What Message is Olympia Sending to Our Teachers?

What message are our legislators sending to our valued educators?

Your personal improvement and continuing education aren’t important.

We want you to work harder, and longer, increase classroom sizes, but get paid less money.

Once again, our elected officials are refusing to obey their statutory mandate to fully fund education. Over the weekend, our beloved Senate passed their proposed supplemental budget. Sadly, it’s a version that makes significant cuts to education. Additionally, it fails to maintain the NBCT (National Board Certified Teachers) incentives at their current level.

National Board Certification is one of the few viable options that our educators have for improving their knowledge base and increasing their earning potential.

The Senate’s current version of the budget, which passed on the Senate floor in the wee hours last Saturday morning, would cut the current NBCT stipend in half for most board certified teachers. The House version offers a kinder reduction for regular school teachers, but again reduces the stipend for teachers at challenging schools by half.

Before Thursday, March 8th, the House and Senate must come into agreement on a single budget by negotiating on the differences between their two budget proposals. No final decisions have been made as of yet.

What can we do between now and Thursday? Take 10 minutes out of your day and contact our legislators!

• Email our legislators and let them know how you feel about the proposed budgets. The standard email format for legislators is lastname.firstname@leg.wa.gov.
• Leave your legislators a phone message. Go to www.leg.wa.gov to find contact information.
• If your legislator supports funding the stipends, a kind word of ‘thank you and ‘keep up the good work’ can go a long way.