The teacher pay raises are fueling a clash between republican senators and administration officials. The GOP lawmakers have picked up on a memo authorizing the funding, which they say conflicts with the current budget law.

First raising some pointed questions was Senator Tony Ada. He asked how and why the governor personally noted on the memo to raise the Department of Administration's recommended teacher salary increase from 16% to 20%. DOA director Ed Birn said, "The governor can reach her own conclusion," leading the senator to say, "No, I understand that...I'm just asking what was your communication with the governor on this issue - did you recommend to the governor that she sticks with the 16 percent or is there something that she did on her own representing 20 percent that she wrote here?"

"Well, you spoke again before I could say, or was about to say, the governor can reach her own recommendations and that is indeed what she did," Birn replied.

Ada and Birn also butted heads over the authorization for the raises. Birn said it was based the 2014 Competitive Wage Act; Ada disputing that, saying it was through an executive order that conflicted with current law, the Fiscal Year 2022 budget act.

Senator Frank Blas, Jr. picked it up from there, citing the same memo. He said Governor Lou Leon Guerrero jumped the gun by more than a year by authorizing the increases on May 23.

"Before you can implement any plan or any pay towards teachers you've got to submit some paperwork to the legislature, which you said already you haven't submitted anything for consideration and that the implementation of the plan for the payraises is not to be effective until June 30, 2023," said the senator.

Adelup responded with a lengthy news release defending their basis for implementing the pay raises. They maintain that the 2014 budget act also required legislative approval of raises, but then-governor Eddie Calvo unilaterally implemented them in a dispute with the legislature. The administration says those raises have been in place since then, and now they're being raised in much the same way.

Blas remains defiant, asserting, "We don't have a plan in front of us. We don't know what you're talking about about salaries and the justification for this. So how are we going to do this?"

The explanation will have to wait for now. Education committee oversight chair Telena Nelson plans to call the GDOE officials back when they get to the discussion of individual department budgets.