Teachers have it rough, especially in West Virginia. Nobody would disagree with that. Last week, educators in all 55 counties in WV staged a walkout protest because they felt they were being disrespected and overlooked by the state legislature. On the evening of Tuesday, February 27th, that strike ended. The governor promised the sought after 5% raise and to “figure something out” with the planned PEIA insurance rate hike. Seems simple at first glance, right? There’s more going on here than just some extra cash every year.
The main reason this work stoppage happened is because PEIA, the insurance plan for state workers, announced an annual rate hike, among other devastating changes. The problem is that this hike would have priced many teachers out of their healthcare plans. The whole point of these plans were to make them affordable on a teacher’s salary. Many educators were eligible for Medicaid and WIC, and had to take advantage of these services because they simply could not afford to survive on their salary alone.
PEIA planned to create a “pay by person” premium, causing teachers and state workers to meet a separate premium each month for each member of their family. They also proposed to make employees pay a 30% copay on prescription drugs, up to $200 a month. This was eventually lowered to 20% and $100.
The biggest shortcoming of this plan is that the former ten-tier premium scale accounted for income ranges in ten separate levels; PEIA wanted to change this to a three-tier level, which would have cause premiums to skyrocket for those making less than $36k a year, and to cut premiums drastically for anyone making above $62.5k per year. This would have significantly favored those who were actually legislating the plan, of course.
The new plan does require a total family income to place employees in a tier, and anyone who does not disclose spousal income is immediately placed in the highest tier of more than $120k annual income. Once again, this weighs heavily against the poorest state employees. Never fear, though, the state won’t go through with a 2% raise on retiree premiums. They’re on a fixed income, but surely they could have afforded extra money out of pocket every month to pay for healthcare.
Of course, all of this backtracking now just creates problems down the road for people. PEIA claims that these cuts to their plan will require them to raise premiums as much as 11% annually, beginning as soon as 2020. Delaying their plan just for the 2018-2019 cycle will apparently double the cost to the insured.
Another big sticking point for the teachers, and other employees, are their salaries. WV teachers make, on average, $46k per year. That’s with the inclusion of master’s degrees and years of seniority. Most new teachers make roughly $30k per year. In contrast, the State Superintendent of Schools, Michael Martirano, makes $230k annually. That’s more than most doctors, if they don’t specialize into a high-risk field. The Governor, Jim Justice, who has an income from various assets already, is accepting a salary of $150k per year. Again, more than a lot of doctors, especially in this area. The Lieutenant Governor, Mitch Carmichael, makes $42.5k a year. Pretty comparable to the “average” teacher, except they’re out educating students to become future politicians. They’re also spending money out of pocket to buy classroom supplies, but that’s another situation entirely.
The last time state educators went on strike was in 1990. 28 years ago, they were angry about many of the same things, and it’s taken that long to hit the tipping point again. There are 20, 000 teachers in West Virginia, and that seems like too large of a group to keep pushing around. That last strike lasted 11 days. So far, this one has only lasted 4 school days. Wednesday was to be used as a “cool down” day, but there is no guarantee that the legislature will follow through with their promises. All 800 schools in WV may be closed again this week. It’s time to stop being 48th in the nation.
