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Show CAN WE KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES? (From the Utah Taxpayers' Association) Utah is again being criticied for not keeping up with her neighbors. This time it is claimed that we are not doing cur duty by paying higher teacher salaries and that the yardstick to determine the salary sal-ary level should be the average of the Mountain States. This measure for comparing teacher salaries has gained considerable acceptance in certain cer-tain circles, but it has some-very some-very serious limitations. It neglects to take into account what we in Utah can afford to pay As has been said many times we are long on children and short on income. Let's look at the facts and see where we stand. Teacher salaries in Utah are 4 below the Mountain States average. The average income back of each pupil in Utah is 19 below the Mountain States average. We should certainly receive "A" for effort. Comparing teacher salaries paid by our neighbors is much like comparing spending at eight homes all on the same street. Some have many children chil-dren but limited income. Other homes have few children but far more income. Should the same amount be spent on chil- $737 average per month for time actually worked. Total instructional spending has jumped 108 from $49 million to $102 million. On a per-child in average daily attendance basis, they have skyrocketed 61, from $228 to $368. Principals Prin-cipals now average $10,644; supervisors and directors get $11,055, and administrators average av-erage $13,628. And this is not all. On top of this they receive re-ceive many fringe benefits such as retirement, medical and ordinary or-dinary insurance, paid vacations, vaca-tions, etc. It looks like the taxpayer is suffering more than the educator. Figures show that of all states in the Union, Utah leads in the amount of sacrifice made for schools. We have not only kept up with the Joneses, but we have surpassed them. Utah has now reached the point where her spending must b matched to her limited income' She must now move wisely! and apportion this income be-1 tween all public and private needs, even between different! levels of education. We must stop yielding to pressures of special interest groups for morel than their fair share just be-' cause they threaten to black-1 mail us with "sanctions." dren in each home for clothing, cloth-ing, toys, etc? Manifestly it is not fair to expect the have-nots to keep up with the haves. Each is an independent economic unit and must live within its own economic eco-nomic limitations. How they spend their money is the responsibility re-sponsibility of each unit. The only thing the eight homes have in common is that they all live in the same neighborhood. neighbor-hood. There are much better yardsticks yard-sticks for measuring salaries than the mere fact that they are close neighbors. Factors such as number of children and income must also be taken into account. In this respect we have much more in common with such states as North and South Dakota, or even Idaho, or Montana, than iwe do with rich states like Nevada and Colorado. We note that Utah spends a larger portion of her income on education than any other state, $75.20 against a national average of $47.15. Here are some more figures on effort. This has happened since 1960. While attendance has gone up but 28, from 216,317 to 277,590, average annual an-nual teacher salaries have climbed 35, from $4,914 to $6,634. They now receive |