Oops! Math Error Shorts Teacher Raises

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Oops! Lawmakers and state education officials made a mistake in calculating how much it would cost to give every Utah teacher a $2,500 raise. A legislative audit released yesterday shows it will cost $7.7 million more dollars to make good on the promise - but Representative Brad Dee says teachers WILL get the money:

"That's our intent. Those of us in leadership have made that commitment and we want to follow through on it," says Dee.

With the economy booming, Dee says lawmakers are hopeful there will be an extra seven and a half million dollars to plug the gap when they meet in regular session next January. The other option is to remove some of the part-time teachers and school administrators from the list of those slated for raises. Dee says that's not the preference.

Previously lawmakers had worried the discrepancy was a result of sneaky school districts padding their numbers. Dee says the audit reveals that was not the case:

"The numbers that we had, everyone thought they were accurate," says Dee. "There was no one that was trying to skew the numbers at all. And we're getting accurate numbers now."

Dee says the goof-up is forcing school districts and the State Office of Education to be meticulous in keeping their teacher stats current. If lawmakers allocate the extra funds, it will bring the total tab for teacher raises and bonuses to $112 million dollars.

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