School salaries

Several days ago the Associated Press reported on a statewide survey that showed more than one-fourth of Missouri's school superintendents received pay increases even though their districts were eliminating some teaching positions. However, those pay increases for administrators generally were linked to pay increases for the rest of the teaching staff. And superintendents in our area say they won't take a pay increase next year if teachers don't get raises.

School boards are reluctant to meddle with salary schedules, although in some instances the longevity increases are put in abeyance to help get through tight budgeting.

Some critics have suggested that administrators shouldn't get pay increases while teaching positions are being cut. But school boards rightly take the view that the factors that determine whether there will be any pay raises should apply equally to teaching and administrative personnel.

School districts face at least another year or more of struggling to make projected revenue stretch as far as possible. Giving pay increases, even if they are token, is important to the morale of the teachers and administrators who are responsible for our children and grandchildren.

Tight school budgets have drawn a lot of attention in the past couple of years -- so much, in fact, that little attention has been given to funding sources for public schools. The pleas for more state funding must be balanced against the revenue potential of local taxes. At some point, where the funding comes from needs to get as much attention as how it's being spent.