tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329279.post7630344663340841159..comments2023-08-25T05:18:29.312-06:00Comments on Madville Times: New Mexico, Alaska Work to Boost Small Schools; Lessons for South Dakota?caheidelbergerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261598066395322681noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329279.post-74738323038099941752009-03-31T07:44:00.000-06:002009-03-31T07:44:00.000-06:00Rambling Supt goes where I was planning: we can ad...Rambling Supt goes where I was planning: we can address the question of a moral wage before we get anywhere near the question of pay for performance. A teacher deserves a decent professsional wage that can support a family without supplement. Monthly, that's family health insurance ($1000), modest mortgage ($500), groceries ($300), utilities ($250), transportation ($150?), taxes ($400), savings for college and retirement ($300)... that's $2900, and I'm not leaving much wiggle room. That's $34,800... which is around the <A HREF="http://madvilletimes.blogspot.com/2008/03/teacher-pay-crunch-is-coming.html" REL="nofollow">average SD teacher pay</A>... which means we're paying a lot of teachers (and probably every teacher in Rutland) less than a pretty basic living wage. Pretty poor return on a college degree and continuing education.<BR/><BR/>I'd say we have a Christian obligation to pay people a decent wage... but people get mad when I get all religious. ;-)caheidelbergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03261598066395322681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329279.post-52361856274414471012009-03-31T06:01:00.000-06:002009-03-31T06:01:00.000-06:00In response to Tony, playing devils advocate:1) H...In response to Tony, playing devils advocate:<BR/>1) Here we go again with twisted justifications to not fund education. Using just one example, the student laptop initiative was strongly supported by the Governor and DOE but only partially funded.... and now even that level of support is gone. They made the case that this program would improve education but now we can't afford it. Oh well!<BR/><BR/>2. Why do we take such perverse pleasure in the concept of teachers taking a "vow of poverty" in South Dakota? There are some perhaps too who are motivated to go into medicine because of the money- does this make them bad doctors? South Dakota has the lowest teacher pay in the nation, but by addressing this we will only succeed in attracting "dollar chasers". Pathetic.<BR/><BR/>3. Pay for performance is fine but let's first address some sort of reasonable salary "floor" that's comparable to other states. Our University professors and misc. city and state employees have pay scales subject to regional comparisons and adjustments.<BR/> Can anyone explain why this is necessary to do for all of these other groups but somehow not applicable to our public school teachers?Ramblin' Supt.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18015567129700940296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329279.post-85754756836222243062009-03-30T09:32:00.000-06:002009-03-30T09:32:00.000-06:00CAH:Just to play a bit of devils advocate here:1. ...CAH:<BR/><BR/>Just to play a bit of devils advocate here:<BR/><BR/>1. How do we know that more funds will lead to better education? We don't have a quantitative tool to analyze the cost/benefit ratio. <BR/><BR/>2. Why do we assume higher pay = better teachers? Right now pay is at the low end of the spectrum so we have either altruistic teachers or those without other options. If we increase pay won't we just grab those looking for more dollars. Why are the dollar chasers better?<BR/><BR/>3. The main argument I keep hearing about pay for performance in teaching is that there are too many variables we regard to academic achievement. For example, Tom teachers in the suburbs and has a class full of kids without family problems so they naturally do better than Sally who teaches in the inner city where the kids have all kinds of problems. Therefore paying for performance is essentially a lottery. To me, this argument essentially says that it doesn't matter what the teacher does so why pay more for it?<BR/><BR/>We have another snow day here.Tony Amerthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00926509220711589398noreply@blogger.com