NY Charter School to pay Teachers $125,000?
David W. Kirkpatrick reports on EdNews:
In 2009 New York City may see a charter school that pays teachers $125,000 a year. However, the school’s founder, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, says he will be the school’s principal for an annual salary of $90,000. The school has received city and state approval.
As usual in public school circles this different way to do things already has its critics. The head of New York City’s principals union has been publicly quoted as saying it’s the craziest thing he’s ever heard. Apparently he is unaware that there are charter schools which don’t even have a principal.
The president of the city’s teachers union has suggested that if the teachers are not unionized they may have problems. This ignores another fact about the nation’s 4200 charter schools - few are unionized . . .
Those who wonder if this plan is economically feasible might consider the following. The average per student cost of education nationally is about $10,000 annually. The pupil-teacher ratio is about 16-to-1. Thus an average of $160,000 is spent per teacher, $35,000 less than the proposed teacher salaries. And those are averages. Many districts pay far more, up to $70,000 (that’s not a misprint!!) per pupil. They should be able to pay teachers $125,000. But they don’t . . .