While the
announcement that Sugarcreek administrators are freezing salaries is a good step in the right direction, it's a small step, and only by a small section of the educational establishment.
And I don't mean the teacher's unions.
Whenever we talk about schools, levies, and cutting corners, the unions get brought up. But I don't think they're the problem. First, consider this truism: Adding money to a school system does NOT guarantee that things will get better.
Taking money out of the system practically guarantees that things will get worse.The reason for this disparity is not the teachers. Before the last round of levy votes, I had the opportunity to speak to several teachers in the Dayton and Cincinnati area. These were all casual conversations, with relatively random individuals, but there were some common stories. First, that even though parents have been contributing more and more to classroom supplies,
so have the teachers.Secondly, all of these teachers could easily think of bad spending decisions and mismanagement by principals, superintendents, or other administrators. One notable (but too common) story told how a principal who had just been transferred into the school took money earmarked for paper supplies for the children and used it to buy a new desk, chair, and other office accouterments for himself.
There is currently no way for school principals and administrators to be held individually accountable to the taxpaying public. While we vote for
the school board, that's a pretty indirect way to make our feelings about individual administrators known. When
a principal commits a massive FAIL, there is little pressure parents and taxpayers can bring to bear. Should the superintendent, say, spend money building a downtown office center instead of on books for the children, there's even less we can do.
We say that our children should have good teachers - so we should pay them what they're worth. At the same time, we have to keep the bureaucracy surround them from devouring our tax money.
When the administrators lower their pay to the same as the teachers in their schools, then I'll believe they have the welfare of kids - instead of their pocketbooks - at heart.
When will we get accountability for school administrators?
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