Stephen Jenks: Cynical plan ahead

Regarding the May 20 news article, “With money on hand, education funding tops House budget agenda”: I think we should know by now to assess any Republican proposals on teacher salaries with a skeptical eye.

It seems like the basic game plan, developed over the past couple of years, has two parts:

▪ Modestly increase salaries for new teachers so North Carolina can be sufficiently competitive with other states; whether these salary levels will attract well-qualified teachers is another matter.

▪ Do not worry about the salaries of teachers with years of experience; these teachers are very likely to have strong ties to their local communities and, therefore, they generally don’t have to pay adequate salaries to retain most of them.

Yes, this sounds very cynical. That’s OK. If we want to see truly high-level cynicism, and really good political spin, watch what the Republicans propose in the way of tax cuts/reform for the middle class – and who actually ends up with the benefits.

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Stephen Jenks: Cynical plan ahead."