Education Ministry unable to find extra money for promised teacher raises

According to the new Teachers' Charter the local authorities should give teachers raises (zl. 300 on average). The money should have come from the government but it has come up short. The shortfall of money in the national budget was caused by an accounting error by Education Ministry civil servants, so the gminas must manage on their own. Some, such as Plock, resolve to cutting the incentive benefits, which means that the best (experienced) teachers will get less money than their young colleges. The Ministry's spokeswoman Marta Chrostowska-Walenta said, "There is no one in Poland who would refuse teachers their right to higher wages, but the national budget has only a limited amount of money. Implementing the Teachers' Charter is to take three years, so the wages will be growing steadily." (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 1, 4)