Schools Need the Best and the Brightest

Letters to the Editor - the Toronto Star:

The dilemma confronting trustees of the Toronto school board and likely Jim Spyropoulos himself underscores a destructive flaw basic to the compensation structure of public education. Every time individuals excel as teachers or principals, they are promoted up and away from the site of their excellence.

Surely the education system can figure out a way to compensate talent generously and keep it where it is most needed. Many fields of professional endeavour – sports, theatre, science – manage to pay their stars considerably more than they pay their managers.

Clearly Spyropoulos can't be blamed for pursuing a path that is the most advantageous to career growth and compensation. But that's too bad. He is needed in school, as were many other talented people over the years who have been pulled from meaningful daily contact at schools and stuck somewhere away from the action.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 28, 2008 8:16 AM
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