Here we go again! “Doctor” Chane Rascoe (who makes $177,000 per year – more than the governor of Texas) has recommended everyone and anyone get some more nice fat raises in the Lampasas school system. That means every single person with a pulse – there is no merit involved here. I think you might be shocked at some of the salaries these people get for nine months of work.
It’s too bad they do this in April and thus as far away as possible from when we pay our ridiculous property taxes in the fall. People will unfortunately have about seven or eight months between now and when they are billed for this nonsense to forget about how hard they are being screwed.
If property taxes were due next week, they might be more pissed off. Rightfully so.
First, you should acquaint yourself with all the raises they got in the past when inflation was tame – especially the MASSIVE raises in 2020 just before the school year got cut short. You can see that post linked below:
More Raises Given During Low Inflation Years…
Here is a blurb from the Dispatch today:
Here are some current salaries taken DIRECTLY from GovSalaries.com for 2022 – remember, these numbers are BEFORE these new raises take effect:
Joey McQueen – high scho0l principal – $108,643
Wanda Bunting – Business Services Professional – $90,258
Whitney Walker – Human Resources – $82,680
Penny Wilson – Counselor – $82,526
Tonya Cockburn – Occupational Therapist – $76,946
Jennifer Adams – Counselor – $75,522
Donna Clark – School Nurse – $73,129 (my goodness! Putting Band-Aids on boo boos pays better than being an ICU nurse working 12 hour shifts!!)
[Notice anything about the $586,000 in salaries for the above seven people? None of them are actually teachers!! Amazing. Let’s see some more….]
Christine Byrd – Counselor – $72,750
Christy Wiley – Teacher – $68,215 (her husband once whined on Facebook that his wife “only makes $4 an hour when you add up all the hours she spends.” Which is utter nonsense, of course. Right Mike?)
Beverly Sue Spencer – Transportation – $75,280 (?!?!?)
Shelly Mulcahy – Teacher “facilitator” (??) – $67,869
Kerri Holcomb – Librarian – $65,345 (are you kidding me?)
Cathy Kuehne – Art teacher – $67,915 (current City council member who “put herself at risk every day” during the Covid scamdemic)
Michael Kuehne – Teacher – $60,835 (BLM supporter and pizza lover)
Anyways, you get the picture.
I have no beef with GOOD teachers who teach IMPORTANT subjects (math, science, reading) being paid well.
What I DO have a problem with is the bloated and ever-increasing mass of “administrators” and bullshit artists like Kathy Staruska getting automatic raises and growing larger every year.
I have talked about this in the past, but here it is in graphical representation AGAIN:
The number of “administrators” (paper pushers and Nerf job clowns) has increased FOUR TIMES FASTER than the student population. This is absolutely outrageous considering this number should have SHRUNK with the advent of computers, the Internet and other productivity-enhancing inventions.
[If you are good at math, you will realize immediately that “administrators” needs to be cut by roughly 75% to get it back in line. Think of that money THAT would save!!]
The teacher population has grown TWICE as fast as well. When I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, every single one of my classes had about 30 kids in it. Now it’s more like 20. Ergo, teachers are being paid more to deal with 33% LESS kids. So I can’t exactly cry a river there either, but at least they are in the classroom imparting knowledge – unlike these other clown horns.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analyzes the skill requirements of different jobs, assigning each a pay grade based on the federal government’s General Schedule (GS). At the lowest skill levels—a GS-6 on the federal scale—teachers earn salaries about 26 percent higher than similar white-collar workers.
The average public school teaching position rated an 8.8 on the federal GS scale. After adjustment to reflect the time that teachers work outside the formal school day, the BLS data show that public school teachers on average receive salaries about 8 percent above similar private-sector jobs.
Contrary to myth, teachers are generally not foregoing higher salaries by staying in the classroom. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation show that teachers who change to non-teaching jobs take an average salary cut of about 3 percent. Studies using administrative records in Florida, Missouri, Georgia, and Montana showed similar results; the Georgia study found “strong evidence that very few of those who leave teaching take jobs that pay more than their salary as teachers.” [This data is from 2018 – the disparity is no doubt far larger now after the huge raises in recent years]
We aren’t even talking about the BENEFITS yet! The benefits are absolutely destroying state budgets and will continue to do so.
As the New York Times reported, public-employee retirement and health benefits are bleeding dry state and local budgets. Neither the public nor teachers fully appreciates the costs of these programs. We forget the value of benefits when considering how teacher pay compares with private-sector work. And research suggests that teachers value deferred compensation less than upfront salary.
Related: No, Teachers Are NOT Underpaid