For many Oklahomans, the recent revelation that the average annual compensation for an Oklahoma school superintendent comes in just under $100,000 offers yet more evidence of the pay disparity in many fields.
It also brings up the troubling question of who is to blame for the shortcomings in public education. Most astute observers agree, as we’ve said time and again, that teachers themselves are not the source of the angst. After all, if a teacher isn’t good, who hired her?
If a school has problems, its roots are usually inept administrators; ill-informed school board members mired in special interests; or parents who are themselves too undisciplined to instill a work ethic in their children. Or, in most cases, all of the above.
What does this say about the “local control” for which many folks pump their fists so enthusiastically? If district patrons are too apathetic to vote in decent school board members, or if savvy folks don’t run for these positions, how can we expect the eventual winners to hire adequately educated and trained administrators who are more interested in our children than how much money they can make at the job?
Clearly, many superintendents are worth their weight in gold, and Cherokee County has enjoyed – and enjoys today – more than its share of those. (It must be said we’ve also had a few who didn’t merit a lump of coal.) Many teachers are also invaluable assets, however, yet their average compensation is about half that of superintendents. This doesn’t seem fair, nor does it seem wise.
It’s ironic, too, that in times of layoffs, furloughs, and scaling back of school weeks, some superintendents have scored raises, while teacher pay (like that of most others) has re-mained stagnant. True, the board makes those decisions, but a more prudent superintendent would decline a raise this year (as did Tahlequah’s Shannon Goodsell, pre-emptively).
Arguing they work year-round while teachers get their summers off, as a few superintendents elsewhere had the gall to do, it not just an apples-and-oranges comparison; it’s a fabrication. Competent teachers do not get their summers off. They are busy with continuing education, lesson plans, and meetings with peers, parents, patrons, and administrators.
And while the teachers have their boots on the ground in the trenches, some of the less savory superintendents spend their time appeasing the whims of school board members, making silly rules, pushing pet projects and riding their desks.
This calls to mind the scenario of an outrageously paid CEO, who jets off to Europe when he’s not shuttling among his mansions, while the people who work to keep the company afloat struggle to make ends meet.
School patrons need to take the bull by the horns and demand more from their board members they elect. Some will have a chance to do so Feb. 9. Remember, if you own property in a particular district, your tax monies are helping fund that school, so failing to act in your own vested interest is incomprehensible.
If you want to complain about your school, the buck doesn’t stop in the classroom; it stops a little higher up the ladder. Patrons have to make those folks earn their money – although given a few of the more obscene salaries across the state, that may be difficult to do.
