As I wrote about earlier my local school district Anoka-Hennepin (AH) is pushing hard to pass a new levy. While no one is doubting (least of all me) that AH will experience real cuts if the levys all fail, What I do question is how the money is spent and if it is right to force everyone to pay exorbitant prices (over $9,000 per student) for a mediocre education - if not actually Dumbing Us Down
Over at Truth V. The Machine (TvM) in Education Funding and My Levy several key points are mentioned:
...where does the money go? When you buy a box of “education”, what are you buying?
Looking at the same document, for 05-06, the district spent 48.5% on Instruction-Salaries. Add in benefits and “All Other”, (not sure what that is), that number goes to 68.3%.
Add in Instructional and Pupil Support Services, that number goes to 76.9%.
Add in School Level Administration, that number goes to 81.5%.
In other words, let’s be clear. When we go to “support the children”, or “invest in property values”, or buy a box of “education,” we’re talking primarily about increasing teacher salaries and benefits
TvM was able to dig up some interesting facts regarding teacher salaries over the past several years:
The Minnesota School Board Association website does have teacher salary averages for the districts. You can find that here. Here’s a summary of the data there for District 11.
School Year BAMIN BAMAX ST MAMIN MAMAX ST AVG TP% 1999-2000 $28,854 $44,223 12 $32,036 $51,457 12 $3,001 5.31% 2000-2001 $30,702 $45,992 11 $34,129 $53,515 11 $3,380 5.68% 2001-2002 $31,316 $46,912 11 $34,812 $54,585 11 $2,603 4.22% 2002-2003 $32,000 $47,875 11 $35,600 $56,225 11 $3,648 5.68% 2003-2004 $32,480 $49,300 12 $36,045 $58,800 12 $3,683 5.60% 2004-2005 $33,942 $49,400 11 $37,744 $58,800 11 $3,071 4.42% 2005-2006 $34,621 $50,759 11 $38,499 $60,711 11 $3,804 5.46% 2006-2007 $35,962 $51,774 10 $40,705 $61,925 10 $3,182 4.33%
I believe (but am not sure) that TP is for total package. But, you can see increases every year. Some of those increases came in years when the state was running a deficit. (From 02 to 05, the basic revenue amount stayed put at $4,601.)
That's some decent salary increases., not a dry year in the bunch. This is again the problem with public education. It does not have to be bothered by market forces, you want 5% salary increases every-single-year, well if you have enough lobbying power, you got it! However, this year the State backed off and, while AH is not actually getting less money from the State, it is getting a smaller increase than it has in the past. It looks to me like this levy simply ensures automatic yearly salary increases
Here is what I propose: Give all children the choice to pick the school they want, then give them the money to go do it. I mean any school, public, private, homeschool. Why are we forced by our tax dollars to pay huge amounts of money for a poor education? Let the money follow the student and you will find an amazing revival in education in the this country. Until that time we will continue to pay more and more for a worse and worse education. If we have freedom of choice for school, there would no longer be a need to be worried about the Teacher's Union. If they can help provide a good education then the students will come, if not they will find the solution that works for them. But, again don't expect the Teacher's Unions pushing anything that would help the children, remember they are The Teachers Union, not the Children's Union, even though they love to hide behind the backs of our children.
Vote No on the levy until we have freedom of choice for our schools.
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4 comments:
If you're only paying $9000, you're getting off easy. We're paying $15,000 per student here. And our schools are not useable. The graduation rate and scores on standardized test are appalling.
I agree, give each child a voucher for school, allow parents to choose (choice is a big liberal thing isn't it?) and we will see costs go down and quality go up.
Do you realize the choice people make to be educators? Have you ever thought about how difficult it may be to teach 30-40 kids who are all at different levels of ability? People that choose the profession of teaching are not "rolling in dough" as you've implied by the salary schedule. If someone was in it for the money, why then would a math major choose teaching over using being a software developer or an analyst? I don't know of many careers where a raise is not given each year, or where the starting salary is much higher than that of a teachers.Your comments are amazingly ignorant.
Teachers for the most part are fairly paid.
A couple of points: First, most teachers have degrees in Education. They are not math (or biology or literature, etc) majors who then decide to teach. They always intended to teach. University departments of education have become cess pools with very poor academic standards. I believe that teachers should not have degrees in education. They should have specific degrees with perhaps a minor in education or some 6-9 month course which teaches them how to teach. Close the departments of education.
Secondly, they teach for only 9 months a year. Very few other jobs allow for this much time off and to boot, they get holidays throughout the year.
Most public school systems have excellent benefits. Many if not most have opted out of Social Security for their own pension fund.
We need not cry for teachers. They deserve respect for the work they do, but they are more than fairly compensated.
ND - In what way am I ignorant? I wasn't stating that it was amazing that they got increases at all, I was stating that their % increases have been quite nice and better than any careers that I know of in recent years (let me know if you think I am wrong)
The rest of the state workers in MN have had several years of salary freezes due to budget issues, but not teachers.
I made no comment about the 'fairness' of teachers salaries, maybe there to high, maybe they are too low; rich correctly points out they aren't working an entire year so despite the fact that they work hard (at least I believe most of them do) the rest of the year there are some nice benefits to being a teacher that are worth something in pay. But the truth is we don't really know because their salaries are not dependent what the free market will pay for their services.
I have a right to critique their pay scale because they are not driven by market forces, the rest of society is, so I would not have any problem if other careers got increases of a whole lot more than 5%
Maybe they would get paid more if we gave tax credits or vouchers to students to buy their own education? What I do know is that they will be paid what they are 'worth', whatever that may be.
Finally - I know exactly what choice is made to be educators. My mother, sister, mother-in-law, brother-in-law and two sister-in-laws are all in education. Four of those actually work for the Anoka-Hennepin School District. Do you know what sacrifices people make to homeschool their kids? I think it mya be you who are speaking from ignorance.
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