"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
By Dick Gale, SDEA Executive Director

A former Illinois senator, Everett Dirksen, made this comment about approving Congressional expenditures. But, it bears repeating, because the San Diego Unified School District budget for last year exceeded $1.1 billion in both revenues and expenditures. The District's 2005-2006 Unaudited Actuals budget report, submitted to the SDUSD Board of Education at their
September 12th meeting, details how the school district goes about
spending these 1,100 million dollars.

The answer, in a word, is PEOPLE. Education is one of America's most
labor-intensive undertakings and a quick examination of the District budget confirms the widely held belief that PEOPLE represent around 80 cents of every dollar spent by school districts in California. In fact, in SDUSD last year, 82.97% of the annual budget was spent for the salaries and benefits of the PEOPLE who work on a daily basis to provide educational services to the 120,000+ students of San Diego.

That's over $920 million being paid to ensure that our children have a way to get to and from school, a clean, safe and well-maintained campus, health and nutrition programs, libraries, supplies, academic and psychological support, athletics, extra-curricular activities and, of course, a challenging academic program. The PEOPLE employed by SDUSD provide all of these services.

So, it goes without saying that PEOPLE are the number one District priority, right? Well, that's what District administrators say to us and, in many cases, we believe that their actions demonstrate a sincere commitment to treat their employees with respect, and fairness. But, when it comes to bargaining, it is becoming increasingly difficult to feel like WE THE PEOPLE are really the
number one priority.

When discussing teacher salaries, both parties agree that San Diego City teachers are paid less when compared to their colleagues in other San Diego County school districts, as well as other large urban districts statewide. Both parties also agree that attracting and retaining quality teachers is critically important if we are going to continue to improve student achievement in the district.

SDEA believes that the only way to demonstrate that PEOPLE are a priority and to improve salary comparability is to bargain a salary increase that is equal to or better than what other teachers are receiving. Salary settlements thus far for San Diego County for 2006-2007 are listed on the next page. SDEA is asking the District to keep these numbers in mind when preparing their offer to us.

While we acknowledge that employee health and welfare benefits represent a real value that must be nurtured, the preservation of these benefits has come with a real cost to the PEOPLE who receive them. It has created a widening gap between our PEOPLE and others who work in education in San Diego and throughout California.

This year's state budget provided the District with more new money than any budget in recent memory. SDUSD is receiving approximately 8.4% in new, on-going per student funding over 2005-2006. SDEA believes that this is the year that our District must begin to narrow that gap. We will continue to ask the District, if not now, when?