Ed group believes teacher pay plan can be funded

An education professional organization is pushing for an overhaul of the state’s teacher salary schedule that it believes will make Oklahoma the highest-paying state in the region.

“We have actually been working on this plan for about a year,” said Ginger Tinney, executive director of the Professional Oklahoma Educators, a non-profit professional organization that represents teachers and school staff.

The plan would drastically change the state’s teacher salary schedule for all years of service, including an increase of more than $5,000 for first-year teachers to $37,000 within six years.

Teachers in their 25th year would be paid $60,000, well above the current state minimum of $42,325.

The Professional Oklahoma Educators, which represents about 11,000 educators, began reaching out to lawmakers over the past few weeks and found a supporter in House Speaker Charles McCall, who endorsed the plan during a news conference Thursday.

“This plan is a plan that I think is achievable,” said McCall, R-Atoka.

But despite costing more than $700 million to fully implement, McCall did not provide any details on how it would be funded.

Tinney said she expects the plan to be funded through an elimination of the tax deduction on capital gains, which the state Senate voted this week to eliminate. She also expects additional revenue-raising proposals to be made in the coming week.

“At first, we had brought some ideas to pay for it, but it became clear the Legislature wasn’t interested in those ideas,” Tinney said.

“But I’m very confident they are going to present some ideas soon.”

Even if funding plans are presented, passage will be challenging given the state constitutional requirement that 75 percent of House and Senate members must vote to approve it.

Tax increase efforts in recent months, including an effort this week in the Senate, have failed to reach that threshold.

But Tinney said she hopes the teacher pay raise plan will be attractive enough that lawmakers will want to support it.

The Oklahoma Education Association, which is the state’s largest teachers union with more than 40,000 members, has called for an April 2 teacher strike if a $10,000 teacher pay raise is not approved, along with other funding demands.

However, the Oklahoma Education Association quickly criticized McCall’s proposed salary plan.

“The group that stood with (McCall) today should know that our students deserve better, that our teachers deserve better and that Oklahomans deserve better,” said Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, in a statement Thursday.

Tinney said she was not surprised to see the OEA come out against the proposal.

“We are competitors so they don’t want us to succeed,” Tinney said.