MUSKEGON, Mich. – You hear the same line from teachers union leaders all the time, usually during contract negotiations with school boards:

“We haven’t had a raise in (fill in the blank) years,” they say.

And it’s almost always a blatant lie.

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In most public school districts in America, most teachers get contractually stipulated automatic raises every year. These “step” raises, as they’re called, put a greater emphasis on how long a teacher has been there, and how many college credits they’ve earned, than the impact they’re having on student learning.

Quite often it turns out to be a raise for simply not dying over the summer.

That’s the topic of an EAGnews video released today.

These automatic raises contribute significantly to the rising cost of government schools. They stem from seniority-driven salary charts, usually collectively bargained, that stipulate how much each employee will be paid. School districts pay dearly to meet the demands of the pay scales, with no guarantee of improved educational outcomes.

Recently, Cleveland paid out $4 million in step raises in the 2010-11 school year. Minneapolis spent $5.6 million on them.

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No one is saying school employees don’t deserve a raise. In fact, many say effective teachers should be paid more. They’re invaluable.

But that’s not the policy in most government schools around the country. Most employees will continue to see their pay rise, regardless of their performance. What incentive is there to improve?

Is that the policy in your school district? Do you know?

In some states, like Mississippi, the state legislature decides what the raise is going to be. The teachers union there wants every teacher to receive the exact same raise. They value the Teacher of the Year as much as they value the teacher sleeping at his desk.

A thousand dollar raise could cost the state some $35 million, with no guarantee of improved performance.

The union views teachers – both with step raises and blanket raises – as interchangeable cogs in the government school machine.

In reality, we should pay effective teachers more and show the ineffective ones the door. Our outstanding teachers deserve nothing less, and these sorts of one-size-fits-all policies do nothing to recognize their effort.

But the unions fight that. They want every teacher viewed as having equal value, which runs contrary to common sense.