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Teachers Say Pay Defeat Hurts Some Angry at Blanco, Legislature After Push for Pay Increase Fails

Posted on: Thursday, 25 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Public schoolteachers remain angry, two months after the Legislature quit its work without giving them a major statewide pay raise.

"I have seen a level of frustration and anger that I have never seen before," said Billie Smith, who teaches 11th-grade English at McKinley High School and is a veteran of 17 years in the classroom.

"At the end of the day there was no raise, and we were promised there would be," Smith said. "I for one, and I have heard a lot of teachers say this, am sick of the partisan politics, sick of all the finger-pointing."

Tessie Adams Domangue of Houma, the state Teacher of the Year, said she has a second job selling cosmetics because her school salary is less than $34,000 a year.

"I was actually surprised and disappointed all at the same time," Domangue said of the failed pay-raise drive. "Many of us are very disappointed because we don't feel appreciated."

Smith and Domangue were among four public schoolteachers interviewed by The Advocate to get their views on pay and other issues as they begin a new school year.

The last school year was over when the legislative session ended, which made it hard to gauge how teachers viewed lawmakers' failure to pass a major raise.

Comments from all four show that:

Teachers were confident this would be the year they would win a big raise, which has added fuel to their criticism of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and lawmakers.

Teachers contend the failed pay raise is especially bothersome because of increased teaching mandates from the state, pressure to improve test scores and recent recognition for school improvements in Louisiana.

Pay is a hot topic among educators as schools reopen.

"To be honest, the mood around the school system is not quite positive right now, and I am talking around the state," Domangue said.

Teachers said they followed the debate, got their hopes up and then watched chances for a major statewide raise slip away during the legislative session.

"We were, 'Oh wow, this is going to be good for teachers,' " said Vera Ellois, a sixth-grade science teacher at Park Forest Middle School. "But as time went on, I began to get a little worried."

Carole White, a speech therapist at Delmont Elementary School, echoed that sentiment.

"Like all the teachers in the state, I was very optimistic, and I was very disappointed in the outcome of the legislative session," White said. "People are disappointed."

Prospects for a teacher pay raise went up and down during the 2005 session, which lasted from late April to late June.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Association of Educators, which both backed Blanco's bid for governor in 2003, sought pay raises of $2,000 per year for three years.

Those increases seemed unlikely amid tight state finances. But in May the governor proposed a $3,300 annual raise over two years by boosting the tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack.

Blanco later dropped the plan amid criticism that a tax increase made little sense after state revenue estimates shot up.

White said she thought the governor caved in to the tobacco industry without insisting on a tally on the proposal in either the House or Senate.

"We think she should have brought it to a vote," she said.

The average Louisiana teacher salary is $37,918 per year, which is 46th nationally. The national average is $46,572.

Pay depends on the school district, years of experience and credentials.

Pay increases that won final legislative approval range from $530 per year to $1,791 a year.

The $530 bonus, which Smith and others contend is insulting, applies to teachers in 36 of Louisiana's 68 districts.

Teachers in nine districts are in line for raises of more than $1,000.

Domangue, 34, said she sells Avon products as a second job and even considered leaving the profession before she was picked as Teacher of the Year.

"I know many teachers that work in a second job," she said.

Smith said her salary is about $47,000 a year, including a significant annual supplement for earning national certification and for earning a master's degree.

White, who said she is paid about $45,000 a year, is in her 38th year as an educator.

Ellois is paid about $49,000 a year, in part because she has 30 years of teaching experience and a master's degree.

Smith, 41, said Blanco deserves credit for voicing the argument of teachers in her bid for a $3,300 pay raise.

But teachers said much of their frustration is hearing general support for pay raises without policy makers agreeing on a plan.

"I do lay a lot of the blame at the Legislature," Smith said. "I was one of those numerous teachers across the state who e-mailed them. Everybody e-mailed me back. I didn't get a single e-mail from somebody that didn't want to give me a raise.

"But everybody had a different plan, or they couldn't support this plan," Smith said. "At the end of the day, it is their job to get this done."

White, 59, said the pay issue is hurting teacher morale. Even seemingly good news - pay raises of up to $2,908 in East Baton Rouge in April - set off criticism from veteran educators.

They said the increases were unfairly aimed toward teachers who are new to the classroom.

Others said new state rules, including a revamped state curriculum and tougher state and federal requirements, add pressure to her job.

"I think the stress load, the paperwork, has dramatically gone up in the 12 years I have been teaching," said Domangue, who teaches at Acadian Elementary School in Houma. "Today we are teaching a different type of child than we were teaching 12 years ago."

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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