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“It is our responsibility to make sure that whatever comes down from central office is for the benefit of our children,” Vance County Association of Educators (VCAE) Maxine Hardy told approximately 60 teachers and teacher’s assistants who gathered at the Ambassador Inn & Suites on Saturday morning.
Hardy then characterized the recent substitute teacher policy as an example of something that does not benefit the children.
Recently, Vance County Schools instituted a policy wherein “emergency” absences of teachers will be covered by in-house school staffs rather than by a substitute.
“In this profession, you have to take care of you before you take care of the children who come to us with a barrage of problems,” Hardy commented on the policy.
Hardy asked how a teacher can be expected to take on other students and teach them effectively.
Hardy stated a need for teachers to go to Superintendent Norman Shearin and to get onto the Vance County Board of Education’s agenda. She noted that it is the policy of the board to not address concerns unless those concerns are brought by the superintendent.
North Carolina Senator Doug Berger was then introduced to the gathering. Berger was a teacher in Kinston for three years before his political career began.
Berger began his remarks by telling the assembled educators that the economy is at “a crisis point”. He warned that Vance County’s unofficial unemployment rate is approaching 17%.
During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate peaked at 25%.
He told the teachers that it is important for them to understand that lawmakers “don’t know what the bottom is yet.”
According to Berger, the state’s budget was about $17 billion in 1994. It now approaches $21 billion. Berger said that “most of the increase” has been in teachers’ salaries.
The state is estimating getting $19 billion in revenue or less for the current budget.
Berger said that the Assembly is going to do everything it can do to avoid full-time teachers losing their positions, and that he believes that the Assembly is capable of doing that. He gave credit to the stimulus package for that possibility. He also noted that if the stimulus package doesn’t work, “we could be facing something in another year to year and a half”.
Berger told assembled teachers that while Governor Bev Purdue has increased per-pupil spending, counties will then have to send money back to the state. He said that counties will have to choose what they cut.
Discussing upcoming changes to the state health plan, Berger discusses possible changes to the existing service. He said that there is a $250 million shortfall that has to be closed by April 1 or members will start being told by health care providers that they do not have the means to pay. Over the next two years, the plan will need $972 million to meet anticipated costs.
Noting that the state health plan does not charge members part of their premiums, Berger said that this was a benefit that was going to be examined. He said that if premiums are raised by $15 to $25 a month, deductibles and copays won’t have to be raised. He said that he does not support this measure, because once the door is opened to premium increases, they are “permanently on the table”.
Taxpayers will put in approximately $450 million. The difference will be made up with higher deductibles and copays.
Purdue’s budget calls for the suspension of longevity payments until 2012. Longevity payments are part of a teacher’s overall compensation package. After completing the tenth year of state service, teachers and state employees receive a check that represents a percentage of their annual salary. Berger said that he did not oppose longevity payments, but asked the teachers where the money is going to come from.
Berger noted that another way to make up for the shortfall in education would be to increase class size by one to two students. He said that $230 to $330 million would be saved. He also said that the governor did not want to increase class size.
The senator also told teachers that if all public employees were furloughed for ten to twelve days a year that $500 million could be saved.
After Berger concluded his remarks and answered audience questions, Hardy told attendees that they need to write down their questions regarding the issues and come up with what they want.
“We can’t sit back and expect somebody else to do what we are supposed to do,” she said. “We have to be mobilized and we have to be organized.”
The group agreed to reconvene on April 2, 2009 at 4:15 p.m. in a location to be announced.