Moneygrubbers
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Sunday, July 15, 2007
"I have a heart as big as the moon. As warm as bathwater. .... We're watching the big picture, friend. We know the score. We are a public service, not glamour boys. Not captains of industry. Keep your vulgar moneys."
-- "The Tick"
(TV series, 1994)
The Jordan School District Board of Education raised its own pay from $3,000 per year to $12,000 last week. It also bestowed health insurance benefits on its members; but if board members choose not to take the health insurance, they get a cash payment instead: an extra $17,456. That means it's possible to pull down $29,000-plus for serving on a school board.
Compare that to a starting salary for a school teacher in the Jordan District: $31,672.
Naively, we -- and, we'll bet, most other Utahns -- had always assumed the people who run for school board positions did so for primarily altruistic reasons: For some, it may be a first stepping stone to another public office, but at heart these people want to help the children, shape the future, that kind of thing. In other words, we had believed the story that they performed the service for honorable reasons.
While we're sure some do, others are obvious mercenaries. Kim Horiuchi, a Jordan Board member, was quoted in a Salt Lake newspaper as saying, "I mean, $3,000 is just really an insult" given the time and effort board members put into their positions. Media reports have the various board members whining about time away from family, the expense of hiring babysitters, travel to and from board meetings, time spent talking with concerned parents and education officials, overseeing an $850 million annual budget, etc.
Oh, the humanity.
We're not sure how well these people who sit on the Jordan School District Board of Education perform their official duties, but one thing's for certain: When it comes to stacking horse manure, they're obvious experts. Correct us if we're wrong about this, but people have to choose to run for the school board. No one puts a knife to their throat and forces them to file as a candidate, right?
And while this would otherwise be an amusing tale of greed and shameful behavior on the part of would-be public servants -- they're down south in Salt Lake County, after all, normally off our radar -- we recognize this for what it really is. The Jordan School District Board of Education is taking a bullet for the team, for the other school boards in Utah. If the Jordan Board should manage to survive with its ridiculous pay raise intact, the result will be a windfall in pay raises to school boards across the Beehive State. The Washington and Alpine boards are discussing pay increases, too.
The enablers of this disreputable situation are Utah lawmakers and the governor, who changed the law that limited compensation to $3,000. Now school boards may establish their own compensation, and the Jordan Board's spending money like a teenager with Dad's platinum card.
Over the past decade, there has been a slow but steady movement within Utah's various government bodies -- municipalities, counties, the schools and the state -- to equate what once was regarded as lower-paying but noble government service with exploitative business practices. Where once successful and/or competent men and women would take a break from the private sector to offer a few years of public service, and then return to their private pursuits, now people in these positions expect to be compensated in a fashion that is, frankly, unseemly.
If people serving on our school boards think $3,000 -- or $4,000 or $5,000 -- per year is too little, they should resign to make way for someone who has first and foremost a passion for serving the children, the teachers and the schools. This should not be tolerated, anywhere.
You watch: If the Jordan Board is allowed to let this stand, people will begin campaigning for school boards because it's a good part-time job. We sincerely hope that's something no responsible parent wants to see.
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