CREDIT AND PAY FOR TEACHING EXPERIENCE

WHEREAS, teaching is a profession and requires mobility to obtain academic excellence; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, there have been attempts by local school districts to buy teachers cheaply by not hiring experienced teachers or not recognizing prior experience in contractual agreements; and

WHEREAS, sex, racial, academic discrimination could be practiced by school districts in their attempts to bargain cheaply in the hiring of experienced teachers; and

WHEREAS, large percentages of teachers who have been hired in the past 5 to 10 years were cheated out of receiving credit and pay for prior teaching experience; and

WHEREAS, failure to recognize prior experience often causes teachers to lose recognition for longevity pay and recognition for promotion requiring experience and retirement benefits:

RESOLVED, that the AFT initiate legislation that would require school districts to recognize and pay for prior teaching experience without discrimination against experienced teachers.