Education, part 4: Boards of Education

This is an ideal occasion to discuss Boards of Education, since the Board in my former district made headlines today in the Newark Star-Ledger, as well as incurring the wrath of our anti-education governor. The governor has imposed a unilateral salary cap on superintendents of school, effective with all contracts signed after February, 2011. The cap is directly proportional to the number of students in the district, which would cap my district’s superintendent $175,000.

The Board of Ed, in order to circumvent this cap, has given an extension to the superintendent now, even though his contract does not expire until next July, 2011. His new salary? $225,000. Needless to say, members of the community were outraged at this, and who can blame them? Like all districts under the governor’s thumb, my former district is fighting to stabilize its finances under the handicap of drastic cuts in state funding, and thus are laying off teachers, while trying to force all district employees to take salary cutbacks and greatly-reduced medical benefits. And yet they decided to thumb their collective noses at both the teachers and the governor–who was so furious at them he attacked the superintendent in a speech yesterday–by giving a salary $50,000 above the cap.

Admittedly, there are problems with the salary cap, the biggest being the fact that north Jersey has a much higher cost-of-living than south Jersey. So the governor’s salary cap will not affect southern districts’ chances of finding qualified superintendents. But northern districts will find that qualified people will not be willing to undertake the complexity and stress of a superintendent’s job at a salary far below what they can earn for a similar position in private business.

But, of course, isn’t that the biggest dilemma in public education nowadays? The governor, supported by much of the public, does not believe public employees should earn comparable salaries as in private industry for comparable work. Because the second most important driving force in politics today (after the state of the economy) is taxes: lower my taxes, or I’ll vote you out of office, no matter who must be screwed in the process. It is the push behind the Tea Party movement, and the second main reason the GOP took control of the House of Representatives and nearly the Senate as well. And it is the reason much of New Jersey supports the governor in his anti-public education campaign.

Don’t think that I am absolving the Board of Ed’s actions though in their underhanded move to circumvent the cap. Boards of Ed are an inherently flawed system. Consider this: anybody who works in the district which the Board of Ed serves is disqualified from serving on the Board of Ed. All right, that makes sense because of the obvious conflict of interest. But anybody serving on a Board of Ed who has a relative in education at all is disqualified from participating in any votes directly involving teachers’ compensation. The assumption is that those members could not be objective about teachers’ benefits. However, anybody who campaigns for a Board of Ed on any anti-teacher platform, no matter how outrageous it might be, is legally permitted to participate in discussions involving teachers’ compensation

So what does this mean? If there is any slim chance of a board member being pro-teacher, their judgment is legally suspect; if somebody is blatantly anti-teacher, their judgment is legally acceptable. Is there any wonder Boards of Ed members tend to be “special interests” people whose reasons for being members run the gamut from tax-cutters at all cost to those who only care about football or marching band to the detriment of education.

Have you ever wondered what percentage of Board of Ed members are truly concerned about the best education their children can achieve, and believe in fairness to all employees? My best estimate, after 30 years in public education, is 10%.

My former district has been extremely fortunate recently that the president of the Board of Ed is strongly pro-education, and realizes that teaching professionals should be treated professionally, not like recalcitrant children, which is how the governor is treating them. He believes in comparable salary for comparable work, and he knows there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Unfortunately, he is fighting against other Board of Ed members, and a large portion of the community, who do not give a damn about education or fairness to employees. Cut my taxes or face my wrath!

All of which is part of the reason why our educational system will never rival that of the leading educational systems in the world (Japan, China, Finland). There are other reasons as well, which I will discuss eventually, but it is hard to see any improvement on the horizon so long as public education remains the one “industry” in this country where the people running the business (the board of directors, if you wish) are largely unqualified for the position.