“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition”
― Timothy Leary

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
― Yogi Berra

So let’s talk about teacher compensation. Let’s talk about teacher recruitment and retention. Let’s talk about supply and demand. Let’s hold some committee meetings and discuss culture and climate.

Maybe we should put together a few surveys to “gain a better understanding” of the subject.

“The problem wasn’t created overnight, we can’t expect it to be solved overnight either.”

“We have a lot of other areas that need funding as well, just give the money to us. We’ll make sure teachers get it.”

“Employees received a 3% raise and a step increase during the 2016-2017 school year.”

“We see this as a jumping off point. We would strongly recommend that we figure out a set of tools to support employees, and staff and this board, in having this conversation with a variety of constituents. We all need to be on the same page sharing with people what our budgetary concerns and what the impact on teacher retention is, and ultimately the learning impacts on our students.”

In Nashville, Tennessee that’s what the conversation around teacher compensation sounds like. More talk. More surveys. More task forces. More PowerPoint presentations. And if last year is any indication, less money.

To be honest I am at a loss why. there is a perfect storm brewing this year for substantial teacher raises in Nashville. One that for the most part people are letting go by untapped.

This year Nashville has a mayor supposedly looking for re-election. Several current council members looking for election to an at-large term. We have a director of schools looking for a new contract. A group of Interfaith Ministers looking to help him get that contract. There is a school board in desperate need of a win and a union that needs to show it is still relevant. All of these folks should for all intents be currying favor with teachers, yet there doesn’t seem to be rush to get anything done.

You ever see that episode of Taxi where Jim gives Louie a blank check from his father in order to right a wrong? Louie spends several minutes trying to decide what the perfect number should be in order to get the most bang for the buck. That’s what things should be looking like right now in the offices of elected officials across the city.

Teachers present a not insignificant voting block. You take those directly employed and then add in spouses, parents, friends, church members, civic club members, etc…and you are talking a substantial number of voters. When I was out campaigning for school board, nothing was more effective than a teacher recommendation. You’d be amazed at how much influence teachers have over neighbors. But you only have influence if you use it.

Right now some may be raising the argument that I lost my race, so that shows that teachers don’t have as much influence as you might think. If you are a politician do you really want to play chicken with that supposition? Because if you are right then the same thing that happens every year transpires; teachers go another year without a raise. But if you lose, you lose…your seat. Teachers and their supporters need to remember the old basketball rule, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” It’s time to take a shot.

To be certain, there is a very small window of opportunity here. Next year’s budget season will not have a mayor seeking election. There will be no at-large councilmen looking for greater influence. There will be no superintendent looking for a contract and no motivation for clergy to band behind him. There will be no school board members looking for something to prove and unless something drastic happens, union influence will continue its steady decline.

In short, teachers will be relying solely on the good faith that people will do the right thing and increase salaries. How’s that good faith thing worked out in the past? It’s been my experience that without leverage, good faith is slow to the table.

Here’s an added wrinkle to the compensation conversation. All indications point to state legislators recognizing that teachers need to be better compensated and they are ready to address that issue. The big question for them right now is, how do we make sure that the money gets in the desired hands of teachers. They’ve grown wise to the trick of local education agencies taking the money that the legislators allocate for teachers and using it elsewhere. In their pursuit of ideas on ways to get more money to teachers, they may want to look towards Indiana which is already exploring several options.

One thing that could be a huge help would be if the state set the teacher reimbursement level in the BEP to the actual average salary of a teacher in Tennessee, around 53K. In case you are not familiar, the state pays a set level of reimbursement back to the individual districts for teachers salaries. Here’s some more info per the TNDOE fact sheet,

Legislators have discussed for several years this idea of making the reimbursement rate the average rate of teacher salaries throughout the state, but at the end of the day, it just never seems to get done. Changing this figure would be a huge help because any money allocated through the BEP based on the teacher reimbursement number has to be dedicated to teacher salaries. Furthermore, there is nothing to prevent districts from applying the savings to teacher salaries, thereby making 5% or even higher entirely feasible. Hopefully, this is something state legislators are considering.

Turning back locally, the compensation committee report at last week’s school board meeting was very informative. It addressed some important areas of need – Veteran’s Day pay, exceptional pay, voluntary workshop, and training pay. Arguably these areas should have been covered by the collaborative conferencing that produced the recent MOU, but I still think those teachers who sacrificed their time should be commended for their work. They shared a ton of great information and I know they’ve been very diligent at keeping the issue on the front burner. Which is where it has to remain.

The problem is that when you are conducting a compensation study and management is steering the conversation, those talks tend to produce more recommendations than action steps. Keep in mind that when it comes to the budget, Chief of Staff Dr. Marcy Singer-Gabella ultimately has loyalty to the Director of Schools.

She may emphasize with teachers. She may recognize the need. She may even think it’s a priority. All that doesn’t change the fact that at the end of the day her priorities are Dr. Joseph’s priorities and she has to help craft and pass a budget that reflects those priorities. It’s for that reason that I’ve long felt it best that teachers, be it through MNEA or another entity, have an independent compensation group. One that reflects their priorities and might actually contain action steps. One that will not only study the issue but actively work to improve it.

The lack of action steps offered, in my mind, also speaks to the demographics of the profession. The majority of professional educators are women and as a society, we are very comfortable in preaching patience and affability to women. I wonder how successful that message of patience and sacrifice would be if the profession was dominated by males.

We’ll see where the results of this study go. Maybe they will lead to action. I know the city claims it can’t afford raises. Well, think about your personal life. Could you afford to get married? Could you afford that first house? Could you afford to have children? Or did you just decide it was important and so you found a way to do it? That’s the same strategy that needs to be applied to teacher salaries. This is of a level of importance and a way to bear the cost has to be found because it’s a cost we cannot afford to not bear.

FAREWELL YE OLD TEACHERS

When I was looking at the BEP and the teacher reimbursement number another cylinder dropped into place. Many of us are deeply concerned about the number of veteran teachers leaving the profession. But if you apply a business mentality to the issue, it can be argued that losing veteran teachers is good for the bottom line. The more salaries that you have closer to the reimbursement rate of 44k the more money you have to spend on other needs.

Follow me here for a minute. I arrive at a new district as a superintendent. Surveying the land, I find that I have little excess cash but a fair amount of veteran teachers. Those veteran teachers cost me a whole lot of money and they also could give me a whole lot of headaches. You see veteran teacher know stuff and they have a highly developed bullshit meter. So I think to myself, “Self how do I get more extra money and fewer headaches.” Bingo. Get rid of some veteran teachers.

Now I can’t have my intent obvious, because well, people might not like that. But what if I through my actions subtly send a message that I’m no fan of teachers. I propose a two percent raise and then make them actually fight for an extra 1% to make it 3%. I go ahead and introduce that scripted curriculum while sending a message that most of them wouldn’t no rigor if it bit them in the ass, May I propose some programs – teacher housing, new teacher academies – that only benefit those first-year teachers. Since most teachers are already frustrated, it shouldn’t take long to get the message across.

It may seem like a lot of trouble to go through, but let’s do some math here. Say I’ve got 1500 teachers making 64K a year and I let 500 of those walk out the door. Those teachers are replaced by ones making 44K a year. That saves me…10 million dollars. That doesn’t even include the savings from benefits and health insurance. Not chump change.

Well, I can’t just walk with that money because those younger, less inexperienced teachers aren’t going to be quite as effective unless I get them some help. If there is too much of a dip in quality, some folks might take notice. So I spend a couple million dollars on some scripted curriculum and outside consultants and…walla…instant big savings.

As an added benefit, these new teachers are going to have lower insurance rates, less need for time off, and probably will be even more willing to sacrifice personal time, as they don’t have families yet. Since they don’t have much experience, it’s not likely that they have enough personal data points to question my edicts. Furthermore, they’ll be so busy trying to keep their hair from catching fire, that they’ll be hard pressed to find time to question me, and they’ll be grateful for any support I give them. A lot of wins here.

The challenge will be in finding these young teachers. That’s where Teach for America comes into play. Now, this ain’t the salad days of the last decade when a college graduate was hard pressed to find a job in their chosen field, therefore, making the idea of teaching for a couple of years an attractive one, but don’t think for a moment that TFA has lost the ability to woo a co-ed. I have to look at the current district contract with TFA, but it used to be that the district paid $6500 per teacher. Let’s say that rate is up to 10k as I’ve heard rumored. If TFA has the ability to lure in 200 teachers – I’m skeptical, but let’s suppose – that only costs…2 million. Take  3 in consultants and add the 2 million for TFA to it and I’ve only spent half of my 10 million savings.

Now I still have to come up with another 300 teachers and that’s kind of hard. But what if they didn’t have to go through all that pesky licensing stuff? What if I were able to create an alternative licensing scheme, I mean plan? I bet I could easily run another 200 through that chute and keep my investment rate under a million. I’d be lauded as a visionary and celebrated for my innovative ideas. And I’d still have a savings of around 4 million to do with as I please.

What I just described is not a conspiracy theory, it’s a business plan. One that the business world has utilized for centuries. These days they even have a fancy name for it, disruption theory. You create a perceived crisis and then you turn it to your benefit. Admittedly I’m not a superintendent, nor do I play one on TV. It’s possible that the scenario I just described is nothing but the product of a fanciful imagination. I’ll leave that to you to decide.

The big hole in this disruption plan is that studies overwhelmingly show that experience matters when it comes to teachers. Per a study by the Learning Policy Institute and conducted by Tara Kini and Anne Podolsky

Categories: Uncategorized