Terry, that teacup museum and the teacher's raise will buy votes. Apparently your position altough important,is not percieved by the voting public as having anything to do with the CHILDREN and therefore will not tug at the heart string of the voters.

Have no argument or knowledge about the pay scales of state employees or whether they should have raises in pay.

Do ask that someone show me why more pay will make a lousy teacher a better teacher. As there is virtually no way to remove a poor teacher from the system, seems to me that more pay only entices the poor teacher to stay!! We need to change the entire approach to selecting and paying teachers. I would be all for wholesale raises if the poor teachers could be removed and better teachers brought in. As of now, a wholesale turnover of teachers could take 35 years. Tooooooo long.

I'm with this guy. Why not bring all state employees pay to the national average? Well, I know the answer. Because that would be stupid. Our cost of living isn't at the national average and it is practically impossible to compare our apples to other states' oranges. Hey, I'd stand to gain about $16,000 a year if you raised my salary to the national average. You, as a taxpayer, wanna pay that times 90,000.

Which is the exact same reason that I think Easley is a moron for wanting to bring teacher pay in line with the national average.

Dear Terry,
"Has Gov. Easley forgotten his state employee roots?" Yes, in my opinion he has.
My question to you is as part of the SENAC group, what do you see the leadership doing to further your concerns? I realize you guys had a great chance years ago, when Dana Cope took the helm, but that fizzled out fast. I see your organization as just another "union", taking money and not there to help when fellow state employees need you. I can say this because I too was 10 year plus state employee who willingly and hopefully gave up my dues each month to an organization who talked the talk, but could not or would not walk the walk when it came right down to it.
I believe that state employees are just as valuable as teachers, and I salute those of you out there who actually do something that resembles work in a 8 hour day, 40 hour week. You know who you are.
If I were in a position to make a decision about raises for State workers, I would have to do it on an individual basis because I have seen the beast, and the beast is not pretty. A straight percent raise for those in positions of authority who basically do nothing that resembles work do not deserve that amount of money. Infact, they don't even deserve to stay on the payroll.

Well, the dead do rise! Welcome back Lilly!

Lilly, you are my hero! Truer words were never spoken. There are so many people drawing salaries from the state who would be fired were they to perform the same way in the private sector. It's safe to be in a state job...it seems there's no accountability.