DOVER, Del.- The battle for financial stability continues for Delaware's teachers and three colleges in the state have recently made their case for more money.
One of them, Delaware Technical Community College, is looking to increase teacher salaries.
Del. Tech Academic Affairs VP, Justina Thomas, said more money would help secure the school's future.
"We've actually been trying to stabilize faculty salaries for some time to remain competitive in the education industry," said Thomas. "Retention of all of our employees is extremely important to us and we are in the midst, like everyone else, finding ourselves with some vacancies, and in recruitment mode."
Del. Tech President, Mark Brainard, presented his budget proposal to the Joint Finance Committee earlier this month. The meeting did not go without controversy though.
Senator Dave Lawson (R-Dist. 15), was not quick to hop on board.
"The top eight positions, not including yours Mr. President, comes to about $1.2 million for eight people," said Sen. Lawson during the meeting. "Is that justifiable?"
Thomas told WBOC how teacher salaries are determined on a sliding scale.
"A veteran teacher who has taught for 30 years and has a masters or doctorate, they are going to find themselves on the far end of the scale," she said. "Teachers that are new will find themselves on the lower end of the scale and I don't know if that is something that people understand.
Sen. Lawson went on to point out that President Brainard's salary is nearly 400 percent higher than the average professors.
"You're in it for the students but yet, folks who have direct contact with the students are making $50-60 thousand or somewhere in that range," he said. "I understand there are variations but the top seems awfully heavy."
Thomas said the skepticism from Senators was "unproductive."
"I don't believe that those questions really sidelined the actual theme and message of the presentation which is that Delaware Tech is doing exactly what we need to do to serve this state and this economy."
Officials from the University of Delaware and Delaware State University also presented budget requests to JFC during that meeting. The three Delaware colleges requested about $33 million in total for FY 2024.
