New contract would mean big raises in effort to improve schools
Thousands of dollars are on the line as D.C. Public Schools teachers finish voting Wednesday on a contract that would propel them to the top ranks of teacher salaries in an effort to improve some of the nation’s worst schools.
If the school district’s 4,400 teachers approve the contract, they would receive 11 percent pay raises as soon as this summer, even as top-performing suburban schools have instituted pay freezes for the second year in a row and have passed the costs for various tests and activities onto parents. DCPS teachers have not received pay raises since the 2006-07 school year.
The D.C. contract, three years in the making, would bump the average educator’s salary to $74,000 next year, up from $67,000 this year, and to more than $81,000 by 2012. The move would lift D.C. teacher pay to second place in the region next year — behind only Montgomery County — even as DCPS remains one of the lowest-performing districts in the nation.
On top of the 21 percent salary increases by 2012 — retroactive to 2007 — the contract includes the foundation of a robust pay-for-performance plan. Top teachers could earn up to $150,000, while others could see bonuses in the range of $20,000 to $30,000.
Teacher salaries in the suburbs have climbed more than 40 percent over the past decade, outpacing inflation, according to a recent analysis of salaries by The Washington Examiner.
“If you’re going to improve [DCPS], you want people to be well paid,” said Washington Teachers Union President George Parker.
Despite recent gains, there is plenty of room for improvement in D.C. schools. Only about 17 percent of DCPS fourth graders read at or above “proficiency” on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. While the district was one of three in the nation to see improvements since 2007, that compares with a 37 percent pass rate in Maryland and 38 percent in Virginia.
The promise of better pay to attract the best teachers has been a steady platform for Parker as well as schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
“I’m optimistic,” Parker said of the contract’s chances, citing benefits for teachers such as improved professional development, controls over future mass layoffs, and “of course, the money.”
Not all teachers are so certain.
Channita Fraser, who teaches English as a second language at several D.C. schools, said many of her colleagues are more concerned about getting jobs back for the 266 teachers laid off in the fall because of a contested budget shortfall.
Those layoffs are being contested in court by the union and are not a part of the contract, but Fraser said that fact has been lost on many.
“I don’t think most people understand that — this whole year has just been so unclear,” she said.
