{"id":346,"date":"2017-08-22T00:53:28","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/k12transparency.isolon.org\/?page_id=346"},"modified":"2017-08-22T00:53:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:53:28","slug":"testimony-on-january-24-2017","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/k12transparency.isolon.org\/?page_id=346","title":{"rendered":"Testimony on January 24, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A case study of the dismal politics and practice of
\nK12 compensation transparency<\/strong><\/h2>\n

[\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.0.69″ divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.69″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

J.H. Snider\u00a0Testimony<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

Presentation on K12 compensation transparency
\nbefore the Maryland State Board of Education<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n

J.H. Snider\u2019s presentation before the
\nMaryland Department of Education\u2019s Board of Education,<\/strong>
\nNancy S. Grasmick State Education Building,
\n200 West Baltimore Street, 7th<\/sup>\u00a0Floor Board Room, Baltimore, MD,
\nJanuary 24, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is J.H. Snider, and I am the president of iSolon.org.\u00a0 I am a former school board member and have published dozens of op-eds on education politics and policy in publications including\u00a0Education Week<\/em>,\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>, and\u00a0U.S.A. Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I am here today to report on the findings from my two sets of Public Information Act requests seeking the methodology used to calculate K12 salary statistics.\u00a0 The first involves my local public school system in Anne Arundel County; the second the Maryland State Department of Education.<\/p>\n

My basic findings concerning MSDE are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. MSDE does not collect disaggregate salary data from local school districts,<\/li>\n
  2. MSDE lacks a detailed methodology for aggregating those salary data into average salary statistics, instead leaving that methodology to the discretion of local school districts,<\/li>\n
  3. MSDE does not enforce what limited guidelines it does have,<\/li>\n
  4. MSDE does not check for consistency in the methodologies used both across and within local school districts in calculating salary statistics, even when anomalies are brought to its attention;<\/li>\n
  5. MSDE bases its maximum salary statistic for teachers not on actual salaries but on the salary schedule, which in my county may represent only about two-thirds of actual salary,<\/li>\n
  6. To explain the statistics it reports to the public, MSDE refers requesters to Maryland\u2019s 25 local districts, where requesters must submit Public Information Act requests for the information,<\/li>\n
  7. MSDE makes numerous controversial assumptions in the presentation of its salary statistics but fails to disclose them in its published reports.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My basic findings concerning the Anne Arundel County Public Schools are:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Starting in 2008, AACPS has consistently failed to comply with both the spirit and letter of the Public Information Act concerning public access to salary data,<\/li>\n
    2. In response to my Public Information Act requests, AACPS has complained to thousands of its employees and the Maryland General Assembly that this information is legally public,<\/li>\n
    3. AACPS techniques for avoiding compliance with the law have varied substantially over time and tend to be quite sophisticated,<\/li>\n
    4. AACPS has failed to provide the salary information that MSDE asserted local Maryland school districts would provide in response to my various Public Information Act requests to MSDE,<\/li>\n
    5. In response to the Public Information Act request I submitted to AACPS in response to MSDE\u2019s guidance that I seek this information locally, AACPS asserted that it had fulfilled my request despite almost completely ignoring my actual requests and justifying its assertion by providing me MSDE\u2019s ambiguous guidance that I already included in my Public Information Act request.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Citizens should not have to endure such hardships in seeking K12 compensation data.\u00a0 Employee compensation represents more than 80% of local school budgets and the public should not only have the right to access this information, but access it in a way that it is meaningfully public.<\/p>\n

      This distinction between salary data being public and meaningfully public is critical.\u00a0 In Maryland, at least 50% of employee compensation data is public and few politicians would dare to argue publicly that it shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 But as my Public Information Act requests with AACPS and MSDE demonstrate, it has often not been meaningfully public.<\/p>\n

      My specific recommendations to you are:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. MSDE should publish all raw salary data online in a machine-readable format and with consistent methodological assumptions across all local school districts,<\/li>\n
      2. MSDE should explicitly disclose its methodology, including all the types of compensation data excluded from public disclosure, and<\/li>\n
      3. MSDE should disclose its reasons for making salary data pro-actively public, including:\n