WISH-TV | wishtv.com
After Governor Eric Holcomb said he planned to make increasing teacher pay a priority in the new year, the Indiana chapter of the American Federation of Teachers is saying those raises need to happen sooner rather than later.
The AFT is a teachers’ labor union that lobbies for thousands of teachers in 25 school districts across the state. The union said some teachers in Indiana haven’t had a raise in 12 years.
The subject of teacher pay hits close home for Steve Dopka, whose sister is a teacher.
When asked if he thought his sister was paid enough, he said, “Probably not. She’ll tell you the same thing.”
“We want teachers to come into the profession. We want high quality teachers. We want them to stay here once they get here,” said Sally Sloan, executive director of the Indiana chapter of the AFT. “They need to have some reason to do that.”
Sloan said starting teacher salary is between $34,000 and $40,000 in central Indiana school districts. She guesses it’s about $36,000 statewide.
She believes that’s on the low end compared to other Midwestern states.
“This is a profession,” Sloan said earnestly. “These teachers have done a lot of studying, a lot of work to earn their degrees and they deserve to be paid better.”
That’s why Indiana’s AFT is urging lawmakers to give teachers raises in 2019. One way, Sloan said, could be to expand the union’s ability to bargain for teachers.
“If we could continue to bargain, then we might get some of the money that cannot right now go to teacher salaries, put in teacher salaries,” Sloan explained. “There are huge restrictions on how we can bargain.”
Holcomb and Statehouse leaders said teacher pay is a priority, but Holcomb said raises could take some time.
“I don’t think we can wait three more years,” Sloan said. “Teachers leave within the first five years of going into teaching. Fifty percent of our teachers leave. If they’re gonna wait two, three years how many more good teachers are we gonna lose?”
Lawmakers can’t agree right now on exactly how to get or find the money to pay teachers more, but leaders say they have committed to figuring it out.