Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams is proposing a big teacher pay raise in her run for governor, saying Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s much-touted $5,000 across-the-board increase is not enough to recruit new teachers and retain current teachers.
“We are losing the fight for our children’s future,” Abrams said Sunday as she accepted the endorsement of the Georgia Association of Educators. “We need a governor who does not see education as an election-year gimmick, but sees our responsibility as a guarantee for the strongest future for our people.”
Georgia has long had the highest average teacher pay in the South, but Abrams is proposing a $1.65 billion bump over four years. She would raise the typical starting salary to $50,000 from the current level of just under $40,000 and increase average teacher pay to $75,000 from $60,553 this past school year, as tracked by the National Education Association.
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