Publishing Teachers' Salaries

I was shocked to see that The St. Louis Post-Dispatch publishes teachers' salaries.  I'm not talking about just publishing the different pay scales of each district.  I mean you can type in a teacher's name and pull up the individual's pay!  YIKES!!!

Here's a screen shot of the page.

The page appears to supply information for both Missouri and Illinois counties.

I don't have a problem with publishing teachers' salaries, since we are paid with tax dollars.  District payscales should be public information.  However, I was truly shocked to see that a person could get really specific, being able to single out individual teachers.

Jean Buchanan of the Post gave the following explanation:

But, some teachers have argued, why don’t you publish a salary schedule rather than names? Why not just point out that someone with 10 years experience earns a certain amount of money?

I would argue that most people don’t relate to teachers by way of a salary schedule; they relate to them by name. They may not know that their third-grader’s teacher has 10 years experience, they just know her name and that she’s a terrific teacher. When they find out how much she is being paid, they will have information they can use in the continuing discussion over teacher salaries and school district tax rates.

We think that the pay of public servants is rightly a topic of public debate. The Post-Dispatch has reported that in general, personnel costs account for 80 percent of public school district budgets. That means fluctuations in salary have a big impact on tax rates.

When you look at this data, you can decide whether your school district is competitive with others on attracting teachers, whether the number of administrators is justified, whether administrator pay is in correct proportion to that of classroom teachers.

Some of the comments that followed Buchanan's entry wondered why teachers were in such a huff.  If we're public servants and its public information, what's the big deal?  Again, I wholeheartedly agree with the public being able to access that information.  School districts don't hide the information either, for that matter.  All districts publish their payscales on their website.  My frustration is that this is such an invasion of MY personal privacy that a person can look up my name and see my salary.  I don't buy Buchanan's notion that knowing what her child's teacher earns will help her in the discussion over teacher salaries and school district tax rates.

I also find it offensive that the Post advertizes this "service" about midway across the onscreen front page with a lovely little box: 

I guess checking out teachers' salaries is simply another form of entertainment, along with the Simpson's trivia challenge, the Heath Ledger quiz, and getting Cardinals tickets.  I shouldn't take it so personally.

I noticed that policemen's salaries were also available by name.