Troy Teacher's Pay $106k, Challenges Legislator On Low Teacher Pay
‘What are we doing in Michigan about this, Senator?’
A Troy School District teacher who is paid $106,553 a year wrote a post on a community Facebook page suggesting that a Michigan state senator has not acted on claims of low teacher pay.
Troy teacher Debbie Bohm Rosenman linked to a Time magazine article claiming teachers around the country were underpaid.
The article cited a Michigan schoolteacher from the Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint who was paid $78,054 a year last year and claimed it was “so difficult” to save any money.
“What are we doing in Michigan about this, Senator Knollenberg?” Rosenman wrote, calling out Republican Sen. Marty Knollenberg, who represents Troy.
Rosenman said in the post that she has more than 40 years of experience teaching. She is also the secretary of the Troy Education Association, the local teachers union. When someone posted her salary on the Facebook forum, Rosenman said the concern wasn’t about herself, but about those teachers (even in Troy, she claimed) that were in their early careers trying to make a living.
Younger teachers in Rosenman’s school district are doing quite well, however.
For example, one Troy teacher graduated from Michigan State University in 2009 and began working at Troy Athens High School during the 2011-12 school year. As a first-year teacher in the district, this chemistry teacher was paid $42,598. Five years later, the same chemistry teacher collected $67,101 in 2016-17, according to state and school district records. That’s a nearly $25,000-a-year increase over the five-year span. The teacher did get a master’s degree during the five years, which increases a teacher’s pay under most union contracts.
Another Troy science teacher was paid $49,132 in 2011-12 in his third year with the school district. Five years later, in the 2016-17 school year, he received a salary of $61,973, a $12,841 increase over the five years.
Rosenman didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
Salaries for this story came from Freedom of Information Act requests to the Troy School District as well as the State of Michigan. However, salaries for Troy School District teachers are also available online.
OpenTheBooks.com is a nonprofit that compiles salary data for nearly every public sector worker in Michigan as well as other states. OpenTheBooks puts in Freedom of Information Act requests to municipalities all across the U.S. and publishes the salaries on its website.
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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Same Old Story About the Problems in Public Schools
Nearly 70 years later, the arguments remain the same
In a front page story, the Detroit Free Press reports that “Detroit schools are grinding out another ‘lost generation.’” The article goes on to lament that up to 40 percent of students leave or graduate without mastering “simple arithmetic,” their handwriting is “atrocious” and their spelling is “deplorable.”
Teachers “lay the blame on overcrowded classes. They say it is impossible to teach with any measure of success when there are more than 40 in a class.” Administrators want money for more counselors, saying the current low number is “ludicrous.”
But that story is not from today. It was written in 1949 (you can read it here).
It should sound familiar. The arguments from many schools, administrators, teachers and association groups representing them have not changed.
Across the state, again and again, the education establishment complains about overcrowded classrooms, a lack of money, low teacher pay, teacher shortages and more.
Objectively speaking, especially over the long term, most of these claims are misleading or just plain false. Education spending is at an all-time high. Some schools have trouble getting teachers in some areas, but 100,000 qualified educators in Michigan are not currently teaching. Pupil-teacher ratios have steadily declined. Even though most districts are constrained by the rising costs of health and pension benefits, they still provide teachers with regular pay raises.
The real point is not about the legitimacy of these claims; it is their significance and impact that is open to debate. But lawmakers and the public should realize that they are nothing new. It seems no matter what the state of affairs, many public school officials just sing the same ol’ song.
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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