Posted on 10/28/2010 1:15:41 PM PDT by MichCapCon
The number of school employees for each student in Michigan's public school system has been rising for most of the past 15 years, and stands now at one employee for every eight students. This is surprising given Michigan's declining economy over the last decade and the school establishment's perpetual complaints of being underfunded. But even more startling trends emerge when the data are dissected further.
Between 2000 to 2009, enrollment in all of the state's public schools declined by 6.4 percent. As illustrated by the chart below, however, the number of full-time staff on Intermediate School Districts' payrolls grew by 64 percent. ISDs are government entities that were created...
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
Is this a pun on “No Child Left Behind”?
Part of the problem is mission creep, where schools are trying to do far more than just teach. Part of the problem is the IEP game in which parents can shop for a doctor to diagnose a “disability” that gives their child special attention. Many of these disabilities are real, but a significant amount of growth in special education needs has come from creative diagnoses that divert resources from the rest of the kids. This is a disservice to the real special education kids whose access to help is diluted by this abuse of the system, to the regular kids, and to the creatively diagnosed kids who get a crutch that they don’t need. It’s a real shame, and schools get very little say in how they meet the needs of kids in special education because of the mountain of paperwork and mandates that control the process.
Back in the mid-1980s, the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader newspaper published the names, titles, and salaries of all the school board employees for Fayette County. I was stunned at what I read. The list (an entire newspaper page in small print) included lots of bureaucratic-sounding titles. I remember one that was “assistant deputy director for science education”. That person was paid about $85,000 per year. I was working, back then, for the University at a job that demanded a master’s degree, and specialized computer skills, that paid about $14,000 per year.
I can only guess that things have gotten worse since then.
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