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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Broad Support for Raising PA Teachers' Minimum Pay

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Wednesday, March 27, 2019   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Educators joined legislators from both sides of the aisle in Harrisburg on Tuesday in urging the General Assembly to raise the minimum salary for Pennsylvania's public-school teachers.

The minimum teacher salary hasn't increased since 1988, when it was set at $18,500. In his 2019 budget proposal, Gov. Tom Wolf proposed raising it to $45,000.

A recent poll showed that two-thirds of likely voters in Pennsylvania support raising minimum teacher pay. According to Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, that could help reverse the state's shortage of qualified teachers.

"We're going to be able to attract and retain the best and brightest in our classrooms, and that's what's important," he said. "It's going to make a tremendous difference in the lives of students every day."

The increase would affect some 3,100 Pennsylvania teachers whose salaries now are below the new minimum proposed by the governor.

Fritz Herling and his wife are teachers earning less than $45,000 a-year, and they both work extra jobs to make ends meet. Fritz Herling, a health and physical education teacher at Panther Valley Elementary School in Nesquehoning, said the low salaries in his district mean many teachers leave teaching or move on to districts that pay more.

"We lose so much experience in our classroom, and that doesn't just hurt the professionals at the school," he said. "It surely does hurt our students when, every couple years, there's a turnover."

Stacey Baur, who's been teaching in Clairton Elementary School for 10 years, said she's still struggling to pay off $130,000 of student loans. Her days start at 4 a.m., when she starts teaching English lessons online for extra income.

"I do not plan on leaving. I care too much about what I do, and I enjoy what I do," she said. "So, the pay increase would help me and my family move forward."

She said raising the pay would put teaching on a par with other professions that require college degrees and specialized training.

More information is online at psea.org/45k.


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