Substitute teacher pay raises proposed
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Substitute teachers would get pay raises, and those who work at least 90 days a year would be offered limited medical coverage under a Department of Education proposal unveiled yesterday.
It's the first time the DOE has offered to pay medical benefits for substitutes.
The amount of the raise has yet to be determined, but the cost of the medical benefit would be $700 per substitute annually.
"We don't cover any substitute teacher medical benefits," Gerald Okamoto, assistant superintendent for the Office of Human Resources, told a Board of Education committee. "This would be an add-on."
Based on records for 2004-2005 showing that 741 substitute teachers worked 90 or more days, the yearly bill for medical benefits would be $518,700.
The recommendation for improved benefits was part of a report by the Substitute Teacher Task Force convened by the DOE in response to Act 70, which requires the department to develop a classification and compensation schedule for substitute teachers.
Kaua'i substitute teacher John Hoff, founder of the Substitute Teachers Professional Alliance, called the actions "encouraging." However, he said, no one from his group was invited to participate in the task force, although several substitutes were part of it.
"We'd certainly be receptive to getting our pay up to where it belongs," said Hoff, whose organization includes several hundred teachers. "As for the $700, we'd have to look into that. It's a positive sign that they're looking toward listening to us."
The issue of pay and benefits for the state's 4,756 registered substitute teachers has been a sore point for years, with substitutes saying they're called on to teach thousands of children each day in public school classrooms, yet they're considered second-class citizens.
A recent pay cut, along with other concerns including new expenses for mandatory training sessions, and a dispute over withheld back pay, had prompted substitutes to sue the state and to push for union representation. The Hawai'i State Teachers Association represents full-time teachers but not substitutes.
In March, 150 substitute teachers marched on the Capitol to support their demands, and in July, the governor signed into law a bill requiring that pay cuts be restored and increases be given to more qualified substitutes.
The law restored cuts that had reduced daily pay from $119.80 to $112.53. It also established higher daily pay rates of $130 for substitute teachers with a bachelor's degree and $140 for those licensed or highly qualified.
WHAT'S NEXT
The task force recommendations were heard by a Board of Education committee yesterday and will go to the full board for consideration and then to the Legislature when it convenes in January. The Legislature has authority to determine the minimum hourly rate for substitutes.
The department recommends that salary increases be given to substitute teachers annually based on one of several factors:
But BOE member Denise Matsumoto said that if the board were to tie increases for substitute teachers to the annual increases for regular union teachers, the board would need to ask the Legislature for more money to pay the increases.
"We wouldn't automatically say if teachers get a raise, we'd give it to the substitutes," said Matsumoto. "Because then we'd have to go in for more funding."
TRAINING-COST LIMIT
In recognizing past concerns, the task force also recommended that costs for training be limited to $50 for a 30-hour substitute teacher course and $20 for four-hour professional development courses recommended by the task force.
On any given day in the school system, an average of 1,000 substitutes are filling in at about 7 percent of the state's classrooms, according to DOE statistics.
Even with the latest proposal, Hoff said, he believes substitute teachers need a union. "What scares us is unless we have a collective-bargaining unit to have a representative voice in the system, DOE can say something and go do something else," he said. "They'll do it without asking us. We've never been able to represent ourselves in any matter that concerns substitute teachers."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.
