Kurt Vialet Wants To Raise The Salary Of Teachers As Senator

The V.I. Department of Education is in critical need of teachers moving into the new school year, as there are currently 147 vacancies that need to be filled, Education Commissioner Donna Frett-Gregory said.

Although Gregory is expecting the number to drop to around 130 before school officially starts, the lack of teachers in the Virgin Islands has some underlying issues that must be dealt with before we can see an acceleration in the hiring process, one of the most crucial being salary.

Venerable V.I. educator Kurt Vialet, who is now seeking office in the 31st Legislature, dropped by The Virgin Islands Political Consortium, a radio show that I host along with Ashley Scotland on 102. 1 FM, Life Radio, and revealed that one matter he hopes to address will be finding ways to raise the pay of teachers in the Virgin Islands, adding that although he knows it will be difficult, the investment will pay off in the long run.

“We need to be able to pay our teachers more,” Vialet said. “It’s a big issue, and it’s something that we’re going to have to look at and address.

“I don’t know exactly how yet but I do know that if we are unable to increase the pay of teachers, we’re going to continue to have a lot of issues because right now we have over 140 vacancies.

“My wife is a third grade teacher and I spoke to some of her colleagues. I asked one who’s a graduate of Complex: ‘you could remember the last time you got a raise?’ She said I never received a raise since I started working.”

This particular teacher has been employed at The Educational Complex for seven years and her salary has remained stagnant at $30,000. Vialet was disappointed that the teachers, who were equipped with Bachelors degrees — and are currently in pursuit of their Masters, were still making $30,000. He said it’s one of the reasons why we lose great teachers to the mainland.

“It’s hard to pay back your students loan making $30,000,” Vialet said. “We have to move to a next level so that we’re able to retain our best and brightest minds into the field of education because a lot of times people leave just because of salary,” he added.

I then proceeded to ask the senate hopeful whether he would work on making sure that teachers see an increase in their salaries.

“Yes,” he said.

“I think that it’s going to be hard short-term to deal with it financially, but long-term it’s going to benefit the Virgin Islands. Because if we have a solid teaching base, social problems are going to decrease [and] crime is going to decrease, so we’re going to see the savings in those areas,” Vialet reckoned.

“And we have to make sure that our children are exposed to the best and brightest minds, because when I was at Complex I would tell our children all the time, we’re not competing against Central High School, Good Hope [or] Antilles — we’re competing against the world.

“When you apply to a college, you’re not applying just with students of the Virgin Islands, you are applying with students all across the mainland. When you sit in that class, you’re sitting with students from all across the mainland. So you want our students to be exposed to the best situations possible so that when they go out there, they could be successful.”

The territory’s public schools will welcome students to the new school year on Tuesday.