Teacher salary transparency

The S-R has been providing daily updates on the teacher layoff situation, offering varying solutions which mostly involve some form of tax increase. The one solution nobody has mentioned is revising last year’s huge salary increases downward a few percentage points to keep everyone employed.

Average salary figures in the mid-$40,000 range are being quoted for teacher salaries in an effort to show that current teachers are still not being paid well. I don’t know where this figure comes from, but I suspect it includes every possible position associated with education because it is grossly inaccurate. In checking with the Spokane Public Schools Salary Schedule here are some eye-opening salary numbers for certified teachers from August 2018: First year range $52,299-$56,705. 16-year range $86,570-$93,300. Even a custodian with the job title “Sweeper” has a salary range of $31,566-$48,945, depending on years of service. To the best of my knowledge these numbers do not include benefits!

Teachers have a tough job in today’s classrooms, but the public deserves to have accurate numbers in front of them before voting for more taxes for education.

Hal Dixon

Spokane