The Georgia Teachers Organization, mostly known as GTO, is one of the prominent organizations
that focuses on creating a better environment and benefits for the educators in the state of Georgia. Since there was no single body for speak out for the educators in the state of Georgia, GTO has its goal to do what is missing behalf of
the educators who are in the state of Georgia. Among the issues that they talk out, higher salaries is one of the key
concerns. In addition to that, abolition of the state salary step structure by which the older teachers are discriminated is one of other
main concerns where they also stress on improved retirement gains. Since
the educators have The Georgia Teachers Organization in place, the communication and action execution have been effective among the members.
It is All about Volunteering
The Georgia Teachers Organization runs under the minimum resources and they do not even have a proper office space to carry out their
operations. The organization is purely run by the volunteers who wish to do some service behalf
of the educators who are doing an excellent service for the state of Georgia. One of the goals that GTO desires to achieve is that to educate all
Georgia educators about the vital matters that concern their profession and seek the necessary action when it is needed. The Georgia Teachers Organization maintains an email network, so the organization communicate with the members easily. The organization urges every Georgia educator to join the organization by paying a $25 annual membership fee to strengthen their efforts.
Motivating the Educators
The GTO encourages any lawmaking that would increase the educator gains and spirit. According to the organization every state that borders Georgia has full retirement benefits for educators after 25 years of service without an
early retirement penalty but Georgia does not offer this gain. In addition the Georgia Teachers Organization also comes out for
several other causes such as ending the salary step caps which stops the salary increases of master teachers after 20 years of service and higher salaries for educators who
posses educational qualifications including masters, specialist and doctorate degrees.
The organization also state that the retirement benefit for each year of service should be increased to 3%. As a result 25 years of service would provide
75% (25*3%) salary upon retirement in contrast to the presently provided 60%. Furthermore, GTO maintains that since there are Georgia State employees who receive 90% of their salary at retirement, the educators should also
provided the same benefit.
The Opportunities
When one joins the Georgia Teachers Organization one gets several gains such as being involved in an action list
which advises who to contact when significant issues arise and also receiving email notifications about pending lawmaking
concerning the profession. The names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of those who should be
contacted to help pass significant lawmaking would be given to the members. In addition to that, the educators attached to The Georgia Teachers Organization will get opportunities to move with the rest of the educators from other states and learn how they accomplished their rights.
