Sharp as a Marble - It’s not about “The Children”

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A former Philadelphia school district superintendent who collected a $905,000 contract buyout from the city has reportedly filed for unemployment benefits.

…

Her weekly salary was $6,669 and her annual salary $346,000, according to records obtained by the station.

All these teachers who bitch and moan that we’re wanting to cut the waste from the school system are willfully blind to their bosses’ stealing their lunches right under their collective noses. This chart is as damning evidence as you’ll ever see

Not getting our money's worth, are we?

How much of that slope comes from the Arlene Ackerman’s of the education system? In what way does it help students to pay someone $6,669 a week to sit in an office and intend in a super way? Those lower lines clearly indicate that we are NOT helping students by increasing funds, and I’ve seen stories like this over and over which clearly indicate that we’re spending too much on administrative costs to boot.

It’s a common idea amongst the left – the right doesn’t care about kids or their educations because we want to abolish the NEA and public schooling and then hang all the teachers! From my perspective, the NEA and public schooling have failed our kids and it’s because I care about them that I want a better system. A competitive system that rewards good teachers and discards the bad ones is impossible in a government run environment. Instead, we have administrators making a million dollars in 3 years with nothing to show for it. Apparently calling out this fact means one hates kids.

posted @ 11/30/2011 12:30:12 PM

Incoming Links

SayUncle » Education troubles on 12/1/2011 9:04:59 AM

Comments

aczarnowski says:

on 11/30/2011 1:34:45 PM

I'm biased - my Dad was a super until he stepped down to a principalship to avoid (some of) the rat race. Superintendent of schools is a tough gig no matter what size the district.

But I'm with ya here. Administration and the bureaucracy that has grown around it are big reasons our schools are failing.

SPQR says:

on 11/30/2011 3:58:51 PM

That's the bottom line. There is plenty of money for education. The problem is all the sums spent on non-education line items in school budgets.

Not a dime more from me.

drobviousso says:

on 11/30/2011 6:09:42 PM

I don't have a link, but there's a graph out there that show "in classroom spending" vs "administrative costs" over time.

Guess which way it goes.

DirtCrashr says:

on 11/30/2011 8:16:35 PM

Money for education is just funneled to the 1% Union Class. My dad was a teacher, even with a PhD in Edu he ended up being a substitute for the last five or six years of his career, because he got into trouble with the Admins.

North says:

on 12/1/2011 9:45:34 AM

Spend MORE MONEY. I'm sure it will work THIS TIME.

dustydog says:

on 12/1/2011 10:28:26 AM

You are being unfair. Of the 2 million dollars she got, she probably had to kick back 20 or 30% to politicians and other cogs in the Philadelphia machine. You don't just get a job like that by merit.

blounttruth says:

on 12/1/2011 11:33:09 AM

Which candidate on the GOP side said he would take care of this mess? I hope people continue to pull charts for all departments and perhaps common sense will dictate who can save us from ourselves.

Bruce Smith says:

on 12/1/2011 12:26:59 PM

I believe that Ron Paul would be that candidate although with our congress gleefully trading our money for union votes, he will have challenges getting it done.

Murdoc says:

on 12/1/2011 2:09:11 PM

Murdoc's no statistician, but it almost looks like spending has gone up more than results...

SiGraybeard says:

on 12/1/2011 7:29:30 PM

Maybe I'm not a big shot on the web, but about 3 weeks ago, I put out a challenge with a similar graph - does anyone have any data that shows increasing spending increases performances. Not one example cited.

Now granted, I only get a couple of hundred visitors a day, not thousands, but I was hoping someone would find it googling around and tell I'm a hate monger or something.

hist_ed says:

on 12/2/2011 12:39:16 AM

I am a public school teacher (Seattle suburbs). Believe me, most of us know that there is a lot of highly paid, dead weight at the top of the district pyramid. Some of us even recognize the union/administration tax sucking circle jerk that sucks huge amounts of money away from schools and into administration. Some of this has to do with federal and state mandates that require someone (making a lot more than me) to track whatever statistic the Dept of Ed thinks is vital this week. A lot has to do with promoting mediocre knuckleheads. As long as there isn't a crime involved, principals almost never get fired, they are just reassigned to the head shed.

Art Welling says:

on 12/3/2011 7:46:33 AM

"All these teachers who bitch and moan that we’re wanting to cut the waste from the school system are willfully blind to their bosses’ stealing their lunches right under their collective noses"

I call bovine excrement on that line.

*I* am a teacher, and I know EXACTLY where the waste is in our system. I can walk into the Building I work at, walk straight into half a dozen offices, and point right at all the criminal waste it will take to make you sick to your stomach.

I can point at a Big $$$ director who spends as much time at his desk watching 'hobby' videos on the internet as he spends trying to trash instructors, and both together make a full work day for him.

I can point out a principals custom hand made desk that cost more than my car... and COULD have been had at 1/20th the cost from our own schools cabinetry program.

I can point out administration who swore they were taking a pay freeze, since they demanded we take one.... and then awarded themselves multi thousand dollar 'bonus' packages.... again each worth more than my car.

I can point out instructors who are selling scrap metal to buy shop supplies.... while the admin is billing the school for $500 meals.

I can point to a brand new state mandated 'administrator' who's job no instructor in three building can see the purpose of, but is so heavily work laden he requires a very pretty young assistant to... well.... assist him I suppose. So far, all he does is wander around the building.

Yes... we know EXACTLY where the waste is, and nobody who matters will listen to us. We are the teachers.... we are the bad guys of this weeks agenda, so nobody cares to listen to us.

We are the people who work 60-70 hour weeks while getting paid for 40, and take over the job of raising the kids everyone else has abandoned.... but we are the 'bad guys'.

We are the teachers, who spend ten extra hours a week writing paperwork that no one will ever read, just so some outrageously paid administrator can claim their job has purpose.

Yes... we damn well know where the waste is. We have to wade through it every single $%#@&%$ day just to do our jobs. We have to feel our noses shoved in it every morning, when we arrive at school an hour early to sweep the useless make work away before we can do our real job. We have to endure the stink of waste... watching administrators buy *themselves* new toys as we buy class supplies from our own pockets.

We are the people who do the actual work... and who nobody will listen to.

We are the people who have read Atlas Shrugged, understand it, and will be the last ones out the door as the lights go out.

SPQR says:

on 12/5/2011 11:36:06 AM

Art, the problem is that when the "teachers' voice" is "heard" by the public, all they hear is demands for more money for education.

They don't hear any demands that wasteful mandates and bloated bureaucracy get trimmed. And the unions will make sure that voice does not get heard.

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