Like we said ...
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overnment can be so predictable.
In July, the Jordan School District Board of Education raised its own pay from $3,000 per year to $12,000. Along with that, it granted health insurance benefits for its members; but if they chose not to take the health insurance, they would get a cash payment instead: an extra $17,456. It set up a scenario by which each member could pull down $29,000-plus for serving on a school board.
A month later, the board surrendered -- somewhat -- to public criticism and rescinded the cash payment in lieu of health insurance. But board members kept their 300 percent raise.
At the time, we wrote in this space: "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."
And, sure enough, the Alpine School Board is now the first to follow suit. Board members there were paid $3,000 per year, too, but they just doubled their pay to $6,000, and will also be paid more for any meetings over and above their scheduled meetings.
As we've said before in this space, we lament the fact that service on school boards and in other government positions -- elective office or not -- are seen less nowadays as a "public service" than as a full- or part-time job deserving of generous benefits and pay. Utah government, at all levels, needs more selfless service and less financial striving by people who ask for a job and then complain because it doesn't pay them what they think they're worth.
There's a disappointing disconnect at work here, and we have little hope that it won't just continue to get worse.
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