dumb idea

Teacher salaries in Gibbons’ cross hairs

His plan has 6 percent pay cuts for educators, state workers, sources say

Carson City — Gov. Jim Gibbons will propose state workers, schoolteachers and university employees take a 6 percent pay cut in the budget he will unveil next week, according to sources with knowledge of the plan.

The move is part of a spending plan that Gibbons’ staff has admitted will be painful to enact, but one that keeps the governor’s pledge not to raise taxes.

Reactions from the state employee union, teachers union, university professors and Democratic Assembly leadership were blunt.

Gibbons’ proposal is “despicable,” said John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, which represents the majority of teachers in the state’s largest school district.

“I would hope that he would step down as governor and let someone truly lead before he would make a request like that of teachers, many of whom can barely make it now on the pay they get,” Jasonek said.

“Teachers in Nevada are already some of the lowest-paid employees in our state,” Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said. “To cut salaries is extremely bad for our state and our schools.”

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So, our "brilliant" governor will cut the pay of a group of among the lowest earners in the state who have one of the most important jobs in the state!
I know some teachers here and I can assure you that they are not getting a living wage as it is.
This is a mind-boggling bad idea, especially as this state has been hard pressed to entice and keep teachers as it is.