One more encouragement for brains to drain from rural South Dakota to the bright lights of the big city: Sioux Falls teachers just won a five-year working agreement that giveth back what Governor Daugaard tooketh away:
Sioux Falls teachers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a new, five-year working agreement that will raise their pay by 8.54 percent next school year.
The new contract turns the clock back on a severe state funding cut in 2011 that lowered their salaries an average of 2.05 percent. Next year, teachers will make what they would have been paid had they received 1 percent increases each of the past three years.
The school district can afford the pay hike because it has spent less than it planned to for years and has an oversized reserve fund. Their 2013-14 budget alone looks to spend $6.6 million of their $22 million in general fund reserves [Josh Verges, "Sioux Falls Teacher Pay up 8.5%," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.04.18].
Sioux Falls teachers' lead negotiator Travis Dahle (no wonder they win!) says the 96% yea vote from participating education association members shows the deal is good. But check the nuts and bolts: while their base pay rises from $30,680 to $33,299, their work week increases from 37.5 hours to 40 hours. That's mostly planning time, which means that for most teachers, nothing changes: this new contract simply counts hours that they're already putting in at their kitchen table looking up classroom resources, planning lessons, and grading papers.
But looking strictly at the numbers, the 8.54% pay increase corresponds with a 6.67% work increase. Break it down hourly (assume 184 days/36.8 workweeks), and the base teacher pay goes from $22.23 per hour to $22.62, an increase of 1.75%.
I welcome rural professional colleagues to compare their upcoming raises. I'd compare the Sioux Falls deal with the contract Spearfish has offered its teachers for the coming year... but the contracts handed out this month have blanks on them. Once again, the Spearfish School Board expects its staff to sign contracts before negotiations have determined salaries. (Fun legal question: if a teacher signs such a contract, but then quits when the salary written in afterward turns out to be unsatisfactory, can the school still penalize the teacher for breach of contract?)
The contract is not worth the paper it is written on if all of the agreement is not filled out.
Have you ever heard of a teacher having to pay damages for resigning and not honoring their contract?
Xcel energy got a better deal than the teachers thanks to the Republican PUC.
Maybe we should call it the GOP energy tax...except the funds go out of state.
Monopoly holder, Xcel energy said that they had to keep up with rising costs...too bad the GOP of SD doesn't feel the same empathy for the normal everyday people who work, live and keep their money in SD.
Why is it that the GOP celebrates stagnant or declining wages for working people, tuition hikes for students and insurance benefits being slashed? It's as if they see these things as a victory.
Plus, Xcel isn't expected to work more hours or provide more electricity than before the rate hike, is it?