Seattle School District Budget Cuts and Teacher Salary

Recently I heard that Washington state's budget cut deal includes cuts in teacher salaries. Here are some facts about teacher pay and where the budget comes from.

For teacher pay, the Washington state pays a portion, local school district pays a portion, lastly for some teacher classifications, the federal government pays a portion.

It is said that in Seattle, the average classroom teacher makes about $65,000 a year. So 79% (or $52,000) comes from the state. The district's portion is $13,500.

In addition to this, it is said that some local school districts are forcing older teachers to leave by giving them negative evaluations. Also many first year teachers are not getting their contracts renewed.

I think parents and teachers all got worried that students in the state of Washington will not get high quality of education going forward. That said, some other US states even make teachers take unpaid leave as an effort to make up for the budget shortfall. So Washington state is not that bad.