(Wash.) Senate budget cuts teacher pay, raises tuition

[Newsjock]

Source: The Olympian

A $32.1 billion state budget proposal outlined by Senate Democratic and Republican negotiators Tuesday evening has reforms that some lawmakers of each party have sought for years.

Sacred cows are among the targets of an estimated $4.8 billion in cuts. These include a 3 percent pay cut for public school teachers, early release of state prison inmates, and closure of two state facilities for the developmentally disabled.

Overall the two-year plan spends about $330 million less than a budget that majority Democrats passed on a partisan vote Saturday in the House, and both spend less than the state expects to take in over the next two years.

"This is a fairly historic moment. We have a bipartisan budget,” said Democratic Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle, who chairs the budget writing Senate Ways and Means Committee. “I think a lot of people thought it wouldn’t happen." Sen. Joseph Zarelli, the ranking Republican on the budget from Ridgefield, said it includes policy changes Republicans have sought.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/04/12/1614302/senate-cuts-teacher-pay-3-raises.html

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. How does a state legislature...

...cut teacher salaries? Is there no local school district system in WA? Is there a statewide salary agreement that covers all public school teachers?

[Citizen Worker]

4. Public school teachers are represented by the Washington Education Association, the state's largest

Union. I don't know how this is going to comport with the collective bargaining agreement now in place.

This budget, if it stands as is, is a prime example of why we need an alternative political party. More and more lately working people are being sold out by democrats. If we encourage working people to run for elective office we won't have to worry if they'll do what's right.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. I'm represented by a local of the state union here, too....

...but every district negotiates its own salaries.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I bet they also voted to cut their own pay too

[alp227]

5. i wish they'd vote to cut legislators' pay, raise taxes on the rich, and cut admins' pay too

but NOOOOO...it's easy to mess around with teachers since they don't really have a Tea Party and Fox News etc. to stand up for them...unions? HA

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Lawmakers attack children first then big corporations last

[xchrom]

6. Seems to me regular people can't afford any more of these historic moments. Nt

[sulphurdunn]

8. "This is a fairly historic moment"

Indeed it is. A bi-partisan legislature has agreed to slaughter some sacred cows. Among them teachers and the mentally disabled. I was born and grew-up in Washington. It once was a fairly progressive state (at least West of the Cascades). What happened?

[n2doc]

9. Same thing as happened in California

There are enough RW idiots there to block tax increases, and an initiative process that has been hijacked by Tim Eyman (sp?) and his goons which was used to cut taxes and restrict budget options. So when the national economy went to hell, Washington got stuck with a huge deficit.