Comments on: Should Teacher Salaries Be Published for All to See?

By: Jim V

Jim V — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:11:21 +0000

If our public education system was functional in the slightest this article would be unnecessary. Where public education works; Finland, South Korea, and Germany are three examples, teachers are drawn from the same elite talent pool as doctors, lawyers, scientists and so on. I’m most familiar with Germany where a national examination given to all 15-year-old’s puts the top 15% on a university track while 85% engage in a 5-year work/study apprenticeship. In my examples, the myth of classroom size promoted by US teacher unions (a monolithic voting bloc that received an outsized part of the 2009 stimulus) is shattered and these qualified and respected teachers teach 30+ students rather than have their talents wasted.

Our so-called system is a ‘train wreck’ for two peincipal reasons: First and foremost is home environment. Are our children being nurtured and cared for? What is the level of parental concern, commitment, and competence? Let’d not sweep this under the rug because we know we have a problem there. Our system of remedial education, the community colleges, should be offering certificate programs in literacy, child-rearing, home economics, and anything else that makes birth to kindergarten (age 5 requirement at beginning of term) as close to fair and balanced as a concensus national effort can provide. The expansion of the teacher’s unions into Pre-k must stop; it’s appealing to “can’t be bothered parents” or in response to financial pressure. I say lift the financial pressure. Humanity is on an unsustainable path with depletion and degradation 30% beyond the world’s capacity to regenerate itself and I believe that shifting 10% of the unsustainable path should be directed at our birth to age five precious national resource. It would be economic activity, an investment and not a cost. This wouls shift $464 billion from unsustainable activity and about 90% should go to families of small children in need while the amount allocated to our calcified educational establishment should be through competitive bidding for add-on income with strict guidelines – teacher training at third-tier schools is out; only top-tier and less than 50% of second-tier schools would qualify. Next, the applicants must have a class rank in the top 30% of their class. I know this class ranking requirement excludes more than 70% of public school teachers and I believe the institutional requirement would narrow the remaining field by more than half with most public school teachers coming from undistinguished schools. A further outrage are the abysmal so-called online master’s degree offerings in education. It’s a racket, a cruel joke played on parents and students.

With the late Albert Shankar, leading light in the public education unionism movement preserved on videotape during a teacher walkoout (immoral and unethical) with a comment that “I’ll care about students when they start paying union dues” it is clear that groupthink, political correctness, sheepishness, and dreams of early retirement pervade our horrendous public education system.

Get the facts or the facts will get you.

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By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:04:24 +0000

A public school teacher’s salary? OK, if people are asking. A private school teacher’s salary? Absolutely not, unless they wish to volunteer the information.

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:18:57 +0000

I believe that it should be public information as they work for the public. But it is the choice of a newspaper to run the numbers and I really agree it does nothing except get people angry lol

By: jack foley

jack foley — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:56:55 +0000

I agree, if you do a bit of digging.. you will find out what they are on..

In Europe its common knowledge their wages..

By: Penny

Penny — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:27:46 +0000

Some states make it really easy to get the salary information of every state employee. My research income is available publicly online for anyone know my full name and the state in which I work, and my fiance’s income is online as well. I’d personally feel stranger about my exact salary being known by coworkers at the same level as me than about family and friends, but I understand why they don’t like it. I think having take the effort to look up salaries and doing so on a name by name basis is different than publishing them in the newspaper for people to look at whether they want to or not.

By: Squeezer

Squeezer — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:58:57 +0000

The teacher’s salary is public record. An individual may have to contact the school board or school district’s administration office and ask for a copy of the fiscal year budget, but all the information is there. I think its rare that people do this, and the teacher is just upset that the information is out there easily for everyone to read instead of having to do a little leg work to get it.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:58:47 +0000

Anti-union interests enjoy publishing teachers’ salaries because it can foment anger with the idea that longevity has a bigger effect on salary level than quality has. I think the salaries and benefits of all personnel paid by tax money should be available publicly, including administrators and politicians, and I think these disclosures should include everything like multiple pensions, tax-deferred income, and other ways to “hide” income reporting from tax payers. There’s no need to put names and salaries in a newspaper other than to drum up controversy, and getting upset because some 60 year old teacher getting ready to retire is earning $105,000 when an ineffective administrator is earning $350,000 or a corporate CEO under investigation for defrauding customers is earning $20 million is awfully short-sighted.