[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
>Date: 2007/04/12 Thu PM 12:39:29 CDT
>To: geeks at sunhelp.org
>Subject: Re: [geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

>On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:51:46 +0100
>Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org> wrote:

<snip>

>There is some truth to the idea that you get what you paid for.  However,
>teachers are usually paid significantly above average wages in most places
>where I've looked it up, so I'm not sure that's really the problem.
>
>If they aren't getting paid enough, then neither is anyone else.

In my town, the average teacher salary is about $62,000/year, PLUS benefits 
(including no employee health insurance contribution) - I think that is a 
fair day's pay, and their crys of being underpaid are ignored by me.

>Also, in many areas complaints about the funding of education has resulted 
in
>big increases in pay, and school budgets.  At the same time, the quality of
>the students has dropped significantly.

Yep - 75%+ of our school budgt is teacher salary and benefits, none of which 
can be cut when other costs at school go up. Trying to cut our local school 
budget 5% is really cutting 20% of the non-teacher-related expenses, because 
teacher salaries never go down...

>While this doesn't prove that paying more gets you less, it does at least
>show that money isn't the fundamental problem.

Agreed.

>Just a note: my 6th grade teacher retired at $49K/year in the late 80s or
>early 90s. This was when a major or chief on the police force would only get
>about $35K/year, and the local average retirement pay was under $22K/year.
>
>Not that it proves anything, but I'd be real careful trying to draw
>conclusions from pay scales.
>
>BTW: my sixth grade teacher was a great guy.  He was the only one in the
>entire 7 years of grade school that was worth a damn, so I don't begrudge 
him
>getting a decent retirement.
>
>The problem is all the crappy ones got it too.

Yup.

>> It is a little too easy to glorify the education systems of the past.
>
>Most of the comparisons are noting what is missing now, not glorification.
>
>Some of this is natural cycles, but in recent history we've also played far
>too much with social engineering, and trying to teach the next generation by
>showing them how to use what the last generation created, rather than how to
>create it themselves.

Good point.

>Other than that, a lot of things have improved, and that's certainly a good
>thing.
>
>However, what good does all that knowledge do a graduate, when he is still
>functionally innumerate and illiterate, and unable to create tools?

He heads off for an MCSE certificate and the promise of secure career making 
$60K+/year! (just like they said on the radio last night ;^)

Lionel