That being said, some teachers are well worth 40K and well more. Some of my kid’s teachers are not worth 20K, imho. With my kids at least. In a perfect world, all compensation would be tied to performance and value given, not length on the job or degrees held. The problem is that it is very tough to measure. Teachers will teach for the tests only if their salary is tied to test scores, and will be too nice if the salary is tied to student and parent reviews. I don’t currently see a fair way of reviewing teachers and compensation.

On the other hand, Stephen J Gould once suggested the public school system could be fixed by doubling the salary of teachers. This would attract the best and brightest students that typically get lured into MBA/PhD/MS/etc programs. This would put some real competition for these jobs. I don’t know if private schools pay more, thus attracting better teachers and thus having better student performance. I have not seen data either way, but is an interesting idea and seems plausable. It is an expensive experiment, however.

As an earlier poster pointed out, there is an awful lot of administration that chews up edu budgets, thus keeping teacher salaries tight. I would add building improvements as a source of waste as well. The grade school down the street is constantly under construction. No new classrooms are built, but the offices are enlarged and remodelled, landscaping done, parking lot done, curbs done, new computers (which nobody knows how to use), roof seems to be redone yearly, etc. I would like to see this minimized prior to the front line teacher compensation.

Good teachers should be well paid and bad teachers should be replaced, just like any other profession. The market should be allowed to set these numbers.

My points are all over the board here, but having the union increase salaries simply to increase salaries is not the right approach to take and and can make teacher-parent relationships adversarial.

You might also have less of this as Toyota decides to open a plant in Canada.
“”The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States,” said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.”
http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=bb0f2845-74dc-4861-a6dd-77d52f4488cf

Factor in their pensions, their health care, and their three month vacation and combine that with the sheer number of teachers that are turned out of colleges each year and you’ll see that they are overpaid.

July 01, 2005
List of Salaries: Huron Valley School Administrators
How much does the Huron Valley School district pay its administrators?

We think taxpayers should know this information, so we requested the 2004 W-2′s of many Huron Valley administrators through the Freedom of Information Act. By law, the school district had to provide us with this data, which we feel is especially important due to the recent budget cuts and superintendent hire.

We added up a total of $3,606,709 paid in 2004 to administrative management listed on the district’s website.

“This list includes administrative positions below director and principal as well as non-management individuals,” according to Janet Roberts, Director of Community Relations & Fund Development for the Huron Valley Schools. The number does not include positions such as Assistant Principal or lower level administrative support.

Roberts explained that the size and complexity of the system require a certain level of administrative support.

“Huron Valley, with it’s nearly $91 million dollar budget, is one of the largest employers in Huron Valley, with over 1,800 employees, 18 buildings, and strict federal and state accountability rules and regulations which make it akin to large corporations,” she said.

“Each year, the amount of our budget that is devoted to teaching and learning increases, even with budget cuts. And, this year, because of budget reductions, we cut two administrative positions. We cut administrative positions last year as well.”

She went on to say that the district has been recognized for their ability “to do more with less” within the state and nationally.

“According to Standard & Poors, we have some of the lowest administrative costs per pupil, but higher student achievement, in the state of Michigan as compared to public school districts in Oakland County and across the state.

“We are proud of our staff, our students and our record of achievement, especially since we one of the lowest funded districts in the state of Michigan.”
================================================================

NOTE: These numbers below are the total “medicare wages and benefits,” which include items such as auto allowance, elected deferrals under a salary reduction agreement, and other benefits beyond the standard employee benefit package.

Superintendent
Robert M. O’Brien, Ph.D.
$375,944

Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services
Nancy E. Coratti
$138,230

Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services
Jackie Tuckfield-Johnston
$140,201

Executive Director of Human Resources
Mike Teasdale
$46,958 (part year)

Director of Technology
Joe Hilliard
$94,744

Director of Student Support Services
Julie Conn
$106,026

Director of Community Relations & Fund Development
Janet Roberts
$77,465

Director of Assessment, Curriculum & Staff Development
Kathleen Svoboda
$105,545

=======================================
Athletics
Gene Balawajder, Director
$98,600

Career Focus Education
Joyce Vallone, Coordinator
$44,950

Computer Information Systems
Dawn Cruz, Supervisor
$75,033

Community Schools & Recreation Facilities
Paul DeAngelis, Director
$106,854

District Media
Denise Davies
$33,334

Finance
Jill Tomyn, Supervisor
$80,640

Food Service
Joan Steele, Supervisor
$72,259

Instructional Data Coordinator
Janell Craig
$52,666

Maintenance & Operations
Randy Westerman, Supervisor
$76,357

Purchasing
Nora Gilbert, Supervisor
$71,372

State & Federal Programs
Gwenis Laura, Director
$92,190

Transportation
Matthew Hess, Supervisor
$72,091

PRINCIPALS

Apollo Elementary School
Diane Chema, Principal
$97,095

Baker Elementary School
Lindsay Cotter, Principal
$98,752

Brook Elementary School
Julie Bedford, Principal
$96,024

Country Oaks Elementary School
Deborah Devers, Principal
$85,334

Heritage Elementary School
Frank Bateman, Principal
$100,272

Highland Elementary School
Bruce Bendure, Principal
$107,039

Johnson Elementary School
Larry Johnson, Principal
$102,538

Kurtz Elementary School
Bob Orosey, Principal
$102,765

Lakewood Elementary School
Christopher Wall, Principal
$105,358

Oxbow Elementary School
Peg Sell, Principal
$99,582

Spring Mills Elementary School
Dale Phillips, Principal
$97,401

Highland Middle School
Mark Wilson, Principal
$101,289

Muir Middle School
Gayle Lizzet, Principal
$105,781

Oak Valley Middle School
Scott Lindberg, Principal
$98,964

White Lake Middle School
Paul Gmelin, Principal
$102,808

Harbor High School
Tammy Spangler – Timm, Director
$44,394

Lakeland High School
David Maile, Principal
$116,774

Milford High School
Mike Krystyniak, Principal
$50,035 (part year)

I was simply pointing out that the idea of artificially increasing one profession’s pay and artificially reducing another profession’s pay is very close to communism…

If the gov’t got out of the business of educating out children, good teachers would make what they are worth and crappy teachers would be fired. Right now, all teachers across most of the country are treated equally. It’s kinda like, “We’re all miserable together”

Ya aren’t going to say someone thinks in lables if they say “pickup” and “van” and “car” instead of “four wheeled motorized vehicles,” are you? *grin*