A few days ago, the Elk River Education Association posted the following on its social media accounts, praising its members for fighting for students and teachers:
Out of curiosity, we looked into the budget numbers for the district and found that Elk River spent $19,416 per student in the 2022-2023 school year. For those curious about how we arrived at that pricey number, check the chart from the district below, which shows that total expenditures for the year were $266,629,577, divided by an Average Daily Membership (ADM) of 13,732 students.
The Elk River Education Association is working hard to do the best for their teachers and students, but seeing these numbers does make us wonder if teachers are getting treated fairly. According to Glassdoor, the average teacher salary in the Elk River district is $54,000 per year. Good, reasonable, middle-of-the-road pay, right?
But look at that spending per student number again. If the district spends $19,416 per student, then a teacher who teaches a class of only 15 students should have $291,240 pouring into his or her classroom. Teachers work hard, so why are Elk River teachers seeing only about a fifth of that number?
Consider one more thought. What if Minnesota had Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), allowing education dollars to follow each child to the school that best fits his needs? ESAs would provide $7,000 per student and could be used at public schools, charter schools, private schools, microschools, homeschools, or other educational venues.
Now what if an enterprising Elk River teacher decided to leave the district and open a microschool? If that teacher only accepted 10 students into his microschool for the cost of the ESA, he would have a salary of $70,000. In other words, he would have a smaller class for a bigger salary. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that’s a winner of a plan.
Perhaps that’s why 70% of teachers support ESAs. They’ve done the math and weighed the benefits for both themselves and students.
Now if only teachers’ unions like the Elk River Education Association and Education Minnesota would realize that ESAs are good for their teachers and start lobbying for the Minnesota Legislature to enact them…
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Image Credit: Twitter–Elk River Education Association
