6 teacher pay bills advance
Every teacher pay raise bill in the Oklahoma Senate moved forward a step Wednesday, highlighting a lack of agreement on which plan, if any, the chamber will settle on.
The votes were unanimous on four bills to raise teacher pay, one by $500, another by $2,000 and two by $5,000 each.
Two other bills that would raise salaries by $10,000 and $10,500, respectively, also passed without objection. The six measures can now be heard by Senate Appropriations Committee, a powerful panel that counts every state senator as a member.
The Senate’s lack of endorsement of a pay raise number by leadership contrasts with the Oklahoma House. Speaker Charles McCall has endorsed a $6,000 pay raise that would take three years to fulfill. That legislation, House Bill 1114, matches the governor’s proposed budget by giving a $1,000 raise immediately.
In addition to the bill supported by the speaker, 15 other teacher pay raise measures were filed in the House.
Amber England, executive director of Stand for Children Oklahoma, said the real political issue is how lawmakers will
pay for a raise.
“When our state’s facing an almost $900 million budget shortfall, it’s just hard to really see how that teacher pay raise is going to become reality without clearly identified revenue,” England said.
State Sen. Marty Quinn, R-Claremore, said it’s easy to get on the pay raise bandwagon.
“We’ve known the need has been there for a number of years,” Quinn said.
But earlier attempts to raise the cash have fallen because someone said there wasn’t enough money, Quinn told the committee.
“I think there’s probably some honesty to that. There’s been lots of demands in the economic cycles we’ve been through,” he said.
But as he looked back through how that year’s money was spent, he saw $100 million here or $60 million there that could have been used for a raise.
“To be honest, I’m fed up with the fact that we continually kick this ball down the road,” he said.
Some revenue-raising ideas presented in the committee mirror other proposals that are likely to gain momentum this year. That includes efforts to kill incentives for the wind industry and review other tax credits and rebates.
Other measures would directly raise revenue and would need to originate in the Oklahoma House.
England’s group supported State Question 779, a statewide campaign last year to raise teacher pay by also raising the sales tax rate by 1 percent. The measure failed.
The six bills passing in one day is proof, she said, that voters ultimately told lawmakers they want a pay raise for teachers.
“What this shows is the conversation that took place around State Question 779 worked. Lawmakers got the message: We need to pass a teacher pay raise bill,” she said. “I understand why no one wants to talk about the revenue piece. We’ve got the scars to prove what happens when you actually identify a revenue source.”