The governor’s recommended fiscal 2027 budget contains reductions in moneys to pay substitute teachers, which has raised concern among some legislators and education professionals. Are there enough substitute instructors available in Delaware? Are they getting paid adequately? What will happen if their funding gets cut?
This speaks volumes! Teachers definitely should be paid more. Likewise for substitutes. Further, substitutes are not treated equally by students nor staff. Though this doesn’t necessarily surprise me because there is very little value placed on children and education. Cutting funding and the treatment of those in the education system is a direct reflection of just how much the government cares about education. — T’Laura Pope Coleman
Substitute teaching is a very hard job for very little pay, and I can’t imagine how we get anyone to do it as it is! You go into a classroom cold, with no real knowledge of the regular teacher’s routines and expectations, and the kids know you don’t know and take full advantage of the situation. A lot of times, you’re working from emergency lesson plans that don’t engage the kids, so they don’t do it, leaving them with way too much unstructured time to find trouble. But you’re expected to still find a way to teach them something and keep them from going hog wild. And all this for not much more than minimum wage. — Amy Gay Henry
I’m curious about the reasoning. Will they have a contracted substitute teacher company that will change how the positions are funded (different coding — payroll versus contractual)? Or is he giving more full-time positions or paras to help accommodate? If he’s just simply cutting funding, that’s ludicrous and will not go well at all. — Sarah Mullin
I have been an intermittent substitute for four years at Polytech High School. I can pick and choose days I want to work and which teachers I want to cover for. Polytech has always treated me and other substitutes with great respect. My father was a teacher, and my sons are teachers at Polytech. My sons are well respected by the Poly administration. But, as teachers, like most teachers in this state, they are underpaid for the service that they provide to society and our community. It isn’t a matter of what they put up with in lack of supplies or disrespectful students, but when our teachers make less than other less important careers, we aren’t recognizing their value. — Jody Sweeney
Why should teachers be paid more? Why should subs? All they are doing is teaching for the standardized test near the end of the school year and not so the students actually know the material. For subs specifically, their jobs are solely to follow the “lesson plans” set by the actual teachers, and the actual teachers’ lesson plans are just basically one chapter a week in whatever subjects they teach. — Kyle Hendrix
So, let me get this right — we are short substitutes, so cut the pay. Yup, that’s government: more work for less pay. How about all state workers take a 5% pay cut? Yeah, that goes over about the same. Instead of paying teachers more, give them more time off with pay. All those new in-service days, every month — take them away and pay them to be off. Until you get serious about what education is about, you will continue to have incredibly low scores. Thank Barack Obama for standardized testing and the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced No Child Left Behind. — Diane Butters-Eastburn
The lower you go in the state, the less you get. Remember that New Castle controls the money. — Jeff Grzeszczak
Let them find a new way of getting it besides hitting my property taxes. — Kevin Roe
