McCleary and teacher pay

There have been a lot of high profile disputes involving the teaching profession lately. Here in Washington, our situation is a little different than most.


Years ago, our state supreme court made a big mistake. This mistake is known as the McCleary Decision. The general idea behind this decision was that the schools in this state could not provide an adequate education with the amount the state was spending. Since the state constitution requires the state to fully fund education, the supreme court mandated that the state increase funding to the schools.

I grew up in this state. I know what our schools are like. They provided the biggest obstacle to a healthy education that I have ever encountered. The problems with our schools have nothing to do with funding. The idea that rewarding the schools with more money as a result of their lack of educational value is absurd. Let's face reality. No amount of money will magically transform the schools' war on education into something of educational value.

The state government has found their funding solution, although some still argue that it's not enough. For the new school year, most districts have seen a spike in the funds available to them. The Washington "Education" Association has decided that this extra money should go into the pockets of their members. Some school districts have seen pay raises around 30%.

The reason for teacher strikes in Washington this year is that some districts aren't offering the same high pay raises. Pretty much all of the districts that have reached agreements are seeing pay raises exceeding ten percent. This make it far more difficult to accept pay raises that are closer to seven percent.

A big part of the problem is that there isn't nearly as much money available as teachers think. Not all districts are seeing the same funding increases. On top of that, most districts will actually see a loss in revenue next year. This is because part of the McCleary Decision was to replace local levy funds with state funds. Restrictions will be implemented for local levies, and some of the new funding will be offset by the loss of levy funding. Some districts are not seeing much change in regards to money that they can make available for teacher salaries.

Part of this discussion has been a popular rallying cry for the profession. Teachers are underpaid. Actually, they have done a horrible job defending this argument. All the evidence they provide rely on the definitively flawed concept of credentialism. They insist that they average less earnings than others who have purchased the same credentials. This is seriously insufficient to establish the value of the services they provide.

Most attempts to look at teachers outside the scope of credentialism seem to be in agreement. Teachers are actually paid more than they are worth, especially when you take their benefits into consideration. Of course, even those attempts to establish their worth have shortcomings. Teachers are legitimately causing harm to innocent children. Some of us believe that the profession has negative value to society, and teachers should be paying for what they are doing. It is highly probable that those who can look past our abundant pro-schooling/anti-educational propaganda will agree that teachers are overpaid. The good news for teachers is that their propaganda has been proven effective