Schools + Money + No accountability = Waste
But we have to pay adults to come to school.
I've worked in 4 schools. In those schools, the salary tables for teachers would not allow for a salary over about $80,000. Because the funding processes are often built upon the local tax base, inequity is guaranteed. Smart, talented people will generally gravitate to more money. It's just natural. Don't be a hater.
In PA (07-08) there were 7 high school math teachers in public schools that make over $100k. They are:
MCGEE, ROBERT - $107,962
DeFranco, Karen - $102,472
Kaczmar, Peter - $102,472
Boone, Anthious - $101,374
SCHMIEG, PATRICIA - $100,519
Adams, Irene - $100,348
Busza, Chris - $100,348
Four of these teachers work in one school district, Lower Merion SD in Montgomery County. Are they really worth it? There are 552 school districts in PA that reported SAT data. Lower Merion did pretty well at #2 with an average 1730 (1160 R+M). They're second only to Tredyffrin-Easttown SD, with an average of 1753 (1174 R+M). What about this top district? Well, their math teachers top out at $90,900, most of them have been there for less than a decade (15 of 27), and one of those teachers makes less than me! Crabgrass! This is throwing a wrench in my "money solves your problems" scheme. Maybe, "money solves most of your problems"?
What about Greenville? They're 269 out of 552 with an average of 1432 (984 R+M). This is under the state average of 1468 (990 R+M), but not by much. Greenville can be painfully average.
It's tough to see what the teachers make on the low end of the scale because some are part time but it wasn't reported correctly. I would guess around $30k. So, we have teachers working at public schools in Pennsylvania who are making more than 3x as much as other teachers. Is this a system that will give incentives to build toward equitable conditions? Nope. When I interviewed in Clewiston, there was one applicant. I had to be better than nothing. I can imagine that when Lower Merion SD has a position open that they do not advertise it, and they get at least 100 applications. The school that I work at now tops the scale at a hair under $60,000 with my master's degree. I currently have a salary of about $38k with a couple of bonuses that brings it to $40k. I will make the same amount of money in my third year as the first year because they keep freezing our raises. "We don't do it for the money," is the mantra. If you say something nice often enough, it will make you feel good if you let it. I don't. I know what they're doing and I don't like it. I want to pay my student loans off. My mantra might be, "We didn’t come here for great district leadership and strong unions." I might be able to get behind that.
We also have superintendents. There is some discussion to the size of district offices and the number of schools that the superintendent can have under them. In PA, just about every town has their own superintendent. In Florida, every county has their own superintendent. I'm sure that both have their extremes. However, if a superintendent has a bigger jurisdiction, they would have to have a bigger staff to compensate.
So how can you justify what you pay for a superintendent? Dade County pays Alberto Carvalho a $275,000.00 salary with a total package worth $330,502.00! However, they have the lowest superintendent salary per student in the state, at a cost of $0.96 per student. 50 out of the 67 counties keep that cost under $25 per student. Bill Brumfield over at Jefferson County takes in a meager $117,628.00, but at a cost of $106.35 per student! Of course, larger districts spend a lot more in their administration other than the superintendent, so this is not a fair picture. A more comprehensive study would reveal a through, streamlined way to run an administration.
However, it is more clear when you look at the number of students that a superintendent tends to. In Greenville, one superintendent looks after 1,661 kids. In Dade County, one superintendent presides over 344,913 kids. Can't there be a happy medium here?
A low salary would look bad also. The lowest paid superintendent in FL is in Glades County. Wayne Aldrich makes a paltry $90,453.00 with $119,991.00 as the sum of his total package. The results? They have the lowest average SAT score (1115) in the state. I didn't see the R+M score, but it would roughly be 743. Only 1% of the students took it, but generally the students who take the SAT's are the ones that are college bound. Some kids take it to substitute for state tests, but most of those kids take the ACT instead because is only a quarter math, opposed to the SAT which is a third. Are these students ready for college? Should they pay their superintendent more? Perhaps it's just an indication of a bigger problem, but that's what people say when they give up the discussion.
Giving up and moving on...
I think that both extremes are damaging. However, these are local issues. Pride seems to drive a lot of decision making, and people are slow to share information. Schools that know the secrets to run a modest and appropriate administration aren't quick to share them as they enjoy being ranked against other schools. Schools that are poorly run aren't quick to find solutions as they are poorly run. Unlike most industries, a school does not go out of business if it's managed improperly. A poorly run school simply wastes resources, and the bad "product" is blamed on the teachers by the community. The community elects the school board, the school board hires the admin, the admin hires the teachers, the teachers don't get the test scores and are blamed by the community. It's the circle of life.
There's a lot more to this game than you'd think. I’m just getting started.
Dave of AM 1979 - The Dave Show of AM 1980 - The Dave and John Show.
PS. I apologize for the lack of proper footnotes.
PPSS. I know I did not being up SES. This is a blog, not a book.
Sources:
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pas/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=95497#SAT
http://php.app.com/PAteachers/search.php
http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/pay.htm
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/data/news-article.aspx?storyid=141433&catid=245
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