Updated 05/15/2009 06:17 AM
Teacher pay now on the web
ALBANY, N.Y. -- "Nowhere has this been done before," said Empire Center for New York State Policy Senior Policy Analyst Lisa Bang-Jensen.
Like it or not, almost 256,000 New York teachers' salaries are now just a click away.
"Under state law, their salaries are public," Bang-Jensen said.
The site, Seethroughny.net, has previously put up state workers' salaries and school contracts in the name of transparency. The Empire Center created the website, allowing taxpayers to see how much a million state and local public employees are making.
"You can look at how much they're getting paid, how many are getting paid over $100,000 and so forth," Bang-Jensen said.
The site allows you to search by school district and even by name. The websites salary stats are about a year old.
The site is launching just as school districts around the state are getting ready for Tuesday's budget votes.
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“Most of us have very little information on what's in those school budgets. Seventy percent of every school budget or more are salaries and benefits,” Bang-Jensen said. “So here's a chance for the public to see details on one aspect of the budget.”
But certainly not all administrators or teachers may like the idea of having their salaries put online, but Superintendent Eric Ely of the Schenectady School District says he agrees that taxpayers certainly have a right to know.
“We're used to it being public knowledge and I think our staff will say, well, you know, yeah we work for the public,” Ely said.
Ely's salary has been listed with other superintendents for months.
“I think some people will be surprised by some of the teacher's salaries and think they're too large or they may think they're too small,” Bang-Jensen said.
Teachers and taxpayers alike will have to decide just how useful the information may be. A recent New York State School Boards Association survey of districts around the state showed some disparity: a teacher with ten years experience and a master's degree may be making anywhere from $37,000 to $89,000. Salaries you can now see.
The Empire Center is working on listing another set of public employees' salaries on the website, though they won't say who it will be.