Schools function best in a spirit of mutual trust.
This trust is usually shattered by a teachers' strike. Recently, in Little Ferry, New Jersey, a strike engendered so much bitterness that the superintendent is attempting to dismiss 37 teachers. His reasoning is that they broke the law and therefore are poor role models for the children. The teachers feel he is at war with them and has a personal vendetta. As far as the teachers exhibiting "conduct unbecoming a teacher", I think all the adults involved here have to be careful. As the bible says: "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone."
School Boards often inform teachers that they cannot give them competitive salaries because there is not enough money in the budget.
The teachers who strike do not believe this. The basic conflict is priorities. Some School Boards are not convinced that teachers' salaries need to be competitive in order to maintain quality education.
School Board members face a dilemma.
School Boards often inform teachers that they cannot give them competitive salaries because there is not enough money in the budget.
They feel a strong obligation to get the most they can for every tax dollar. At the same time, they are under a mandate to provide quality education, usually with limited resources.
They also feel the necessity to be innovative.
They feel pulled in many conflicting directions. They must make decisions, in many cases, based the information the superintendent gives them.
Since most Board members also have to make a living, the amount of time available for decision making is limited.
Nine well-meaning citizens who became Board Members as a service to the community often find their efforts unappreciated and their positions under attack. One of the problems that usually surfaces in conflicts between teachers and School Boards is the allocation of funds for teachers' salaries versus administrators' salaries. A solution to the problem of teachers' salaries is to establish state- wide guidelines for Boards of Education to follow.
It is understandable that a School Board might prefer to give an administrator a larger salary than a teacher.
The members of the Board usually have close contact with the administrator and get to know him and appreciate his work.
Their knowledge of teachers, however, is limited.
Teachers are required to go through channels and those channels are administrators who are competing for the same limited funds. Teachers, therefore, are usually "paper-people" to the Board and are only known by "hear- say." Guidelines would be helpful to all involved.
Solution base salaries ratios.
Administrative salaries would be pegged to teacher salaries, thus removing the conflict of interest.
The School Board should determine the highest salaries they could pay their teachers. This should be computed honestly.
The Board should not play games by keeping money hidden in other accounts and then "finding" the money after negotiations are concluded. The ratio scheme might work as follows.
When the salary scale for teachers has been determined, than certain percentages above teachers' scale would be the scale for the principals, superintendents and other professional staff.
A similar technique could be used for determining the salaries for custodians, aides and secretaries. In the case of the Little Ferry school system, I think it would be safe to say that the education of the children there has been compromised. They are ones who ultimately suffer when there is a strike. A ratio system is at least worth a try to prevent these strikes from occurring. Anything which helps adults in the school systems to function in a climate of mutual trust and respect is worth a try.
First published in 1991
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