Teachers must be held accountable

Let's put all of this commotion about school salaries into perspective.

First of all, this information is available to everyone on www.thechampion.org -- very interesting information on teachers, administrators and staff salaries, education, and years of service.

Based on this information, there are elementary school teachers and support staff in Lake County making over $100,000 per year in base salary alone. There are administrators making well over $200,000 per year in base salary alone. Many of these people are in unions and their pay is not based on their performance or that of students. Their jobs are not in jeopardy in a recession or when homes in the district are being foreclosed.

Now, here's the perspective part -- a U.S. Supreme Court justice makes $199,200 per year, a congressman or senator makes $165,200 per year, a cabinet member makes $180,100 per year and the governor of Illinois makes $155,600. The starting salary for an assistant professor at CLC is under $50,000.

I agree that teaching is a noble profession and a very important one, but after seeing this, do we all still truly believe that the education pay system is equitable at any level? It's time for reform and the implementation of metrics to hold people accountable for their performance - yes merit based pay or as pay for performance.

Lee Goldberg

Vernon Hills