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Editorial: Pay raises are a shot in the foot for schools
In the realm of misreading the public mood and dire economic circumstances, it would be difficult to top the school board’s decision to boost the pay of Spokane Public Schools administrators by 3 percent.
Citizens have deep concerns about education funding, teacher quality, accountability, test scores, dropout rates, curriculum and program offerings. Few would make pay raises for administrators a priority, especially when government budgets are feeling inordinately tight squeezes during the nation’s economic trauma.
Yet, significant dollars from local levies have been given to educators who already had quite comfortable salaries by Spokane County standards.
On a percentage basis, money allocated for Spokane Public Schools administration is about the same as those in other large districts in the region and in the state. But in the context of what private sector workers and others in government are experiencing, it would appear that school administrators have been immune to the tough times.
As we have said with other public employee compensation (pay plus benefits), it must be lowered and then tightly controlled because the tax base itself is in decline. While those administrators were getting 3 percent pay raises, senior citizens saw their Social Security benefits frozen, teachers, firefighters and police officers were shouldering more of their benefit costs, and the median income in the county was dropping. Many state and local workers have been laid off and thousands more could face that fate as the state grapples with a $4.5 billion budget hole. If that weren’t enough, widespread teacher layoffs could be in the offing as federal stimulus dollars dry up.
School boards with foresight could have planned for these contingencies rather than continuing to boost the pay of its top-salary people. Instead, they’ve riled teachers and made it more difficult to justify the next levy that comes along.
The ripple effect of Spokane Public Schools raises began when the principals union won 3 percent raises. Then, citing district policy that supervisors should make more than those they supervise, the pay of supervisors at district headquarters was also boosted.
The traditional arguments for pay increases don’t matter at this time. Who among other public and private workers truly deserved their pay and benefit cuts? Those decisions were made for the same reasons these pay increases should not have been granted. The economy tanked. We don’t have the money.
However, this would be a good opportunity to challenge some of the old assumptions. Do we really need to pay these high salaries to lure capable administrators? If they left for better-paying jobs, would there really be a shortage of people who could step in? These debates could be glossed over when the economy was healthy. They cannot now.