Teachers in state budget bull’s-eye

By David McGrath Schwartz

Sunday, April 10, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Gov. Brian Sandoval acknowledges his budget calls for tough spending cuts. It’s part of the shared sacrifice he says is needed to move the state forward.

One example: Cuts in education could be softened — by 70 percent — if school district employees agree to wage and benefit concessions.

The approach raises a question: How much of a burden should one group bear?

Sandoval’s budget is asking the average teacher to take a 10 to 12 percent cut in compensation, according to analyses by the budget office, teachers union and school districts.

That includes:

• 5 percent straight salary reduction.

• 25 percent increase in district employees’ contribution toward retirement benefits.

• Higher pension contributions, which all public employees in the state will be asked to make.

The average Nevada educator earns $52,014 a year. Sandoval’s proposal would equate to a $6,523 cut in 2012, according to the Nevada State Education Association, the state’s teachers union.

Sandoval’s budget office offered a different analysis, using a different methodology, that shows average salary of a Nevada teacher would go from $53,436 to $48,004 — a 10.2 percent cut.

Regardless, “that number is high,” acknowledged Dale Erquiaga, senior adviser to Sandoval and a former Clark County School District administrator.

But, he says, school district employees have been insulated from many of the cuts state workers have experienced.

“Over the past three years, if you look at real reductions made for school district employees, compared to state workers, there’s a big difference,” Erquiaga said.

Indeed, the average teacher makes $967 more in the 2010-11 school year compared with the 2008-09 school year, according to the Nevada Education Department. (There are also 359 fewer teachers in the state, for 11 more students.)

State workers, of all the public sector employees, have given up the most.

The 2009 Legislature required state workers to take a one-day-a-month furlough, which equates to a 4.6 percent pay cut. Sandoval has proposed eliminating furloughs, and instituting a 5 percent pay cut. State workers would also make higher retirement and health benefit contributions.

It’s unlikely that teachers unions would agree to the cuts that Sandoval is proposing. Under state law, teachers unions could just roll over existing contracts that guarantee “step increases” — increases in pay — for experience and education.

The Clark County Education Association’s contract with the School District maintained step increases in 2009. Last year’s contract was the first time the union agreed to suspend step increases, which are awarded for experience.

“This is what I’m telling our teachers: ‘We don’t appreciate teachers being targeted,’ ” said Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association. “We’re being taxed to fund the education.

“Right now, we’re not agreeing to any concessions,” he said.

But Erquiaga said tough decisions for schools have been put off for too long. “We’re making up for lost time. If different decisions had been made before Brian Sandoval got here, we wouldn’t be in this perfect storm,” he said.