Never fear. The government is here to help you. In today's case, it is the good folk at the Wicomico Board of Education (WCBOE) who are colluding with our own local version of Pravda to pick the pocket of the average, hard working citizen of Wicomico County.
The folks over at the WCBOE are going to scrimp and save to help fix a problem of their own making - a $2 million shortfall in the county budget which the board and Supt. John Fredericksen exacerbated by fighting the county's request of a waiver of the state momentum of effort (MOE) rules. The Daily Times wants us to somehow believe that the WCBOE are the champions of our children.
It's interesting. Just last week the WCBOE voted to increase the taxpayer paid portion of retiree healthcare benefits from 55% to 70%. Only board president Robin Holloway dissented. Yet, the $357,000 of taxpayer money to be spent on yet another juicy benefit for government workers and retirees would amount to almost 18% of the $2 million budget hole. The county's budget will have been adopted before the public even gets a chance to find out whether Wicomico County teachers and staff will receive a pay increase next year, and how much.
Where does Fredericksen plan on realizing savings? By deferring needed maintenance on school buildings, reducing school supplies and cutting school programs the WCBOE proves two things:
Public education in Wicomico County is about a lot of things, but it ISN'T For The Children .Public education in Wicomico County IS about keeping the board's four employee unions happy .
I'm sure that Fredericksen and company will argue that we have to remain competetive in order to attract and retain teachers. Maybe. However, in a down economy this argument is specious to the point of being laughable. A few miles north, in Delaware, school district after school district has announced PAY CUTS, EMPLOYEE FURLOUGHS, and even EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS. In neighboring and nearby states, teachers are paid less than what teachers earn here, yet we are told that our teachers and staff are grossly underpaid. The wage inflation spiral caused by this sad argument has finally caught up to us in tough economic times. It may actually come down to an ambulance not reaching its destination in time to save a life so that artificially high wages can be maintained at the WCBOE.
I know. Supt. Fredericksen and his faithful acolytes will claim that this argument is ridiculous. Really? I recall a conversation with some members of the Salisbury Career Firefighters a couple of years ago where they shared some comparative salary data with a group of ordinary citizens who were (and still are) fighting to get these people well deserved pay increases. Firefighters in Ocean City are paid 40%+ more than their counterparts in Salisbury. Yet, Salisbury is still able to hire personnel. Sure, their retention rate could be higher, but that is a consequence that must be endured until Salisbury can find the money to pay its public safety personnel better. Additionally, the good men and women at the SFD aren't staging "work actions" like the teachers in Delmar, DE who are upset at a small pay cut.
Back to the Daily Worker on the Wicomico. Reading today's piece we are to believe that Fredericken and company are heroes. However, we need to remember that this coverage is literally in a vacuum. Where was reporter Candice Evans last week when a majority of the WCBOE essentially gave county taxpayers the finger? She sure wasn't at the board of ed meeting.
While we have all read about the problems between the Worcester Board of Ed and Worcester's County Commissioners, the Daily Times has been mute. While we have read coverage of the Indian River school district and pay raises for their teachers. Did any of you read about the retiree healthcare windfall in Wicomico? Now I know that Daily Times managing editor Erick Sahler SWEARS that coverage, or lack thereof, of the WCBOE has NOTHING to do with the fact that his wife is the board's public information officer.
Unfortunately, I consider myself a rational human being. I believe that coincidence is rare. Given the fair amount of coverage given to neighboring boards of ed, particularly in the past few months, I am more than skeptical about the Daily Times' relationship with our local school board. I'm reminded of piece I wrote almost two years ago where I criticized Sahler and his boss for continually failing to disclose their relationships to people or entities that they cover (at the time Executive Editor Greg Bassett's wife was Communications Director for then-Rep. Wayne Gilchrest). Sahler's response was essentially that if he had disclose his relationship with his wife he would also have to disclose that Op-Ed editor Susan Parker is in the symphony everytime the paper mentioned a concert. Sophistry at its worst.
We need fair, balanced, coverage of our county's third largest employer. Instead, we receive none ... or the lopsided pablum we enjoyed under the Barrie Tilghman administration (and seem to keep getting under the reign of the pretenders - Barrie Comegys and Princess Louise).
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
The folks over at the WCBOE are going to scrimp and save to help fix a problem of their own making - a $2 million shortfall in the county budget which the board and Supt. John Fredericksen exacerbated by fighting the county's request of a waiver of the state momentum of effort (MOE) rules. The Daily Times wants us to somehow believe that the WCBOE are the champions of our children.
It's interesting. Just last week the WCBOE voted to increase the taxpayer paid portion of retiree healthcare benefits from 55% to 70%. Only board president Robin Holloway dissented. Yet, the $357,000 of taxpayer money to be spent on yet another juicy benefit for government workers and retirees would amount to almost 18% of the $2 million budget hole. The county's budget will have been adopted before the public even gets a chance to find out whether Wicomico County teachers and staff will receive a pay increase next year, and how much.
Where does Fredericksen plan on realizing savings? By deferring needed maintenance on school buildings, reducing school supplies and cutting school programs the WCBOE proves two things:
I'm sure that Fredericksen and company will argue that we have to remain competetive in order to attract and retain teachers. Maybe. However, in a down economy this argument is specious to the point of being laughable. A few miles north, in Delaware, school district after school district has announced PAY CUTS, EMPLOYEE FURLOUGHS, and even EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS. In neighboring and nearby states, teachers are paid less than what teachers earn here, yet we are told that our teachers and staff are grossly underpaid. The wage inflation spiral caused by this sad argument has finally caught up to us in tough economic times. It may actually come down to an ambulance not reaching its destination in time to save a life so that artificially high wages can be maintained at the WCBOE.
I know. Supt. Fredericksen and his faithful acolytes will claim that this argument is ridiculous. Really? I recall a conversation with some members of the Salisbury Career Firefighters a couple of years ago where they shared some comparative salary data with a group of ordinary citizens who were (and still are) fighting to get these people well deserved pay increases. Firefighters in Ocean City are paid 40%+ more than their counterparts in Salisbury. Yet, Salisbury is still able to hire personnel. Sure, their retention rate could be higher, but that is a consequence that must be endured until Salisbury can find the money to pay its public safety personnel better. Additionally, the good men and women at the SFD aren't staging "work actions" like the teachers in Delmar, DE who are upset at a small pay cut.
Back to the Daily Worker on the Wicomico. Reading today's piece we are to believe that Fredericken and company are heroes. However, we need to remember that this coverage is literally in a vacuum. Where was reporter Candice Evans last week when a majority of the WCBOE essentially gave county taxpayers the finger? She sure wasn't at the board of ed meeting.
While we have all read about the problems between the Worcester Board of Ed and Worcester's County Commissioners, the Daily Times has been mute. While we have read coverage of the Indian River school district and pay raises for their teachers. Did any of you read about the retiree healthcare windfall in Wicomico? Now I know that Daily Times managing editor Erick Sahler SWEARS that coverage, or lack thereof, of the WCBOE has NOTHING to do with the fact that his wife is the board's public information officer.
Unfortunately, I consider myself a rational human being. I believe that coincidence is rare. Given the fair amount of coverage given to neighboring boards of ed, particularly in the past few months, I am more than skeptical about the Daily Times' relationship with our local school board. I'm reminded of piece I wrote almost two years ago where I criticized Sahler and his boss for continually failing to disclose their relationships to people or entities that they cover (at the time Executive Editor Greg Bassett's wife was Communications Director for then-Rep. Wayne Gilchrest). Sahler's response was essentially that if he had disclose his relationship with his wife he would also have to disclose that Op-Ed editor Susan Parker is in the symphony everytime the paper mentioned a concert. Sophistry at its worst.
We need fair, balanced, coverage of our county's third largest employer. Instead, we receive none ... or the lopsided pablum we enjoyed under the Barrie Tilghman administration (and seem to keep getting under the reign of the pretenders - Barrie Comegys and Princess Louise).
cross posted at Delmarva Dealings
21 comments:
What a scam. I swear, teachers are getting more like doctors and lawyers (dictators) everyday.
Read this post and attached data for the real picture:
http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/05/very-disturbing-data-on-wicomico.html
Data released by the State for FY 2009 shows the total per student as follows:
15,922 - Worcester
14,010 - Somerset
13,785 - Statewide Average
12,627 - Dorchester
12,394 - Wicomico
And in terms of the portion provided by local funding (County budget) rather than from State or Federal funding:
11,475 - Worcester (72%)
6,597 - Statewide Average (48%)
4,034 - Dorchester (33%)
3,337 - Wicomico (29%)
3,447 - Somerset (24%)
Looks like we have a very efficient system here in Wicomico, but much greater reliance on state and federal funds than most places -- two-thirds of the funds for Wicomico's schools come from State or Federal sources, compared to the statewide average of 47%.
Go ahead and keep on whining because the data shows you're flat wrong.
GA:
You can move to those other states anytime!
to anonymous who hates doctors... don't use one and done see any. Doctors go to school for 12-16 years POST high school. If we don't deserve to make money then who does???
If you want untrained, uneducated, underfunded, and hideous care.. go to Cuba or North Korea.. it's free care but they don't even have band-aids...
Good luck with your jealously and antagonism
Anon 1119 -
It's pretty obvious that either you work for the government (probably WCBOE given the rapid fire delivery of that data) or a family member does. I am willing to accept the accuracy of it. However, your argument is based on several faulty assumptions.
First, just because Wicomico spends less per pupil than Worcester, or even the state average, does not mean that Wicomico is efficient. It may be true that they are MORE efficient than other counties, but still not as efficient as they should be. However, this would only be true IF each county spent their budget on EXACTLY the same things. That is definitely NOT the case. It may also be true, and probably so, that a county like Worcester chooses spend money on things that Wicomico chooses NOT to spend money on. Go to a track meet at SDHS and see but one small example.
Second, we have to question what you gage as efficiency. While there is some salary disparity between Worcester and Wicomico for teachers (less than $100 per annum for a starting teacher and just over $4,000 pa at the highest grade), that obviously doesn't account for most of the per pupil spending disparity. It's possible that Wicomico is more efficient, or just a probable that Worcester spends more in the classroom. I doubt either one of us knows.
Third, the percentage of state vs. federal vs. local revenue coming to the WCBOE has nothing to do with efficiency. Money is money. Let's face it, if 100% of the WCBOE's revenue was local, and they were given $30,000 per pupil, the WCBOE would still manage to spend EVERY nickel and in a couple of years we'd be hearing how impoverished they are ovr there.
It's the nature of GOVERNMENT.
Anon 1117 -
I have to concur with Anon 1132. For disclosure, several members of my family are doctors. However, unless you are fairly old you will see what happens to the world's greatest healthcare system when all vestiges of the market are taken away and doctors become de facto civil servants.
We'll be wishing we had Canada's system.
GA with all your research, you still don't know enough to make a valid debate, go back get "ALL" your data before you continue
This is just another example of wasteful government spending of OUR money. The only thing government is efficient at is stealing our money. Maybe we should put the WCBOE on our list of compliants at our July 4th Tea Party. Officials must be held accountable for their decisions and lack of honesty, integrity and dependency on the ignorance of many in the public.
The comment regarding Teachers, Doctors and Lawyers was not meant as a shot at earnings. It was meant as a shot at ego.
To G.A.
Susan Parker used to be employed by the BOE also as I saw her name on a BOE salary list.
Talk about slanted coverage.
GA-11:19 copied and pasted from another post-it's been posted here before
11:19am Just wondering, do you think the state and federal gov'ts providing the education money have a Magic Money tree that they don't bother sharing with the local gov't?
"While there is some salary disparity between Worcester and Wicomico for teachers (less than $100 per annum for a starting teacher and just over $4,000 pa at the highest grade)"
You also fail to point out that Worcester hits the highest grade at year 16, while Wicomico hits top pay at year 28. Compare the two salary scales at year 16 and see that Worcester is $8,000 a year more fo a Master's plus 30.
http://www.wcboe.org/departments/HR/Pdfs/Salary%20Scales/Teacher%20Salary%2008-09.pdf
http://www.worcester.k12.md.us/human_resources/2007_salary_schedule.htm
Isn't it "Maintenance of Effort" instead of "Momentum of Effort"?
You coulda jsut stopped at "We need fair, balanced, coverage."
Joe Carmean's cozy relationship with Mike Dunn means there's never fair coverage of Debbie Campbell. Or Terry Cohen either, for that matter.
Dunn, aka the Wizard of TTLane, is over on the Slob Blog bashing Jim Ireton. (I finally looked out of curiosity. What skanks.)
"In neighboring and nearby states, teachers are paid less than what teachers earn here, yet we are told that our teachers and staff are grossly underpaid. "
Gee, there's a word you purposely didn't use in that sentence, isn't there, G.A? And that word is COUNTIES.
Had you inserted the word 'counties' in your list, it would have been a false statement. Many, many teachers leave Wicomico not for Delaware or Virginia, but for Worcester COUNTY. The pay is higher there, and it escalates faster.
Businesses have to compete for employees based on salary. It's part of the free market. School systems do, too. And you purposefully left out a rather key piece of data that disproved your premise.
I see what you did there, G.A. :)
4:17pm, if you want a free market comparison, then for $12,000 I get a better deal from the private schools here in the county. DE and VA residents are able to live in DE or VA and work in MD, so it may be that DE or VA residents may want to teach in Wicomico County MD if the pay is better here, so by your own admission, the free market should still work for us in WC, disproving your own theory.
However, this is not a theory, no matter how much the county puts in- each and every dime comes from a tax payer even if the check has state or federal written on it.
I'm with you G. A. You have made a very well analyzed argument against the usual demands for more funding for the BOE. I'm all for the children getting a good, safe education in our schools, but what the unions have done is make it only possible if they bleed us tax payers dry!!
4:28
Your right, some do come to Wicomico County from other areas to get better pay and benefits. However, after they are here awhile and see that they can do better, they move on again. Most teachers are not from this area and would think nothing of moving to other areas, as not too many are homegrown Eastern Shore. Judging by the comments on this blog, there isn't much support for teachers around here; so why stay? Also many come from Pennsylvania and go back there to teach.
@428,
You are correct. That is the reason why wiCOMICo's pay starts so high. With SU, UMES, etc. so close by, there is always a large young force to pull from. Wicomico pays the least for substitutes for the same reason... As a perso gains experience, they do seem to move on.
With reguards to the rest of the debate, go visit your local school. See teachers working on overhead projectors from the 1950's, see students having more technology in their pockets that the rest of the classroom, then ask yourself how students are really being prepared for the 21st century.
Further, I believe our schools can be vastly improved through means that cost absolutely 0$. Solve parent apathy. We have so many whose responses are 'they are your problem during the day.' We have so many in foster care, living with extended family members... and they need a lot of help.
It is 100% true that it takes a village to raise a child, yet if you have tried to correct a child in public recently... no doubt the parent chases you down and yelled at you instead of the child.
Let us start by supporting one another, then go back and argue over the money.
Why don't we look at the real reason that this is a discussion at all.......the revenue cap; not a tax cap, as it was sold to the public.
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