Rocky Mountain News:
An unprecedented offer for teachers
Denver Public Schools is eager to offer the largest annual pay increase in memory to its classroom teachers – one of its proposals would hike base salaries an average of 7.7 percent.
There’s more. With incentives available through the ProComp performance-pay system, average salaries, the district calculates, would rise by a jaw-dropping 18 percent.
Given the slumping economy, stagnating wages in the private sector and the fact that salaries at other local school districts may not keep pace with inflation, you’d think the Denver Classroom Teachers Association would be all over the offer. Instead, the union has flatly rejected it.
The district’s three-year-old ProComp program is the sticking point. All new hires are covered by ProComp, which is building up a sizable reserve from a tax approved by voters. The district wants to use that revenue to sweeten its incentive-based pay, such as for those who teach difficult subjects in hard-to-staff schools. It also wants to direct more money to teachers who are early in their careers.
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