A 2,000-dollar pay raise made it through the Oklahoma Senate and is headed to the Oklahoma House of Representatives. If it passes through both legislative chambers, it will mark the first pay increase Oklahoma teacher have seen in at least three years.
Three Duncan Middle School teachers, representing the Duncan Legislative Team, were at the Capitol when the pay raise passed through the Senate. Derrick Miller, Sonia Norton and Cathy Barker have already been to the Oklahoma State Capitol several times this year, in an attempt to move public education in a positive direction.
Miller, who is the Duncan Legislative Team chair and the journalism teacher at DMS, said the Senate’s pay raise bill is a step in the right direction.
“Teachers deserve a pay raise,” he said. “There are so many expectations and requirements put on teachers. The work load has continued to increase; the pay should match it.”
Last week was the deadline for bills to make it through their Chamber of origin. The next deadline is April 23, when bills have to make it through committee in the other chamber (House bills going through Senate committees, and Senate bills going through House committees).
If the pay raise bill makes it through committee, it will have to be heard by the House of Representatives no later than May 7, which is when bills have to make it through the opposite chamber.
DMS social studies teacher Chuck Wagner agreed that legislators need to give teachers a raise. Wagner said that not only does it increase a teacher’s monthly, take-home pay, but it also goes toward retirement.
In addition to a pay raise, the Oklahoma Legislature is also looking to add more instruction days to the school calendar. If this passes, the minimum number of school would be able to go is 173 days, regardless of whether they are counting hours or days.
Currently, schools operating on hours are required to go 1,086 hours, but some schools have lengthened their days to reduce the number of days they must go. Schools operating on days must go 181 days.
Duncan Public Schools uses hours instead of days. However, the Duncan school calendar is 173 days this year and 175 days next year.
“If they add days to the school year, is it really a raise?” Wagner said.
Norton, who teaches special education at DMS, said a pay raise is necessary to keep teachers in the profession. She said the pay raise is a good thing, but she also acknowledged that the raise should actually be larger.
