MEET TEXAS' SCHOOL EDUCATORS WHO MAKE 6 FIGURE SALARIES

Submitted by: P McMillan

MEET TEXAS' SCHOOL EDUCATORS WHO MAKE 6 FIGURE SALARIES

http://www.educationviews.org/eet-the-texas-educators-100000-club-7300-six-figure-salaries-cost-taxpayers-903-million/

[COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER: 

The next time TASB and TASA start rolling out their hard-luck stories and their big tears about how underfunded Texas public schools are and how the Texas legislature simply must fork over more of the taxpayers' hard-earned money, let's put this article in their faces. 

So far as I know, there has never been any independent, peer-reviewed, replicated quantitative research to prove that money equals (=) academic achievement. The truth is that the entire premise is wrong.

I know the premise is wrong because I taught in some of the poorest schools in Texas where we had fabulous phonics reading programs and turned out excellent readers who went on to become high-achievers and leaders in their communities.

I taught in one school where we teachers had to sweep the gym floor each day because we had bats that would leave their guano all around. Yet that school had a fine reading lab and turned out excellent readers K-12; by the way, we also had a large population of low-income, minority students in that district.

I taught in another school where we had no lunch program, no nurse, and make-shift classrooms.  Yet our students went on to colleges, universities, and the workplace.

In yet another school, we teachers had to provide our own curriculum by producing our own teaching units; our students received a classic education which helped them to graduate from well-known colleges and universities. Many of these students became community leaders.  

I taught in 14 different schools during my 33+ years of teaching; and without exception, there are two factors that make a great school - they have to be in this order:  (1) consistent discipline and (2) quality Type #1 (traditional, academic, fact-based) curriculum. 

Please notice that I did not list high administrative and/or teachers' salaries, fancy buildings, indoor swimming pools, elaborate athletic facilities, resort-like cafeterias, terribly expensive technology. Nice as those things are, they do not guarantee a child will receive a quality education.

"Taxpayers, let's speak out and tell the Texas legislators that we demand consistent discipline and quality Type #1 curriculum - neither of which requires paying exorbitant salaries to administrators and teachers. Yes, we should pay a fair and decent salary, particularly to classroom teachers who dedicate themselves to work with our nation's most important product - our children; but those salaries must be within reason."  

Neither should TASA/TASB be allowed to force us taxpayers to use our hard-earned dollars to pay for school administrators' and board members' dues so that they can hire lobbyists to go to the Texas Legislature and lobby for more funding for the schools.  In essence, we taxpayers are paying to lobby ourselves!

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"Meet The Texas Teachers $100,000 Club: 7,300 Six-Figure Salaries Cost Taxpayers $903 Million"

By Adam Andrzejewski

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, PLEASE GO TO: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2018/07/18/meet-the-texas-teachers-100000-club-7300-six-figure-educators-cost-taxpayers-903-million/#4a13088910ae

Donna Garner

wgarner1@hot.rr.com