Free Republic

In the tiny Hockinson School District, the budget gap is $250,000. For Vancouver Public Schools, the shortfall is more like $4 million, officials say. In the Evergreen district, it’s at least $1.6 million. Across Clark County and Washington state, school districts are feeling the pinch of a large cost-of-living pay hike for teachers and other workers, approved by state legislators earlier this year.

A New York City charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights will test one of the most fundamental questions in education: Whether significantly higher pay for teachers is the key to improving schools. The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades, is promising to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. That is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most senior teachers...

Panel OKs bill on teachers' raises A Senate panel voted unanimously Thursday to approve a bill to raise state teachers' salaries to the national average. Senate Bill 267, sponsored by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, would cost the state more than $400 million this year alone if it's approved. That doesn't include the local share, which would come down on cities and counties. SB 267 now goes to the Senate Finance Committee, where a tight budget year makes its passage unlikely. But Deeds, who has requested a budget amendment to accompany the measure, said the stated intent is what matters....

January 6, 2008 Dear xxxxxx, I think it safe to say that all were disappointed and angry to learn that Governor Kaine’s budget included no funds for a salary increase for teachers in the 2008-09 school year. The fact that the budget doubled the teacher licensure fees when we are getting no salary increase added insult to injury. Having said that, our energy, as this point is best directed at those who can amend the budget bill, your Delegate and your Senator. The Governor proposes and the General Assembly disposes. Our battle is uphill, but it is worth fighting. Even...

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) - Performance-based merit pay for teachers is a bad idea, Hillary Rodham Clinton told Iowa teachers on Monday. School uniforms for kids, however, is worth looking at. Merit pay for teachers "could be demeaning and discouraging, and who would decide" who would receive it, she said in a meeting with teachers at Cunningham Elementary. "It would open a whole lot of problems." Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner nationally, is in a tight race with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in Iowa. Merit pay is a clear point of disagreement with Obama....

Thank you for contacting me regarding compensation for teachers. A sound public education system is an important step toward our goal that all children have an equal opportunity to learn, to succeed and to improve their futures. Quality teachers are essential for a successful public education system, and I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this matter. Educators should be rewarded for their unrelenting work to help our children succeed. In an effort to help hard-working teachers, I support measures giving states and local education agencies the funding needed to reward those closest to students. One such program,...

House votes to put teacher pay before tax cut By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer AUSTIN — The Texas House, faced with a decision on further reducing school property tax rates, gave tentative approval Thursday to a measure that would give teachers a $6,000 pay raise before the reduction could kick in. There's no money in the bill for the teacher pay raise, which also would apply to full-time librarians, counselors and school nurses. The leader of the Senate declared the raise proposal dead. Democratic Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco added the teacher pay provision, with the overwhelming approval of...

...systematic data on how much public school teachers are paid, relative to other white-collar professionals. [snip] Among the key findings of this report: According to the BLS, the average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005. The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker. Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and...

A growing body of research shows teacher quality is the most important factor in academic progress Teacher quality matters, enormously. Dr. William Sanders, the leading researcher in the field of value-added assessment, explains, "Race, socioeconomic level, class size, and classroom heterogeneity are poor predictors of student academic growth. Rather, the effectiveness of the teacher is the major determinant of student academic progress." In other words, some teachers really do make all the difference. Dr. Sanders finds evidence that racial achievement gaps are strongly influenced by the distribution of effective teachers, writing, "African American students and white students with the same...

Myths aren't lies. They are beliefs that people adopt because they have an air of plausibility. But myths aren't true, and they often get in the way during serious problem-solving. This essay identifies seven common myths that dominate established views of education these days. Dispelling these misconceptions could open the door to long-awaited improvement in our nationÍs schools. The money myth If people know anything about public schools today, it's that they are strapped for cash. Bestselling books, popular movies, and countless lobbying groups portray urban schools as desperately underfunded, and editors of the New York Times write without fear...

One of the ongoing controversies in the public schools is the issue of teacher salaries. Teachers largely claim they are too low while taxpayers are equally vehement that they are more than adequate. (snip) Then there are the actual salary levels. Statistics in 2005 showed the average teacher salary in the nation was $46,762, ranging from a low of $33,236 in South Dakota to $57,337 in Connecticut. Even this ignores the additional compensation teachers receive as fringe benefits, which may add an additional 33% or more to the costs, primarily for very good retirement and health coverage plans. Further, averages...

More than a dozen D.C. public school system central office administrators are taking home base salaries of at least $150,000 per year, compared with just one official earning that much two years ago, according to an analysis of payroll records. The salary information, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, shows 14 central administration officials receiving a base pay of at least $150,000 in fiscal 2006, including five officials making $170,000 or more. By comparison, pay records approved by the Board of Education in July 2004 show only one administrator -- former interim Superintendent Elfreda Massie -- earning at least...

WINTER HAVEN -- The modern reality of teaching in Florida schools makes Bess Lott, a 32-year veteran, wonder whether she'd choose teaching as a career if she had it to do over. Constant paperwork, comparatively low pay and FCAT pressure are all headaches, said the third-grade teacher at Winter Haven's Snively Elementary School of Choice. But e-comp, the Department of Education's performance pay proposal, is the final straw, she said. "They're talking about our salaries," she said....

If you would like to know the 2005-06 individual salaries/benefits for the teachers and other staff in your school district, you can find them at the link below. The data is provided by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. It is organized in Excel spreadsheets or PDFs, alphabetically by district. The files may take a moment or two to load. Is it right to publish teacher salaries? Our decision to publish a database of salaries for public school teachers and other employees for the first time last year generated a fair amount of discussion on local blogs, including...

The combination of higher starting salaries and longer-serving educators has kept Arlington’s average teacher salary above all other Northern Virginia jurisdictions this year, and more than 40 percent higher than the average salary for teachers statewide and nationwide. The Arlington school system has budgeted for an average teacher salary of $66,308 for the current fiscal year, according to figures released Nov. 30 by the Virginia Department of Education. That’s up from $61,407 actually spent per teacher in the past school year, and up from $60,014 two years ago. Teachers with the most seniority and advanced degrees can earn upwards of...

<p>Headmasters of the Bay State's elite prep schools now command such high pay and perks, including low-interest home loans, that a few surpass the pay of some university and college heads.</p> <p>Article Tools Printer friendly Single page E-mail to a friend Education RSS feed Available RSS feeds Most e-mailed Reprints/permissions More: Globe Education stories | Education section | Globe front page | Boston.com Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Pay packages that five years ago were still in the $200,000 range are leaping past the $300,000 mark at some schools, making Massachusetts headmasters among the highest-paid in the nation, according to federal financial records and the National Association of Independent Schools.</p>

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has proposed a package of education reforms--including merit pay for some public school teachers--for consideration this fall by the Massachusetts legislature. At press time, the legislature's Joint Committee on Education was expected to hold hearings on the proposal by the end of the year. "If we're serious about keeping our kids at the forefront of a highly challenging and competitive world economy, then we have to take the necessary steps to energize our education system," Romney said in a September 22 statement accompanying the new education proposals. The package of education reforms includes a program...

The most-qualified Los Angeles Unified teachers work predominantly in schools serving high-income, white students, creating a "massive maldistribution of funds" at the expense of Latino and African-American students in poorer neighborhoods, a report released today says. The Education Trust-West said teachers in high-poverty Los Angeles elementary schools earn $1,589 less per year _ and those in high-poverty middle schools earn $1,826 less per year _ than their counterparts in more affluent areas. Teachers in low-income high schools, however, earn $159 a year more than their counterparts in higher-income schools, the study found. Similar salary gaps were found in the rest...

Pinellas is stingy with extra pay; Hillsborough's more generous. State officials insist that bonuses be paid everywhere. ...........Those who support performance pay say it's the existing system that makes no sense. "Every time there's more money on the table, everybody gets an equal share, regardless of their contribution or ability," Warford said. The public wants teachers to be paid more, "but I don't think they want to see every teacher paid more; the very best and the very worst."

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill is getting a $2,150 raise this fiscal year as a faculty committee reviews allegations against him including plagiarism. Churchill denies the allegations. Churchill was earning more than $114,000 a year until January, when he stepped down as chairman of the ethnic studies department following criticism for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi. Then he earned a teaching salary of about $94,000. For the fiscal year that began Friday, Churchill will earn about $96,000 for a 2.3 percent increase. On average, faculty members on the Boulder campus are getting...