The Emperor's Clothes

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Barry –
Your blog dated July 10, 2009, entitled "School Board Salary Data Difficult to Track Down," hit the proverbial nail on the head. You are certainly not alone in either your thinking or naiveté. Incredulously, several years ago our ‘muzzled’ news rag the Sun Herald published the following letter to the editor from Harvey Goldstein of Deep Creek:

"As a retired teacher, professor and university dean, I support excellence in education. But, before I can support an increase in taxes for our schools, I have two requests. One: If the school board truly believes our schools need more tax dollars, they should give up their nearly $35,000 per year salaries including benefits). Indeed, at least one board member is in receipt of a generous pension as a retired… school teacher in addition to a fat school board salary. (Part Time!) Please note that in most of the U.S., elected school board members receive no compensation.
Two: The school board should review the need for every non-teaching administrative position. It seems clear that we are top heavy with high-paid administrators. …bureaucrats do not translate to good education. Good teachers and concerned parents do."

A couple of years ago when Dr. McNulty criticized the school system and challenged school board members to make changes, specifically to ‘rein in’ (or at least hold accountable) their incompetent, deceitful and vindictive CEO, Mr. Cline, Mr. Allen (Mr. Cline’s cousin by the way = nepotism?) immediately scolded McNulty. Mr. Allen had the audacity to suggest that, as a school board member, he viewed his function as "service above self." How delusional? If "service above self" is truly his belief, then why not accept the state-designated salary of $5,833.00 instead of five times this amount. (The Florida legislators established the base salary of a school district having a population between 10,000-49,999, referred to as level II population group, to be $5,833.00. (See Florida Schools, Chapter 1001.30, Statute 1001.395)

If Mr. Allen (and his cohorts) would genuinely like to do the noble thing and actually practice what he (they) preaches – "service above self," he (they) should either forego their salaries altogether or give it back to the very school system that they are so genuinely concerned about! As both Harvey Goldstein noted in the local rag and you, Barry, in your blog, in most school systems nationwide school board service is regarded as "a civic privilege and duty, to be undertaken by people unmotivated by a substantial paycheck, retirement fund and health plans." So much for the idea of nobility. Given this reality of "self above service," I can't help but feel nauseated by disgust when they begin their school board meetings with a prayer. Hypocrites and/or a den of thieves?

As if this is not enough of an insult, these school board members as well as Mr. Cline, gladly accept their pay while running a crumbling school system. So I now ask, what is the difference between these phonies and their counterparts on Wall Street who also gladly accept astronomical bonuses while running corporations into the ground? Pay for non performance? Pathetic!

Further, as Mr. Goldstein suggested, our school system is top heavy with servile flatterers, especially in the school district offices. There is something terribly wrong when some individuals without higher education are making substantially higher incomes than those in the same system with higher education, specifically the ones who count most – the teachers. Again, hypocrisy rears its ugly head. But many of us know the reason for this – Mr. Cline's survival. The emperor has to surround himself with a cabal of "yes" people -- servants in order to feel powerful and in control. But what these folks forget is how Hans Christian Anderson’s eerily similar tale ends!