Union Salary Schedule Ensures State 'Teacher of the Year' Earns Near Bottom In Pay
Grosse Pointe science teacher Gary Abud makes $21,000 less than district's average salary
Gary Abud is a commodity experts say is in great demand around the country. He's recognized as a highly effective science teacher and was named the 2013-14 Teacher of the Year in Michigan.
However, the Grosse Pointe North High School Science teacher ranked 477th out of 595 teachers for salary in his own school district, according to data acquired in a Freedom of Information Act request. Abud made $56,876 in 2012-13, which is about $21,000 less a year than the district's average salary of $77,969 a year. The average teacher salary in Michigan in 2012 was $62,631, according to the Michigan Department of Education.
That's because Abud's pay has been based solely on his seniority and education level.
House Bill 4625 would change that by making teacher performance the primary factor in determining pay. The idea has been opposed by the Michigan Education Association, which prefers the current system based on seniority and education level. MEA officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
Abud said in an email that although teacher attrition was happening at an alarming rate, there is more that can be done to keep teachers happy than just increasing compensation.
"It is not what goes into a teacher's wallet, but what comes from their heart, that guides their decisions about classroom practice," Abud said. "Blows to the hearts of teachers, such as negative public rhetoric directed toward Michigan teachers will propagate a seemingly hostile professional environment that discourages the best and brightest from entering and remaining in the field."
Abud said that he didn't think seniority or advance degrees should be the only factors considered in determining a teacher's effectiveness or compensation. He said performance pay could work if it was structured properly.
Abud said he would rather see teachers rated on "objective criteria as the yard stick for student growth" and not endorse any particular assessment. He said educators need to be included in how performance compensation is handled and that they shouldn't be identical for all districts.
"Because students achieve growth in a variety of ways that match their learning needs," he said. "Ultimately, effective teaching should be evaluated and compensated using a multi-faceted approach determined at the local level with educators at the decision-making table."
The current salary system is not effective and teachers who excel, particularly in high need areas like math and science, should be properly compensated, said Michael Van Beek, director of education policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
"Research clearly demonstrates that high-quality teachers can have a huge impact on whether students learn," Van Beek said. "Every school should be clamoring for these types of teachers, and Michigan's best teachers should, therefore, command the highest salaries. Unfortunately, this isn't the case as unions and school boards have historically agreed to ignore teacher effectiveness altogether when determining salaries, favoring instead to pay all teachers the same regardless of how well they teach students. This had led to, among other things, Michigan's best teachers being grossly underpaid."
Christian Fenton, deputy superintendent for business and operations for the Grosse Pointe Public School system, said the teacher's contract that was ratified in March would include teacher performance pay. Fenton didn't have the specifics of how performance pay would work and the district hadn't put the contract on its website.
Grosse Pointe Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Harwood said in an email that Abud made less than the average teacher's salary because he was a newer teacher and hadn't reached the higher salary steps.
"Yet we still attract the very best teachers because they see the potential for growth as well as the non-monetary benefits of working in a high-performing district," Harwood wrote. "In Mr. Abud's shorter period of time in the field of teaching, he has accomplished a great deal. He is an inspiration to many through his learning and instructional methods that meet the individual needs of our students. We as a district are a learning institution and he shows the highest expectations we hold for all of our teaching and support staff."
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See also:
$100K Teachers? For Some Educators, Unions Are Standing In the Way
District's P.E. Teachers Average Tens of Thousands of Dollars More Than Math and Science Employees
Troy Gym Teacher Pay Trumps Nationall Recognized Science Teacher
Physics vs. Phys Ed: Regardless of Need, Schools Pay the Same
Will Schools Keep Ignoring Teacher Effectiveness When Setting Pay?
Commentary: Of Course Merit Pay Is a Good Idea
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
Michigan Republicans Go Wobbly on Obamacare
Medicaid expansion props up vulnerable law
Thirty-three states including Michigan have refused to create Obamacare exchanges, and as many as half the states may also refuse the law's Medicaid expansion.
Yet Republicans who control the Michigan Legislature appear close to caving to special interest pressure and accepting the Medicaid expansion. Some in the majority hope that cloaking their capitulation behind heavily diluted reforms and deeply implausible conditions will distract base GOP voters who have little tolerance for collaborating with Obamacare implementation.
Leaving aside the politics, this is short-sighted. Even with the more rigorous conditions originally included in the introduced-version of House Bill 4714 (including a 48 month cap on benefits), the Medicaid expansion is bad policy because it props up an unpopular, hideously-flawed health care law that is vulnerable on many fronts.
Lawmakers (and citizens) who oppose the expansion are not "bitter enders" refusing to accept the reality of a harmful law that's a "done deal." In fact it's anything but a done deal.
When Obamacare fully kicks in on Jan. 1, the mayhem it inflicts on families, employers and the nation's health care system may be so obnoxious that Congress — including the Democrat controlled Senate — will be forced to open the law for major amendments that reduce the damage.
Legislators who collaborate with Obamacare implementation today by approving the Medicaid expansion reduce the chances of this opportunity coming to pass.
Here are just some of the ways Obamacare is vulnerable, with evidence for each:
Legal
Oklahoma sues over illegal federal exchange subsidies – Cato Institute
Small business lawsuit challenges illegal subsidies – Competitive Enterprise Institut
Birth control lawsuits – Health Care Lawsuits blog
Political
Poll Finds Support Slumping for Health Law – Wall Street Journal
Kaiser’s polling indicates that only 37 percent of Americans like Obamacare – Weekly Standard
Labor unions break ranks with White House on ObamaCare – The Hill
Democrats “Nervous,” “Concerned” About “Complex,” Confusing, “Train Wreck” ObamaCare - U.S. House Speaker John Boehner
Administrative Complexity
Is Obamacare Too Complicated to Succeed? – NYTimes.com
Navigating the ObamaCare Maze – John Goodman
Applying for ObamaCare—Still Not Simple - Grace-Marie Turner
Obamacare architect Rockefeller: It's “beyond comprehension” – Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner
Extreme Technological Complexity
Spending on exchanges more than double initial projections – Bloomberg
“Let's just make sure it's not a Third World experience…” – Obama Administration Official
States Overwhelmed by Obamacare Exchanges' Complex Rules, Bureaucracy - NewsMax
Perverseness
The Law of Unintended Consequences, Obamacare Edition - National Review
Some Unions Angry With Obamacare's Unintended Consequences – Huffington Post
The IRS's Role in Implementing Obamacare – Heritage Foundation
Small business on "hiring strike" due to law - CNBC
Insurance Price Sticker shock
Despite liberal spin, Obamacare will raise CA premiums - Avik Roy in Forbes
ObamaCare’s raising insurance costs – Daniel Kessler in the Wall Street Journal
The rate-shock danger – The Economist
ObamaCare's Health-Insurance Sticker Shock – Wall Street Journal
Fiscal Unsustainability
CBO: Obamacare costs double to $1.8 trillion in first decade – Washington Examiner
Obamacare Budget Bombshell – Heritage Foundation
Trust not in Obamacare Medicaid Cost-Share Promises – Mackinac Center
Michigan Lawmakers Will Add $22 billion to National Debt with Expansion – Mackinac Center
States Can Save Taxpayers $609 Billion by Refusing Medicaid Expansion – Goldwater Institute/Wall Street Journal
In the fevered intensity of Lansing caucus rooms, lawmakers are sometimes stampeded by a false sense of urgency. They need to pause and imagine how their current actions will be perceived next January, when daily headlines are exposing Obamacare's harmful impacts on real people.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.
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