Responding to shortage, governor wants teacher pay hike

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Governor Jay Inslee announced today he wants to give rookie teachers a big raise.

He says that's what it will take to address a critical teacher shortage in our state.

It’s one of the highlights of the supplemental budget he will present to the Legislature when it convenes in January.

The teacher shortage is so bad; the governor says a third of the schools in our state have one classroom without a teacher.

So he wants to raise the starting salary to $40,000 a year, a pay hike of more than 4,000 dollars.

“I’m dedicated to new ways to bring innovation to our classroom, but first you have to have a teacher in the classroom,” the governor said.

To pay for the $100 million cost, Inslee wants to eliminate tax breaks for oil refineries and bottled water.

That's the wrong idea, says Republican candidate for governor, Bill Bryant.

“This was a governor who had promised the people of Washington state that he would not raise taxes, he even said doing so would take the state in the wrong direction and for four out of 4four years he has proposed new taxes. What he should be doing is reprioritizing the budget.”

However, Bryant did not specify what programs he would cut if elected.

Inslee also wants to ease traffic congestion by putting 10 more incident response teams on the freeways.

And he's proposing to add $178 million to pay the cost of fighting last summer's huge wildfires.

“What I'm saying is this having a classroom teacher to teach a kid algebra right now is more important than some oil industry tax break,” Inslee said.

The governor will have to get his proposal past a Republican majority in the state Senate, where the chief budget writer Andy Hill (R-Redmond), is skeptical.

“Unfortunately, as has become a yearly tradition, the governor continues to offer plenty of ways to spend taxpayer dollars, but fails to provide a sustainable way to pay for it,” Hill said in a statement.

KIRO