Keeping up with Joneses in Dist. 203?

Was Naperville Unit District 203’s approval of a 12 percent salary increase for its superintendent founded upon solid educational rationale, or was it just a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?

An interesting article from the Independence Institute (a nonprofit, nonpartisan Colorado think thank) says that “in order to create a more effective delivery system for education, answering the question how the money is spent should take precedence over how much is spent. Funds should be provided ... based on the amount of evidence showing its effectiveness in improving important student skills.”

The article cited a Stanford University analysis of 163 studies that found only 27 percent demonstrated a positive correlation between spending and student performance. One of District 203’s missions is to educate students to be complex thinkers. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of studies show no positive correlation between spending and student performance, is the school board approving raises that far exceed that of the taxpayer through a process of complex thinking and how it will affect student performance, or on the more impetuous basis of keeping up with the Joneses?

Mike Davitt

Naperville