Kerr: Stafford teacher salaries lagging

Like it or not, and sometimes it seems that many in the Stafford County government choose to ignore the subject, competition for experienced and qualified teachers is intense. Every locality in our area, whether it’s Spotsylvania, Prince William or Fredericksburg, does its best to recruit competent and capable teachers. But it’s not as easy as many might think. Statewide, according to Virginia’s Department of Education, there is a shortage of teachers. Locally, the same is true. Unfortunately, Stafford has the added disadvantage that we offer one of the lowest salary schedules in the region.

This may surprise some people, but it’s true. Stafford, one of the most prosperous counties in the area, lags behind everyone else when it comes to teacher pay. In Spotsylvania, entry level teachers make $38,000. In Stafford, that number is $36,322. In Prince William, immediately our north, it’s $41,604. This gap remains consistent as our teachers, based on years of service and master’s degrees, move up the scale. While these differences aren’t troubling to some, including some on the Board of Supervisors, it nonetheless represents an erosion in our competitive position.

Just 10 years ago Stafford County found itself in the exact same position. Our salary scale had become inverted, a function of raises given to some levels and not to others, and the salaries we were paying mid-level teachers were substantially less than our neighboring counties. What’s more, there was plenty of evidence, anecdotal and statistical, to show that we were losing qualified teachers. The Board of Supervisors, then with a Republican majority, enthusiastically endorsed a three-year plan to fix the situation. Many of the supervisors were businesspeople and they understood that to keep quality employees you needed to pay them.

Today, the situation is equally stark. There are only so many qualified teachers available, many of our current teachers are retiring and we aren’t paying enough to attract the kind of new teachers we need. The School Board, faced with a terrible budget year, didn’t give any pay increase this year. It did agree to start entry level teachers at a higher step. But that isn’t a long-term solution.

Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of a larger problem. Namely, Stafford County isn’t giving education the priority it needs. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue and shame on anyone who wants to make it into one. At the beginning of this decade 69 percent of Stafford County’s budget went to schools. Since then, that number has fallen by 10 percent. And to those who say that Stafford schools are wasteful there is another statistic they should consider. According to the state superintendent of schools, our contribution per pupil is one of the lowest in the state and going away the lowest in the region.

Stafford schools have maintained one of the most educated and talented teacher cadres in the area. However, unless we as a community work to maintain salaries it’s not going to stay that way.

David S. Kerr is an Aquia resident and a former member of the Stafford County School Board. Contact him at info@stafford countysun.com.