TEACHING PROFESSION DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN LOW PAY

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the teaching profession can be quite lucrative. A review of current pay data from over 700 private and public campuses indicates that many of the leaders in academia make more than $500,000 per year. The top five wage earners are:

Shirley Ann Jackson - $891,400 (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute),

Gordon Gee - $852,023 (Vanderbilt University),

Judith Rodin - $845,474 (University of Pennsylvania),

Arnold J. Levine - $844,600 (Rockefeller University),

William R. Brody - $772,276 (Johns Hopkins University).

In the public sector, the highest paid is:

Mary Sue Coleman - $677,500 (University of Michigan).

Predictably, the high wages are criticized by unions and other groups concerned with the ever-growing cost of higher education.

"It's not going to be good for higher education if it becomes seen, at a time when tuition is going up, that college presidencies have become a new route to being a millionaire," said Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in San Jose, Calif.

This writer believes that people should be allowed to make as much money as the market dictates. But it is more than curious that the same people who are making oogats of money are the leaders in schools that are teaching the virtues of Marxism and Socialism while denigrating capitalism.

Also, it is recommended that the subject of administration pay be avoided when pissing and moaning about teachers not being paid enough. And make sure there's no mention that they get all the school vacations too.

(Update 11/25/03) Joe Kelley has a post on The Sake Of Argument that I think dovetails swimmingly into this entry. Besides the remuneration teachers get, the issue of time off needs to be emphasized. Many times during my life I've had to work during holidays and vacations and, invariably, I regretted that I didn't choose teaching as a profession.

The school year is designed with children and families in mind. The business world is designed with profit in mind. It's hard to raise a family with profit dominating your thinking. Likewise, it's hard to be successful in the business world when you're preoccupied with your family.

One other thought, I don't see any compelling reason for colleges to follow the same school year as primary and secondary schools. After high school, most kids are considered adults in the eyes of society and the law. Therefore, it would seem that, other than tradition and inertia, there's no reason for colleges not to function like any other business. Teachers would work forty hours per week with two weeks vacation (to start) serving the customers students. It would possibly allow more students to get more education in a shorter time frame.

Just my opinion.