Almost Heaven
* The West Virginia Education Association held a news conference yesterday to complain about its state ranking of 47th in teacher salaries. The union is calling for across-the-board salary increases of 15 percent over three years. There has also been some (illegal) strike talk.
The response has been mixed. One newspaper raised the specter of teachers fleeing the state for higher-paying jobs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky. EIA hears this argument all the time, but has yet to see an empirical study of how many teachers actually cross state lines for higher pay and what the net effect is on any particular state.
Gripes about state rankings also raise the question: Which state should be 47th? One of them has to be, but no one wants the job.
There is also the question of benefits. West Virginia spent more than 44 cents on teacher benefits in 2002-03 for every dollar it spent on teacher salaries. That number places the state second in the nation (just behind Indiana).
Local columnist Chris Stirewalt delves deeper into the issue, and gives us a nice little lesson in medieval English history, too.
* Here's a capsulized view of the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers' efforts to organize charter school employees in the state.
The response has been mixed. One newspaper raised the specter of teachers fleeing the state for higher-paying jobs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky. EIA hears this argument all the time, but has yet to see an empirical study of how many teachers actually cross state lines for higher pay and what the net effect is on any particular state.
Gripes about state rankings also raise the question: Which state should be 47th? One of them has to be, but no one wants the job.
There is also the question of benefits. West Virginia spent more than 44 cents on teacher benefits in 2002-03 for every dollar it spent on teacher salaries. That number places the state second in the nation (just behind Indiana).
Local columnist Chris Stirewalt delves deeper into the issue, and gives us a nice little lesson in medieval English history, too.
* Here's a capsulized view of the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers' efforts to organize charter school employees in the state.
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