Education tax package adds raise for teachers

By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Charles Hasse
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To gain support from the state's largest teachers union, a teacher pay raise is now part of a $1 billion education tax package aimed at the November ballot.

A salary boost wasn't part of the original plan for the Education Trust Fund, an idea unveiled in February by a nonprofit citizens group, the League of Education Voters.

The group wants to raise an estimated $1 billion a year for education by increasing the sales tax by a penny on the dollar. The money would go to public schools, preschools and colleges in the state.

In the past few weeks, the union and the league reached an agreement on how to include raises for teachers as part of that package.

The league now has earmarked $93 million a year for that purpose. That would be enough to raise the base pay of teachers and other school employees by 3.6 percent — what they would be earning if the Legislature hadn't suspended Initiative 732 last year. It would not include back pay.

Initiative 732, passed in 2000, mandated annual cost-of-living increases for teachers.

Leaders of the Washington Education Association now will recommend that its 76,000 members work to get the initiative on the ballot, said union president Charles Hasse.

In February, the union's leadership took no position on the proposal, citing a number of concerns, including its lack of attention to teacher compensation.

The union may have ended up supporting the trust fund anyway, Hasse said, but the salary boost makes it easier.

"If you're raising $1 billion for public education, an acknowledgement that compensation needs to be addressed to the tune of $90 million is appropriate," Hasse said.

"Obviously, it will add to the motivation of our members, in terms of signature gathering and making personal contributions to the campaign."

The league has had discussions with the union, an obvious ally in any effort to increase state support for schools.

The challenge was finding a way to address teacher salaries without salaries taking over the proposal, said Lisa Macfarlane, the league's president.

"We wanted to support teachers, but we were very clear that we couldn't support teachers in terms of fully funding Initiative 732," she said.

The price tag of that initiative "didn't fit in our car," she said, "and it, frankly, doesn't fit in any car because it grows exponentially."

To add the $93 million to its proposal, the league trimmed the estimated $500 million it had earmarked for public schools, largely to lower class sizes, but also to provide support for struggling students and support teacher professional development.

Early-childhood education and higher education would still receive the same amount as originally proposed — roughly $100 million and $400 million, respectively.

League officials estimate the tax package, if approved, would cost a family earning $50,000 to $60,000 a year an additional $234 annually in taxes.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com

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