Why Connie Neale thought she deserved the big bucks
3 February 2008
RS
6 Comments
If a U-46 driver’s ed teacher is making $127K for 9 months of work, it’s a little easier to understand how Connie Neale thought she deserved $400K to run the whole school district for 12 months out of the year.
Year: 2006
Employee Name: [available here]
Employee Salary: $126,896
Time: Full Time
Months: 09
Percent: 100%
Employment Type: Teacher
Experience: 34 years
Position: High School Teacher
Assignment: Driver Education
Degree: Master’s
Grades: 09 - 12
District: SD U-46
The school salary database is available at thechampion.org, one of Jack Roeser’s websites.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this is just insane.
OK, how much are you suggesting we should pay these folks? And at least their money is right out there for everyone to see. Does Jack Roeser publish his tax returns and income? And how much of it is derived from his Mexican serf labor?
I think the starting wage for a teacher is around $30K. So what something like this seems to show is that to U-46, somebody with three decades of experience is worth 4x more than someone who doesn’t have that experience.
In most industries, you will not see this. In industry, people who make 4x more than the guy just starting out tend to be managers. They’ve moved up the hierarchy. Generally in the private sector, you don’t get rewarded just for having been around a long time.
Experience is worth a lot, but is it worth 4x as much. I think that’s what we have to ask.
And sticking around should be rewarded, but the pension plans of teachers are typically far better than the unfunded pensions that you see in the private sector.
So teachers fare very well if they stick around. They get good pensions and their salaries can rise to 4x that of starting-level teachers. And of course, unlike the private sector they have job security.
I’m no compensation expert, but I think a flatter compensation structure in this situation makes more sense. Reward people upfront to attract good teachers into the system. Raise the starting wage from $30K to $40 or $50K, and after that, keep it adjusted for inflation but otherwise steady. Use the pension to reward people for sticking around, rather than using raises.
Just some half-formed thoughts…
RS, thanks for the “half-formed” but thoughtful and considered response. You ask whether an employee with thirty years experience represents four times the quality of a new employee. The easy answer, of course, is to point to the market. But, moreover, whatever the case may be generally in private industry, I think such a ratio is not unreasonable in professions that are concerned with working with and evaluating people. For example, it’s not unreasonable to believe that a trial lawyer with 34 years of measuring juries, cross examining witnesses and arranging evidence for judges is four times the attorney that his newly-admitted associate is. Which one would you want handling an important case for you? And I can tell you, the compensation scale for lawyers reflects the value of this experience to a degree which can often exceed the factor of four. The United States, of course, has never compensated its public school teachers on a level similar to that of lawyers, but I think the fundamental point still holds true. A teaching professional with a master’s degree and a generation of working with young people under all kinds of circumstances represents a community treasure.
I cannot agree either about your comments on flattening the compensation scale. Simply put, 50K a year for someone with at least five years of university education and 34 years of solid professional experience is a derisory salary. It is not sufficient to support a middle-class family or lifestyle, and its mere suggestion represents the sort of grinding economic and social attrition facing middle class Americans. Public school teachers represent one of the few remaining vestiges of mainstream, middle class life in the Elgin area. When they go, what will be left?
For all my comments, I’m no unqualified supporter of teacher’s unions or the sort of NEA-IEA drone that constantly demands that everything will be just fine if teachers just get more money and are never held accountable for their products. Nevertheless, it is particularly galling to see that these attacks on public school teachers and their compensation are coming from the direction of the grossly-rich Roesers. This is a family that is reeping huge profits while poisoning our communities through their greed and destruction of middle-class wage scales and environments. But don’t take my word for it. Anyone wondering why the Fox Valley is an increasing wasteland of crime and poverty should read the article “Our Town” in the New York Times Magazine of August 5, 2007. Just google it, it’s online. You’ll learn how Tom Roeser pays even 28-year employees only $10 an hour because that’s all factories like Otto Engineering need to pay when they have such ready access to cheap Mexican peon labor. In the meantime Roeser drives around in an Aston-Martin. If you haven’t been in the market for one recently, they start at around $110,000. Obviously, “flattened” wage scales are very profitable for a few Americans. But is that the kind of economic and social structure we should be encouraging?
Thanks for mentioning the “Our Town” article. I can’t believe I missed that.
You made some good points, by the way, RM.