Teacher Pay

A Republican state senator told a prayer breakfast in Fort Payne that doubling teachers' pay would attract people to teaching who aren't qualified. Senator Shadrack McGill said, "It's a biblical principle. If you double a teacher's pay scale, you'll attract people who aren't called to teach."  The freshman senator from Woodville said teaching is a calling, and people who are called to teach would do it regardless of the pay scale. He said it's "the ability that God gave them."  McGill also said that the 61% raise that the Legislature gave itself in 2007 was good because the annual compensation of $49,500 made legislators less susceptible to taking bribes.

Associated Press