Phase the raises in

I have been following the excellent reporting in the S-R about budget issues and school teacher layoff notices. In today’s paper (April 26), two letters to the editor combine to suggest a potential solution to the projected funding shortfalls in those districts which contracted for large and the predicted-to-be unsustainable pay raises for the 2019-20 school year and for following years in the near term.

Stan Hughes suggests that administrators adjust their salaries to contribute to saving teacher jobs, and Glen Harroun says no more tax hikes as teacher unions and management in several districts chose unsustainable raises instead of “full employment” of valuable staff.

Why not management and the WEA locals negotiate having staff “give back” enough of the unsustainable pay raises to contribute substantially to saving the important-to-students jobs of their to-be-laid-off colleagues? District administrators could commit to raises over time that could be sustained. Teachers deserve the extra dollars, but phase them in while continuing to work with the state legislature on sustainable funding.

I greatly value education and have therefore always voted for District 81 school levies and bonds since becoming a Spokane resident in the early 1990s, but the McCleary decision made clear that widely-varying local levies across the state is not permitted. Returning school district levy rates to local control would eventually and inevitably result in another lawsuit based on the issues already litigated in McCleary.

Chuck Latimer

Spokane