Thanks to a
well written article in Sunday's Daily Times (along with a very interesting supplement on pages A6-A7), discussion of the Wicomico County Board of Education's (WCBOE) Early Notification Program (ENP) should take a dramatic turn. The WCBOE's stated purposes for the ENP are simple: retention (especially for those with 20 - 25 years of service) and HR planning. However, it is the supplemental information provided that should give the greatest cause for concern.
On pages A6 and A7 of the printed edition of the Daily Times is a list of WCBOE employees with 25+ years of service. Should the salary levels shock the average taxpayer of Wicomico County? No. By themselves they should not be cause for great concern. However, taken in context, this information should (at least) be grist for the grinder of public discussion.
Let's remember, the average teacher works less than nine (9) months of the year. There's the summer vacation plus all of those Holiday's and breaks that the average private sector worker doesn't get off, much less paid for. Let's take one example. There is a third grade teacher whose salary is listed as $80,179. Annualized, that salary is $107,000. Administrative personnel are (hopefully) a slightly different matter because (again, hopefully) they are "working" twelve months per year. Of course that's not really the case because I do know that they still get most (if not all) of these other holidays and breaks (plus vacation).
The next time you read a letter to the editor from some poor teacher claiming that they have to work as a waitress over the summer "just to make ends meet" at least be more of a skeptic. I'm actually more concerned for the single mom who has to work all year as a waitress and has to pay taxes to provide those teacher salaries.
As a political conservative I don't buy into the typical class warfare arguments. Again, the salary level by themselves shouldn't be cause for alarm. However, where else (besides the Federal government) can you get a job that pays an annualized six figure salary; from which it is almost impossible to be dismissed for poor job performance; where you have great benefits; and where a good share of your medical benefits are paid in retirement?
As I stated
in a previous post, if WCBOE teachers and staff want salary levels commensurate with the private sector then their jobs should truly be equivalent to the private sector. That means:
For top level staff, they should be held accountable for the millions of taxpayer dollars they spend. Productivity in the bureaucracy should be one of the core benchmarks against which they are measured. How much money would be saved each year if the hierarchy were flattened out and the same (or more) work was accomplished with half to two-thirds of the personnel. That's what's occurred in the private sector over the last 20 years. Of course that would mean that an EdD (PhD in education) would automatically disqualify an individual from being a superintendent. I can hear the shirt tearing coming from our universities now.
For mid, and lower, level staff there should be NO benefit for seniority. Merit and/or productivity should rule the roost - 100%. Of course you will hear all sorts of the reasons that this can't work from the education bureaucracy. Don't worry, I'll address those later.
For teachers, the remedies are just a bit different. Teachers are, in effect, the infantry. They do the work that matters. Everything else is a support function. Don't get me wrong. Many, but definitely not all, of these other positions are necessary. However, the bottom line is that a school system is supposed to teach our children.
Teachers should be well paid. Teacher pay should NOT be determined solely by seniority. If there is a shortage of math teachers or science teachers then they should be paid more than teachers in areas where there is no shortage (a point made by
the Daily Times editorial in Sunday's edition). Tenure should be abolished outright. Teachers should be forced to maintain competence, not only in teaching, but in their core subject area.
There should be merit pay. I constantly hear all of the arguments against it. "You can't trust the principal to evaluate fairly", etc. How do you think it works in the private sector? If a manager (principal) keeps rewarding his buddies instead of the best teachers, then the best teachers will transfer to another school or leave for another system. When top management sees the discrepancy the principal should be FIRED, not merely transferred (which is what happens today at the WCBOE). Of course there are inefficiencies; but in the long run they are worked out of the system.
Teachers should be evaluated on RESULTS. Now, that has to vary depending on the teacher's subject or pupil base. A special ed teacher can't be expected to deliver test results equal to a teacher who's students are classified as "gifted". However, don't tell me that metrics can't be established for measuring these types of activities. Has the public education community ever heard of "Six Sigma"?
Of course there should also be core changes in the curriculum, like making kids read. I get sick to my stomach every time my son, who graduated from the county schools, or one of my nieces or nephews tells me about something that they learned in school and I find out that they watched a movie. Movies are what you watch on the weekend after all of your school work is done. Movies don't claim to be historically accurate or true to the work on which they are based. But in this day our kids are learning
Moby Dick from watching "that
Star Trek dude" (they mean the version starring Patrick Stewart, which is supposedly the truest to Melville's novel). And we wonder why Johnny can't read?
These are just a few possible solutions, and I readily admit that they primarily focus around pay. There are many more solutions out there and many (most?) of them are worthy of consideration. The question remains - what are we willing to do to improve our public schools? I'm willing to do a lot, including pay higher taxes, IF the WCBOE was serious about fixing the problems of our schools. Unfortunately, I do not believe that there is the political will on the part of the school board (particularly under an O'Malley administration) to actually address these problems. The answer from the MSTA is always a simple one - spend more money. We need only look across the Bay to the DC school system to see that throwing money at a problem is not a solution.
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
Technorati Tags: Maryland, Wicomico, politics, Wicomico politics, education, MSTA, teacher, pay, benefits, curriculum, merit pay, Daily Times, Gannett
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