The 74 Million – Matt Barnum
“School districts are paying an even greater premium for teacher experience than previously thought according to a new report from The Manhattan Institute, a right-of-center think tank. That’s because of heavily backloaded pension plans, which exist in each of the country’s ten largest school districts. The report is the latest volley in a long-running dispute about the extent to which teacher compensation should be based on years of service. School reform advocates have long argued that traditional salary schedules place too much emphasis on experience. This new research suggests that teacher compensation is even more backloaded than previously thought. Here’s how authors Josh McGee and Marcus Winters get there. First, they take teachers’ take-home salary, which already rewards experience; then they layer on compensation1 from teachers’ pensions, based on a hypothetical teacher who started her career at age 25.”(more)