Issue Position: Fair Pay for Teachers

Issue Position

Each year, West Virginia loses many of its recent college graduates in the field of education to another state. One of the main causes? Our teachers are not given the salaries that they deserve, and are forced to leave to find a teaching position elsewhere that will compensate them fairly for the work they do.

Ranking 48th nationwide in average teacher salaries, and bordered by states which rank 8th (MD), 12th (PA), 14th (OH), 29th (KY), and 30th (VA) in , we must begin to look at the way we base our educators' salaries, and find a way to put a stop the "brain drain" which has caused our young educators to leave West Virginia to teach another state's children.

One way in which I propose to increase the pay we give our educators in by looking at cuts within our state government, which in many places has become a top heavy bureaucracy. The first place that should be looked at is the State Department of Education, which has a staff of 637 - more than the education department of the state of New York.

Another issue I'll fight for in Charleston is a meaningful, multi-year pay raise, not just a one time, election-year ploy.

Source