MAE teacher union characterizes teacher pay hike proposal as ‘election year pandering’

Last week, Lt. Governor Tate Reeves and Governor Phil Bryant signaled support for pay raise proposals for teachers in the upcoming session.

Great job by @snyguy & his team. With these savings & a strong economy pushing revenue growth, I believe we can invest those resources in Mississippi’s future, our children. It’s time to raise salaries again for teachers & boost pay for CPS caseworkers next year! #teacherpayraise https://t.co/izzFQPd5Zk

— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) September 6, 2018

On the heels of that, the MS Association of Educators (MAE) teachers union released a scathing response.  In the video, MAE president Joyce Helmick cast doubts about the proposal almost to the point of being unsupportive of it for her members.

“Every year, in the session, Mississippi Association of Educators and many other educators join us in asking for teacher pay raise and support for our schools, and it doesn’t happen,” said Helmick.

“And then all of a sudden, there’s this tweet,” said Helmick. “And it says, ‘oh, what about a teacher pay raise?’ and oh, it happens to be during an election year. Now that’s really interesting to me.”

Here’s the full video from the MAE:

MAE further responded in a statement by saying, “It is our hope that the video brings attention to an incredibly frustrating set of issues. Education funding is always on the chopping block unless it’s an election year. Public education is consistently underfunded and undervalued by a number of elected officials, many of whom claim to be pro-education. Actions speak much louder than words, and we hope that message is clearly conveyed in President Helmick’s remarks.”

They went on to say, “The only thing we encourage is educators holding our elected officials accountable beyond election year pandering. We’ve got educators getting second jobs and spending money out of their own pockets to make their classrooms functional – let alone what they spend to ensure they’ve created an inviting learning environment. President Helmick said it best: We are watching, and we are taking notes.”