises. For many, spending priorities focus on boosting pay for new teachers while giving smaller increases to more experienced teachers.

For example, Millard’s veteran teachers agreed to a 3 percent pay raise for the current year, while the starting pay rose 5 percent.

Overall, Nebraska’s average teacher pay, at $42,885, ranks 45th among the states. When adjusted for cost of living, Nebraska pay lands in the middle of the pack at 27th.

Neighboring states — namely Iowa and Wyoming — boosted teacher pay recently through legislative action. Wyoming pay, when adjusted for cost of living, ranks eighth-best in the nation, and Iowa is 16th.

In OPS, barely keeping pace with inflation is a major concern as other districts and those in border states boost teacher pay faster, said Doreen Jankovich, president of the Omaha teachers union.

Even if Omaha teachers had accepted the proposed 4.4 percent salary increase for this school year, they would stay in the middle of the salary pack in the metro area.

“We deal with politicians who don’t seem to be able to come up with regular, sustainable funding,” Jankovich said. “We’re put on the back burner for roads.”

State Sen. Greg Adams of York, chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee, acknowledged that Nebraska teacher pay doesn’t rank high and said the state needs to do more.

“Teachers are the most important ingredient in improving student achievement,” said Adams, a former social studies teacher. “But these are very difficult times right now for that to happen. You’re trying to match what you want to do with what resources you have.”

He noted, however, that it is important to consider total compensation, including health insurance and retirement benefits.

And teachers should consider that they have control over their salaries, said Kevin Riley, Gretna’s superintendent. Teaching is one of the few professions where earning an advanced degree automatically boosts pay substantially.

Gretna teachers who earn a master’s degree in their first 10 years will more than double their starting salary. The same is true in other districts.

Riley and several other superintendents said teachers are advised early in their careers to continue their education.

“If you want to own a home, to do any of that, you have to move across the (salary) schedule,” Riley said. “If they don’t get their master’s degree, they’re killing themselves as teachers.”

Teachers also move up the pay ladder based on longevity nearly every year.

The World-Herald’s analysis didn’t look at how much an individual teacher’s pay could increase over time and with extra education. Instead, the newspaper examined how the districts’ pay scales have increased for teachers at specific education and experience levels.

Over the past decade, those increases compare well with some other occupations.

Salaries for new teachers, for example, rose at least 30 percent — and often much more — from 1999 to 2008. In most cases, pay scales for other teaching positions also increased faster during that period than the 29 percent inflation rate.

Meanwhile, typical wages grew 22 percent for truck drivers, 15 percent for civil engineers and a measly 1 percent for electricians, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics for the Omaha metro area. Registered nurses, who are in short supply, fared better, with median wages climbing 41 percent over the same period.

Heineman said that to be competitive, Nebraska needs to keep pace with nearby states, not just with the inflation rate.

“If we are going to attract high-quality teachers, you need to ensure that we’re paying appropriate salaries,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, it’s up to individual districts and teachers unions to negotiate those wages.

The majority of Nebraska’s districts have completed negotiations for the 2009-10 school year.

Omaha, Bellevue, Hastings, South Sioux City, Douglas County West and South Sarpy are among those still negotiating, said Larry Scherer, director of bargaining and research for the Nebraska teachers union.

Bargaining teams haven’t asked Scherer for specific guidance regarding the Nov. 4 special session. In most cases, he would advise districts to “get it resolved, because things are not certain at the state level.”

State officials will receive a fresh round of revenue estimates Tuesday that will indicate how much the Legislature needs to cut from the budget.

Heineman said school board leaders and others have suggested that any cuts in K-12 education should come from next year’s budget. Labor contracts and hiring decisions already have been made for the current fiscal year.

The governor said he agrees it would be better to spare current state aid from disruptive cuts but said he can’t make any promises.

Jess Wolf, president of the state teachers union, said slashing state aid could trigger job cuts, which he said would hurt students.

“If you’re making a class size go from 20 to 30, those kids are not going to get the same attention,” he said. “That’s going to cause more problems down the road.”

World-Herald staff writers Joe Dejka and Tom Shaw contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:

444-1114, paul.goodsell@owh.com