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Bill to increase teacher moves quickly through Senate
Monday,
May 5, 2008
Despite concerns about the funding source to increase teacher salaries, the Senate has approved the bill establishing the teacher’s salary reclassification plan in second reading.
The Senate passed the bill with amendments but there was no explanation given before the vote was taken on what the changes are. Chairman of the education Committee Senator Alo Dr. Paul Stevenson said minor changes were requested by the Department of Education and these will be submitted to the chamber tomorrow. The senate vote came after a hearing at which the Directors of DOE, Budget, Treasury and Human Resources were present. DOE Director Dr. Claire Poumele said the new salary ladder for teachers if annualized would cost more than $3 million. $1.5 from local funds and $1.5 from federal grants. For the remainder of the current fiscal year, the teacher wage bill will cost just over $700,000. $405,000 will come from federal grants and the balance of $382,000 would be from local funds. According to Dr. Poumele, the funds are derived from unfilled teaching positions.
She told senators that DOE could not hire teachers for the vacancies because there were no applicants. Senate President Lolo Moliga was dissatisfied that DOE has not been able to fill such a large number o vacancies. He asked, so who’s teaching our children. He said every $ in the DOE budget was obligated for something and for DOE to say now that it didn’t spend the money means the territory’s children have been shortchanged. Human Resources Director Mageo Malu who was the first of the ASG witnesses to make a statement gave indications that the bill which was submitted had provisions which DOE and Human Resources had recommended to the governor’s legal counsel to remove. For example he said the plan includes high school graduates without Associate of Arts degrees as teacher aides. He said that DOE no longer allows teachers without Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degrees in the classroom. Senator Salanoa Aumoeualogo felt that the salaries being proposed in the plan were not attractive enough.
He said an increase of just a few thousand dollars will not attract and retain teachers but a $10,000 increase would. He said so many other jobs offer considerably more pay than what teachers are being paid. Senator Alo said locking in teacher salaries and qualification by law, would make it very difficult in the future to make any changes. He also had concerns with the timing of the legislation. Alo felt that the teacher certification would be politicized by having the governor appoint a committee to enforce teacher credentials. He said DOE should police certification as it is doing now. But Dr.Poumele said in other states, teacher certification is handled by a state board or committee. The Senate will review the teacher salary bill tomorrow in third reading.
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