Granite City Schools are extremely high paying with an average salary of around $51 k when using Whatusay's source.
Well it's really high for the metro east, and is damn high for a pretty moderate to low per capita income of $17,000 or so per year.
But not every district pays like Granite City. Some districts do not even pay close.
And why should Granite City skimp? Those buildings are 50+ years old and there is no plans to build new ones - hell there is no growth to warrant it. Older Logan was sold, then Old Logan. Lake is apparently not being used. Webster and Marshall and some others are now gone.
We got all the school properties we need, the high school doesn't need to be expanded - and has been renovated.
Might as well pay the teachers and put six figures in those administrators' pockets?
Did someone say something about test scores? Demanding excellence? Shhh. Let's not ruin a good thing.
Anyway - Not every district pays like Granite City, and probably none between here and Kentucky does, and probably few between here and Chicago do. Matter of fact, Granite probably outpaces some of Chicago's poorer suburbs.
But some districts teacher salaries average only about $35,000 a year.
Well in Granite - a new hire probably starts around $35,000 or so...and if the average is $51,000 then probably the high tenured teachers are making $70 or $80k a year.
But if the average in a district is only around $35,000, yes, a new hire could maybe come in making something that ridiculously low.
Now are we getting the bang for our educational buck in Granite City? OK I promise I won't open that can of worms today.
But let's just say that test scores and salaries are not always consistent with one another. I know per capita income might be a better variable to compare with test scores - and yeah that trend is hard to be bucked -- but what the hell, we got money to buck it...instead of cashing the checks and saying ---- it.