SC teachers get 2% raise in House budget. But the Senate has other ideas

South Carolina's public school teachers should be getting a pay raise next school year.

But how much of a pay raise and how it gets paid is up for debate.

Paying teachers more is a top priority for advocates, who say South Carolina struggles to recruit enough new teachers and keep experienced teachers in the classroom.

Under a state Senate budget proposal, teachers would get a 1 percent pay increase, not the 2 percent hike that the S.C. House approved earlier this month.

However, unlike the House, the Senate proposes the state pay the cost of "step" raises for teachers — raises based on years of experience — by giving school systems more money for each student they teach. Without that added state money, school districts would have to find the money to pay for the state-required experience raises.

State senators argue it is unlikely all teachers would get a 2 percent pay raise, even though the House added $60 million for teacher raises in its proposed 2018-19 budget, which takes effect July 1.

To pay for that raise, the House's budget pulled money from two sources, one of which weighs the number of students in a district and the cost to teach them. But for some school districts, paying teacher raises through that formula poses a problem, said state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort. That's because that formula shortchanges wealthier school districts — like Beaufort — leaving their taxpayers to pick up the tab for costs, Davis said.

To address that concern, the Senate Finance Committee's K-12 panel proposes increasing the amount of state money school districts get for every student to give teachers their experience raises. Teachers also would get a 1 percent raise.

Schools now get $2,425 per student, about $593 less than state law mandates.

State Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg, has proposed raising that per-student money by a minimum of $85.

"They (the House) can tell the teachers they are going to give them a 2 percent raise. But, then, they (teachers) are going to lose their step increase," Martin said. "It looks good on paper, but (the) teacher ends up with nothing in their paycheck."

Without state money to cover step increases, school districts have three options: pull money from their savings account, cut costs elsewhere or raise property taxes, if they have the ability to, said Debbie Elmore of the S.C. School Boards Association.

Elmore and others say the pay debate points a spotlight on a broader issue: The need to rethink how the state pays for schools.

"We've been advocating for nearly 10 years to reform (education) funding," Elmore said. "There seems to be a recognition that the funding system for education is broken. The problem is, there has been no movement."

"It's a big, hairy, challenging problem to look at the way we fund education," said state Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry. "We have got to get thinking about this in a long-term way."

This story was originally published March 23, 2018 at 7:17 PM with the headline "SC teachers get 2% raise in House budget. But the Senate has other ideas."