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Try o get any bureaucracy to cut back. There are about as many general officers in the military today as back in WWII when we had 12 million people in uniform. But the public schools are much over-administered. The ratio of administrators to classroom teachers is about 1-10, which is about the same as officers to enlisted in the military. Yet all the teachers are college graduates. They shouldn’t require what amounts to close supervision. When he was education secretary, Bill Bennet dubbed school administration “the blob” because it ate up such a large proportion of federal funding. The trouble is that politicians are not likely to listen to such talk because school superintendents have lockers right next to them at the country club and next to them are the leaders of the teachers’ unions. The “Iron Triangle” has nothings on these guys, and we see the same things in state capitals. Even conservative Republicans mindlessly repeat the mantra, “our schools need more money.” That’s because school districts have cut all the kindergarten teachers and aides they can and want to hire a new asst. Superintendent.

Absolutely - remember also, many administrators do not supervise the teachers. They shuffle papers from one department to another and become involved in their little wars over who will be the next principal / superintendent. Those not directly involved in all that are busy testing the students and implementing indoctrinations from the NEA. Public education is a HUGE and mostly unexamined industry.

And, this is only anecdotal, but am I the only one out there who knows multiple NEA members who are biding their time for a few years, slumming it out in the classroom, waiting for their turn as an administrator (i.e. - finally get to make six figures)?

I’ve seen the income data on these school admin. folk.

It is likely similar to the military: about 5x to7x (or more) the income of a starting teacher.

The numbers used to astound me, until I saw some of their benefit plans. They are beyond anything offered by any government or company. They tag along with union bargained benefits for that district, even though admin is non-union.