News
Teachers: Vote for education
March 1, 2010
Teachers: Vote for education
by GWYNETH J. SAUNDERS
Beaufort County teachers of the year host Friday breakfast, talk funding with legislators.
Teachers teach because they love what they do, not for the money. Why else would so many of them start near $30,000 when they could likely make $60,000 ayear in another field?
And yet teachers know they need funding in order to do that work, and that’s part of why Beaufort County teachers
are taking an interest in politics.
The Beaufort County Teacher Forum invited elected officials to attend the Beaufort County School Board-Legislators Breakfast on Friday morning at Callawassie Island.
Teacher concerns naturally included worries about flexible or mandatory furlough days and a halt to increased pay for those teachers who complete national certification. There were even more concerns from the same teachers about how they could help officials resolve problems with the Education Finance Act of 1977, where they could find the funds to teach students for whom English is a second language and find ways of assessing educational achievements without penalizing students or teachers as they are under current standards.
The EFA, according to State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, takes $135 million out of Beaufort County only to return $0 (nothing) because the property values of the county’s residents is — according to the formula used in Columbia — too high to warrant educational assistance.
“I’m not here electioneering yet. Before I run again, I have to prove I’ve done something. The most important thing to me is to get more money back in our coffers,” Davis told the break-out group of Bluffton teachers. “The EFA funding formula is broken. In the short term, we are planning on introducing a budget proviso that will be in effect for one year and I am working with our allies in the senate.”
Davis said that what the legislation will say, in essence, is “notwithstanding how the EFA formula works, no school district shall receive less than $X (an as-yet undetermined amount).” Up until now, he said, Beaufort County was the only one voicing its disagreement with the legislation.
“Now I am working with senators from Charleston and Horry counties who are experiencing the same problems,” Davis said. What he has on his side is “the ability to block things,” he said.
“I can block legislation requesting tax incentives for Greenville and Spartanburg counties or a request from Aiken for nuclear research funding,” he said. “I’ve got to go ahead and play hardball. If I put my name against a bill, it goes to the bottom of the pile. I can’t come back in two years and when it’s time for re-election say that I couldn’t get anything done because it was too hard.”
In answer to concerns about pay raises being stopped for completing national teacher certification, Davis said he sees probably a year-long moratorium but a long-term halt. The problem, once again, is the source of the money.
“Every dollar that goes to pay teachers who get certified has to come out of some part of the education pot,” he said.
The breakfast opened with remarks by forum chairman Mike Allen, the 2008-2009 District Teacher of the Year and Beaufort High School science teacher.
“We’re here to stress the importance of education,” Allen said. “When they were founding this country, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson felt there was a need for a strong public education. This great education depends on our public. “Every day we go in and we talk to your children,” he said to the legislators. “As you go to vote for legislation, vote for education.”
Fred Washington, District 11 school board member and chairman of the board, spoke on goals for 2010, mentioning there was really only one big goal.
“Our goal remains to bring us together, particularly the levels of government here in this room,” he said.
“Education is important at the state level and the county level by funding and support. We have to have the understanding and support of one another,” Washington said. “We all have the best interest of our children in common at heart. Sometimes having common interests can be difficult when we come together from various directions.
“While we have differences, hopefully we have more in common. The goal should be to ensure that we support those things necessary for our children to be successful,” he said.
“The classroom is the key ingredient. We have to have support for our classroom teachers and building managers.”
Other elected state officials present included Rep. Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, and Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton. Representing U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-2nd District, was his special assistant Cris Steele. Numerous county council members as well as school board members were also mixed in among the educators who comprise the forum.
