Concerning Sen. Joyce Krawiec’s Words on Teacher Raises – The “Average Bear” Fallacy and Lard

/ caffeinatedrage

Remember this?

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Well, if the senator’s recent Facebook Post concerning teacher pay raises was lard, then couldn’t grease just one tiny part of that small skillet.

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It would have been nice if she clarified that with some more information like what happened to the longevity pay for veteran teachers or the increase in premiums for benefits to name a couple or the fact that only newer teachers got the overwhelming majority of those raises.

It would also have been nice of her to explain that bonuses do not work that simply. She should have also shown how much of that was taxed because it is not tied to salary.

IT WOULD REALLY BE NICE IF THE SENATOR COULD EXPLAIN HOW AFTER ALL OF THOSE “RAISES” THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IS NO CLOSER TO BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN NC TEACHER PAY AND THE NATIONAL AVERAGE – STILL AT %16.

But that would require her answering more pertinent questions that may spark debate and actual conversation and Krawiec and her contemporaries have shown this session that open dialogue, debate, and a chance for amending budgets scares them. Just look at the nuclear option being used in Raleigh to pass the budget.

It was nice of her to acknowledge the data table as being from the John Locke Foundation which is financed by Art Pope who was the budget director for Pat McCrory when that “historic” trend of raises came along in 2014 that took out longevity pay.

What Krawiec wants to hide behind is an “average bear” fallacy.

It is the claim by the senator and others that NC has given some of the highest “average” raises in the country. They also claim that the “average” salary of teachers in the state will be over $51,000 next school year.

The operative word here is “average.” What GOP stalwarts purposefully fail to tell you is that most of the raises have occurred at the very low rungs of the salary schedule. Of course, you can raise the salary of first year teachers by a few thousand dollars and it would give them an average raise of maybe 10-15%. You would only have to give veteran teachers a very small raise (if any) funded by longevity pay (which teachers no longer get) and the OVERALL average raise still looks good, and not much money has to be invested.

“Average” does not mean “actual”. Actually it’s like an average of the average. But it sounds great to those who don’t understand the math.

This reflects a whopping double standard of the NC General Assembly and a total contradiction to what is really happening to average teacher pay. Just follow the logic that Krawiec doesn’t use and see if it makes sense.

 

 

One thought on “Concerning Sen. Joyce Krawiec’s Words on Teacher Raises – The “Average Bear” Fallacy and Lard”

  1. Suppose you are a new teacher in 2014 at a starting salary of $33,000. Taking in all of these “average” increases over the last four years puts that teacher with 5 years of experience at a salary of $39,395. But the 2017-2018 salary schedule shows that teacher at $38,300. That’s a 2.86% hit on the projected salary.

    Suppose you are a ten-year veteran teacher in 2014 and your salary that year is $40,000. Applying that same “average” growth would push that teacher’s salary to 47,308. But when you look at the current salary schedule, this is the base salary of a teacher with over 17 years of experience, not 15 years. The teacher with 15 years of experience is at $45,500. This is almost a 4% difference between the “average” and the actual.

    Finally, let’s look at the 20-year veteran who was making $46,500 in 2014. Applying the same “average” growth, that teacher’s base salary should be $54,996. And we all know that the 25 year veteran is capped at $50,000. So that veteran teacher has almost a 10% differential.

    Somebody at the John Locke Foundation needs to brush up on their middle school math.

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