Birdies are chirping about the financial situation at the Lampasas ISD. Not too long ago I wrote about the incredibly insane increases in the school budget – up to nearly $44 million – up 23% in just two years.
But as Warren Buffet says: when the tide goes out, you’ll find out who’s swimming naked. Well, the tide of money is now receding and tough decisions will have to be made.
LOL. Just kidding. Organizations like the City government and government-run schools NEVER have to tighten their belts. They just bleat on Facebook about how the taxpayer needs to cough up more dough…even as they do stupid shit like spend $2 million dollars on a new track and pay their superintendent $177,000 $188,000 per year to teach zero kids.
Last April, I wrote a piece called “More Pay Increases For School Personnel. Hold On To Your Wallets” where I listed the salaries (all from govsalaries.com) of a lot of non-teachers as well as a few teachers.
I’m going to re-print parts of that article here, but I’m going to strikeout the old salaries and put the new ones in red.
“Doctor” Chane Rascoe – Superintendent – $177,000 $188,558 (!!!)
Joey McQueen – high scho0l principal – $108,643 $112,224
Wanda Bunting – Business Services Professional – $90,258 $97,550 (!!!)
Whitney Walker – Human Resources – $82,680 $85,623
Penny Wilson – Counselor – $82,526 $85,454
Tonya Cockburn – Occupational Therapist – $76,946 $79,142
Jennifer Adams – Counselor – $75,522 $78,201
Donna Clark – School Nurse – $73,129 $75,459 (my goodness! Putting Band-Aids on boo boos pays better than being an ICU nurse working 12 hour shifts!)
[Notice anything about the $802,000 in salaries above for eight people? None of them are actually teachers! Let’s look at some more…]
Christine Byrd – Counselor – $72,750 $75,319
Christy Wiley – Teacher – $68,215 $70,816 (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 $77,687
Shelly Mulcahy – Teacher “facilitator” (??) – $67,869 $70,368
Kerri Holcomb – Librarian – $65,345 (are you kidding me?) No data available for 2023…fired?
Cathy Kuehne – Art teacher – $67,915 $71,015 (current City council member who “put herself at risk every day” during the Covid scamdemic)
Michael Kuehne – Teacher – $60,835 $63,335 (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
Related: Two decades for $200 billion: How teachers unions sold out our kids in the pandemic