By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Next year's proposed budget would raise the state's base pay for substitute teachers to 40 dollars a day. That's not much higher than the current 37 dollar a day limit. That, as it turns out, is close to the federal minimum wage of five dollars-15 cents an hour for a seven-and-a-half hour work day. Alabama's pay for substitutes is way below the national average of about 70-dollars a day. School superintendents say the pitiful pay just adds to the problem of finding people who are willing and able to take over a classroom. Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Johnson says it's almost embarrassing.