The Jeopardy answer is: "Teacher pay".
The question is: "What is it that no one wants to talk about?"
Ever since the teachers' union (SPEA) picketed a school board meeting en masse this past January, the question has lingered. Now that a contract has been signed, it's time people did talk about it. It's like one of those dark family secrets that no one ever wants to be the first to discuss. The result? It festers like an untreated infection.
We now have two new school board members, both of which have served on the Finance Committee, and one of which works for a major financial institution. Maybe we'll finally have fresh eyes to review the financial picture.
According to the 2007-2008 Annual Meeting Report, [SP-EYE note: try to find THAT document on the district website!] the total budget for Sun Prairie schools is $61.9M. $37.3M of that goes to salaries, and another $17.3M goes to benefits. That's a combined $54.6M -- 88.1% ---of the District budget that goes directly to salaries and benefits.
According to the City of Sun Prairie's website, the median income for Sun Prairie households is $51,345. The average salary of all teachers in Sun Prairie is about $ 46,400. That means that a single teacher in a SP household represents 90% of the MEDIAN (not the mean; the median means 50% of salaries are greater and 50% are lower ) household income!
If one takes the time to look at biweekly "school board packets" on the District website, and specifically peruses the "Personnel" information, they would see that in the past several weeks, seven (7) teachers have announced their plans to retire. Their salaries are presented at right. Now, an average salary for ONE person, of $70,000, is 36% higher than the median household income in the city. Those are damn fine salaries at which to retire, particularly if you have an understanding of the Wisconsin Retirement System.SP-EYE is not opposed to a fair wage for our teachers. Educating our children is an important function. But at the same time, let's not be naive. Teacher's contracts call for 190 days of work per year. The average worker works 260 days per year. Do the math. That means that teachers' salaries should really be multiplied by 36% to adjust them for comparison with other workers.
What many point to is the low pay for entry level teachers. According to the contract just signed, that pay is $29,706 for the 2008-09 school year. Adjusted for 190 days and 8 hours per day, that comes to $19.54/hour. That average salary at retirement of $70,000 clocks in at just over $46/hour.
It has been argued that teachers deserve better salaries because of the critical role they play. We find that logic to be borderline offensive, because it comes dangerously close to a "we're more important than other occupations" mentality. What about our police force, who make far less than teachers? What about the Local 60 union folks that provide "support services" for the District? Could the teachers and administration function without them? What about public works staff that clean the wastewater that you flush away each day without a thought? If they didn't do their job, our rivers and streams would be a toxic dump. What about those that ensure we have clean water to drink? How about the farmers that grow or raise the food we eat? The question of who deserves more is a slippery slope indeed that quickly becomes offensive to all, and amounts little to a "chicken before the egg" argument.
How many of you make even close to $46/hour? Do YOU think teachers are underpaid? Since teacher salaries alone account for 40% of our $62M district budget, is it time our school board paid closer attention to these contracts?
In our upcoming parts of this series, we'll talk about the other big issues: benefits (including health insurance), extracurricular pay, and parity of contracts between Local 60 (support staff, SPEA (Teachers), and administrators.
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