Texas (and the country) has a huge deficit when it comes to educational funding. We just don’t have the money. Thousands of teaching jobs were cut last year and the ones who did keep their jobs have to deal with higher student ratios in their classrooms. So we have more kids in each room, fewer teachers and, don’t panic, the STARR test.
I figured out how to solve the problem. Well, part of the problem anyway.
This chart shows the salary of Superintendents in several districts of Texas. Keep in mind these figures are for the smaller districts (See the numbers under “Enrollment”? That really is the number of students enrolled in the entire district. We’re talking 1A.)
I didn’t know surperintendents were paid according to how many students were in their district. Why is that? They don’t actually have to deal with any of them. It’s not like they’re trying to teach in a classroom of 25. Why do they get paid for number of students but not the teachers?
But I digress.
If the superintendent of Beaumont ISD is paid over three hundred thousand a year, and football coaches in Texas are paid over 100K on average, but teachers in Beaumont ISD can only earn an annual income of $63,844 and that’s only if they’ve been working 30+ years and have earned a doctorate, then I think we should change the rules.
Christine’s Theorem
Let x equal the highest paid teacher’s salary in a district and y equal the football coaches’ salaries and z equal the superintendent’s salary.
Let X = Y = Z. Problem solved.
No one should be paid higher than the highest paid teacher in a district. This will result in one of two solutions (or some crazy combination of both):
Either A) there will be an across the board salary schedule adjustment in each district, or B) hundreds of thousands of dollars will be saved, which could be put to much better use. Such as mentor programs, technology, books for classroom libraries, better food programs, hiring more teachers to lower class sizes, school gardens, recycling programs, music, theater, dance, and art programs, scholarship funds, life skills training (kids these days really need it), teacher training, early childhood reading programs, etc.
Wouldn’t it be great if education was more important to everyone than football games and having fancy houses?
Just imagine.
Hope you’re having a lovely day.
I totally agree. Thing about coaches (and band directors for that matter)--they're paid a stipend because of all the extra hours they put in after school hours are over with practices. Now if they'd just have practice during the normal school day, would it really matter to those programs? But that's the way it's always been done. Can we change the system to work for everybody? Or will we?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know band directors were paid a stipend as well. I can understand that, extra practice after school and during the summer, so a reasonable stipend makes sense. But I just don't think a 40,000 dollar stipend is reasonable. That's another salary. (Basing these numbers off my above quoted figures.)If they gave teachers a choice, higher salary or more money in the school system, I would choose more money in the system. I was very thankful to have a job with a salary, and could live quite comfortably on it. Raises would be nice but really I think what teachers want more than ever is support, leadership, and resources.
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