Dori: Seattle teachers get another 11-percent raise, year after first one

When the Seattle teachers got an 11-percent raise last year, who came on the radio and told you that it would never be enough for the teachers union?

Your old pal Dori. And he’s been proven right again.

Just one year after threatening to strike and getting that raise, the Seattle teachers were talking about striking again. Now a new contract has the teachers getting another 11-percent raise over three years.

The new numbers are rather staggering. Remember, every raise for the teachers is a pay cut for you. It is your property taxes that will go up.

Dori: The truth about teacher pay in Washington

I know the union will say, “No, we’re using existing revenues.” That is unsustainable. The school board knows it and the teachers union knows it. Unless they find a way to hike taxes — and of course, their ultimate goal is a state income tax — they will be unable to fund these raises.

Under this new contract, the highest-paid teachers cap out at $124,000. That means teachers who were making $102,000 a little over a year ago (at the end of the 2017-2018 school year) are now looking at making $124,000. That’s a $22,000, 22-percent raise over four years. New teachers will start at about $62,000 now.

In addition to that, they also get great benefits, a great pension plan. Teachers can retire at 59, set for life financially.

The taxpayers continue to have to take pay cuts.

And this is all for a job with a 180-day contract. That’s 36 weeks a year — 16 weeks of vacation. I know that makes teachers furious when I say that, but it’s the truth — 36 weeks is not full-time. And I know that teachers tell me they have to use their spare time to earn higher degrees, but plenty of people get their master’s or Ph.D on the side while working a full-time job.

Now the game will continue. All of the surrounding districts will say, “Seattle is making more, so we need more.” It’s a very insidious way that unions play the taxpayers.

Want another I-told-you-so? I guarantee you that one year from now, more districts will threaten to strike because we haven’t done enough. We’re so selfish and greedy. Why is it always the taxpayers who are greedy, while the teachers union just acts “for the children?”

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