MADISON – Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers’ union representing educators in the Madison Metropolitan School District, is making sure their voices are heard. A number of teachers rallied on April 15 at the district’s Doyle Administration building in downtown Madison hoping to bring awareness to challenges they’re facing.
Madison Teachers Inc. president Michael Jones joined Spanning the State to break down the issues he believes are most important to highlight as the district begins the budget process.
“What we’re advocating for is not exactly a pay raise but a cost of living adjustment,” Jones said. “Just to have a salary that keeps up with inflation because as we all see gas is going up, food, bills – no one’s paying less for stuff that they bought than they did two years ago.”
The district is currently planning to keep salaries the same unless the district can pass a referendum this fall. Jones said the issue of fair wages is affecting their ability to retain staff in the district.
“It just de-incentivizes staying in the job if you can go get another job somewhere else that will allow you to stay in your house and pay your cell phone bills and put food on the table for your kids,” he said.
That leads to the second issue that Jones said is also a major problem for the teachers’ union: understaffing.
“Fewer kids are getting the services they need especially around mental health or certain services like special education,” Jones said. “It’s really tough to make sure everyone’s getting the support they need so that is what we were rallying for: increased allocations or staffing, especially in those areas and especially restoring positions that were cut.”
Jones said the lack of individual support, especially for children’s mental health, is a common complaint he gets from parents. That lack of support is made worse by the third major issue Jones highlighted: ballooning class sizes.
“We have teachers where they have 35, 36, 37 kids in a math class,” Jones said. “It’s really tough to meet the needs of the kids if you have that many kids in a class.”
Understaffing is not just felt among classroom teachers. Jones said MMSD is lacking in support staff, including social workers and mental health counselors.
“If a kid’s not feeling that they’re getting the individualized support they need, or they act out because they’re not getting the help, and they’re frustrated, then there are fewer adults to help them,” he said. “It’s just a continuing bad cycle.”
Madison Teachers Inc. is limited in what they can collectively bargain for under Act 10. The union can only negotiate for wage increases up to the rate of inflation set each year by the state, commonly referred to as CPI. This year the rate is 4.1%.
With the budget process beginning, Jones said he’s hopeful negotiations between the teachers’ union and the district will be productive.
“I do always have faith that we can come to an agreement. I have faith in our school board and our community,” Jones said.
Jones said he’s not treating the district as an enemy, saying the issues that the teachers’ union and district both are struggling with are ultimately due to a lack of funding from the state legislature for public education.
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