'Long overdue' help for teachers
A Times EditorialPublished April 3, 2005
To get the full comic effect of Evelyn Lynn's plea for teacher pay, one must first know a little about her job.
Lynn, a retired educator, is a Republican state senator from Ormond Beach who for the past 11 years has held some of the Legislature's most influential education posts. She led House negotiations in 1999 for Gov. Jeb Bush's major education reform plan, was House education chairwoman, served on the Education Reform and Accountability Commission, and is now the Senate's education chairwoman.
So here is what Lynn said Monday by way of explaining why the Legislature should ask voters to raise starting pay for teachers: "I'd like to see teachers get an increase in salary as fast as they can. They need it, it's long overdue."
The extent to which her remark indicts her own leadership is apparently lost on Lynn. Then again, she is being asked to parrot a political line the governor is advancing in his own attempt to outsmart voters. Bush wants to repeal a 2002 amendment that requires schools to limit class sizes, so he's offering higher teacher salaries in what amounts to constitutional barter.
Neither Lynn nor the governor needs voters to require them to do right by teachers. They already have that authority in the budget. Instead of increasing teacher pay, though, they have spent the past five years handing out $10.7-billion in tax breaks mostly to people and businesses that can afford to live without them.
Teacher raises are not the only thing that is "long overdue." So is some honest talk about the failure to give schools what they need.