Senator Taylor Comments on Keating Teacher Pay Ideas

Statement by Senator Stratton Taylor
Senate President Pro Tempore

"This sounds like another one of the Governor's smoke and mirror pay programs. It looks like all talk with no money included.

"Squeezing money out of school administrators certainly sounds like a good idea on the surface, but when you realize that school lunches, janitors, school bus drivers, security officers and school counselors are also classified as administration, the idea starts to lose some of its luster.

"Senate Republicans thought it was a good idea last year until they were faced with the reality of what the cuts would actually mean in their home school districts. When you start talking about firing school bus drivers and cafeteria workers, what seems like an easy solution becomes much more difficult. It was so difficult in fact that the Senate Republicans dropped the idea.

"If Governor Keating really wants to experiment with administrative cuts, I'm certainly willing to consider pilot projects in any of the school districts represented by Republican lawmakers. All he has to do is find us a few willing volunteers among his Republican colleagues.

"Governor Keating can certainly score some cheap political points by saying he can fund a pay hike simply by cutting administration, but I don't consider it a serious approach toward solving our teacher pay challenges."