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Budget cutters go after teacher pay and incentives
Tuesday, February 23
Budget cutters go after teacher pay and incentives
From staff and wire reports
COLUMBIA -- House budget writers went after teacher pay and incentives Monday as they scrambled for cash to balance a $5.3 billion budget.
Legislators said they would save up to $100 million by giving teachers up to five unpaid, non-classroom days off, with administrators required to take twice as many unpaid days. It would be up to school districts to impose those salary cuts, and the districts would get to keep the money.
Spartanburg District 3 Superintendent Jim Ray said a majority of South Carolina school districts will likely have to turn to furloughs next year, with or without the state mandate. Ray said he thinks it is unwise to require school principals to take twice as many furlough days as teachers, saying students and faculty should never be without a building leader.
"I'm thinking given the amount of cuts that have occurred last year and the amount that are expected this year, most districts will have to consider (furloughs) for next year and beyond," Ray said.
Meanwhile, the budget writers also agreed to end a teacher training incentive program. Teachers who complete a national certification program now get a $7,500 bonus for 10 years. The proposed budget would close that program to newcomers who don't apply before July 1.
Spartanburg District 4 Superintendent Rallie Liston likened the incentive program to buying a new refrigerator without having the money to pay for electricity.
"If we can't pay regular salaries, how in the world can we fund a program when we can't afford the base program?" Liston posed. "You should be able to afford your programs, and that is a program we can't afford in our state right now."
Ray said it's time for the state to stop offering the incentives to teachers not already enrolled in the program, at least until the economy improves.
"I think given the severe financial crisis where districts have laid people off," Ray said, "freezing that program to its current participants is absolutely essential."
But all state workers would feel the furlough pinch. State Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, won approval for a proposal that would require five furlough days for all state workers. Unlike teachers, however, state workers would take their unpaid time off during state holidays. Pitts said his proposal would save at least $4.6 million a day.
Pitts said state workers asked for that as a way of sparing them from layoffs.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, said he'll tell budget writers to come up with $200 million in savings when they resume work on the spending plan today.
Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee also adopted a budget provision that would end state health insurance payments for abortions after rape or incest or to protect the health of a woman.
"I don't think we ought to be funding any abortions with the state health plan," said state Rep. Rex Rice, R-Easley.
State Rep. Joe Neal, D- Hopkins, questioned whether there was any money to save by doing that. "It's not significant," Rice responded, noting that it was a philosophical issue.
"That's going to start a fight," Neal said after the meeting.
Rex is running for the U.S. House, and "this is more about politics than what's best for the people," Neal said. "You're saying a woman must die if she can't afford to pay for it."
State law now provides exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the health of a mother. But that would end, at least for a year, if Rice's measure became part of the state's budget law.
It left Democrats on the panel stunned.
House Minority Leader Harry Ott said if his wife's doctor told her she would have to have an abortion or die, "you would not want my health insurance to do what my doctor said was needed in order to save my wife's life?"
"I don't believe we ought to be funding abortions with the state health plan," Rice responded.
The amendment was adopted with a voice vote, but its fate is far from certain in the weeks ahead that will shape the budget in the House and Senate.
