CHARLESTON, W. Va. – Here’s something for the “Strange but True” file: The head of West Virginia’s largest teachers union is cautioning lawmakers that a proposed $6,000 per-educator pay raise might not be fiscally responsible, and that a smaller raise might make more sense.

WVMetroNews.com reports that West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee thinks the generous pay hike proposed by the big spenders on the House Education Committee is “a great thing,” but only if lawmakers come up with a way to pay for it.

“If (House members) are willing to provide a revenue source (for the proposed $260 million raise), I think this is a great thing,” Lee told WVMetroNews.com. “But to be fiscally responsible, you have to have a revenue source to go with that.”

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Lee’s less-than-thrilled reaction is unusual, but it makes sense. The huge raise approved by the House Education Committee jeopardizes the more modest – but more likely to pass into law – pay raise recently approved by the Senate. If union-friendly lawmakers insist on pushing for the big raise, they may end up with nothing at all.

Virtually all lawmakers want to give teachers a raise, but the window for approving a raise this year is rapidly closing. West Virginia’s legislative session ends on Saturday, March 8.

WVMetroNews.com explains the significant differences between the two teacher pay hike proposals: The Senate bill would give all educators an $837 raise next year, while the House Education Committee plan would offer three years’ worth of raises, totaling $6,000 per teacher.

Democrat Mary Poling, chair of the House Education Committee, voted against the extra-large pay raise because the state “won’t have the money to pay for it without tax increases.”

Raising taxes is never popular, but it’s an especially toxic proposal when the economy is sour.

Our guess is that if West Virginia lawmakers approve the $6,000 per-teacher raise but don’t raise taxes, it will cause severe budget problems for the state’s school districts. School leaders may have to make cuts in student programs – and perhaps even lay off teachers – just to cover the cost of the raises.

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That hardly seems like a smart way of improving the state’s beleaguered public education system.

Sometimes less is more. The WVEA understands that principle, but union leaders only have a few days left to help their elected leaders figure that out.