Teachers get pay raise

Government approves $800.00 bonus

Associated Press

July 27, 2009 - 10:43pm

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Education has approved the use of economic stimulus funds to grant Texas teachers an $800 pay raise.

State lawmakers enacted a two-year budget in May that devotes half of Texas' stimulus funding for education to pay raises, but they needed the federal government's sign-off to move forward. The approval announced Friday grants Texas about $2 billion of the $3.2 billion in education funding it stands to receive from the stimulus. The state's total share of the stimulus is about $16 billion.

Texas Democrats announced the funding at a news conference outside the Capitol, taking credit for it and criticizing Gov. Rick Perry for his attacks on the $787 billion stimulus package.

"Maybe the governor will say something nice now about the stimulus money," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston. "It's actually providing for that $800, and it's not coming out of state dollars. It's not coming out of local property tax dollars. It's our stimulus dollars that Texas is receiving from the federal government."

Perry praised the Education Department decision in a written statement, saying state lawmakers had worked to "enhance educational excellence in our state."

Texas Democrats said the approval doesn't resolve a skirmish with state Republicans over how the education stimulus funds are spent. They accuse GOP legislators of replacing state education money with stimulus funds. As a result, they contend, school districts are receiving less money than they should from the stimulus.

Republicans say they used the money appropriately.

Also Friday, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, fired back at Perry's recent questioning of the Democrats' loyalty to the state. He targeted their support of energy legislation that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and increase the cost of producing fossil fuels.

"None of us intend to relocate," Jackson Lee said. "In fact, we intend to fight and fight and fight for the constituents' voices who are not heard in Austin but really are heard in Washington, D.C."

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Hey Rickey, your writing simply lets every person in America know that you are a product of teachers that did not know how to teach. Do some research before you write anything.

aaron

8 months ago

Teachers never have been paid enough with what they have to put up with. We need to let the prinicpals and teachers run the schools. Keep gov't and lawyers out of the school's business. Lets go back to teaching kids to think and learn what it is to be a good person. I know the teachers thanks you for the raise but it's not enough.

PT Mullins

9 months ago

Look at the ignorance of Gene Green, trying to claim that this money does not come from Texans. This money comes from every tax paying person in America including unborn tax payers in Texas. What an idiot. I also don't believe that increasing every teachers pay does not do anything towards improving education. Teachers should be paid according to their performance and many of them are not performing.

Rickey

9 months ago

While I agree wholeheartedly with your point about the money coming from all taxpayers, I have to disagree with the end of your statement. One issue in education is that there is simply not enough incentive for highly skilled teachers to stay in the field. Excellent teachers are often forced to move on to other professions that offer the salary that they need. An increase in teachers salaries may lure more qualified applicants to the profession, allowing school districts to choose the best candidates instead of having to settle for teachers that you claim are "not performing". Principals cannot replace low performers if nobody else is eager to take their place.

Emily Spradling

7 months ago

Rickey,

Mr. Green was saying that the money used to increase teacher pay in Texas came from the NATIONAL budget (the "stimulus money" we've all been hearing so much about lately), not the STATE (of Texas's) budget. As for your comment about 'unborn taxpayers in Texas'... I didn't realize that we were requiring fetuses to pay taxes in our state. Where might an unborn child acquire money with which to pay taxes?