The recent strikes in Colchester and Barre, as well as the one in Orleans earlier this year, and the imminent one in South Burlington, are a result of the simple fact that it's getting more and more difficult for taxpayers in Vermont to pay teachers what they deserve. Health care, to be sure, is part of the problem. But another big part of the problem is the explosion of education bureaucracy in Vermont. Vermont consistently ranks in the top 10 states in the nation in per-pupil spending. However, it consistently ranks much closer to the bottom in teacher salaries.

In the last two years, non-teaching "support" personnel (including administration, counselors, secretaries, and aides — but not maintenance, food service, or transportation) went up 3.5 percent in Vermont, while the number of actual classroom teachers declined.

It is always the tendency of a bureaucracy to expand its mission, and this is nowhere more evident than in Vermont's schools. Cyril Northcote Parkinson first described bureaucratic expansion in the British Navy in the 1950s. While he presented his famous Parkinson's Law — that work expands to fill the time allotted it — in a humorous tone, its implications to education are very serious.

Parkinson's Law happens for a number of reasons. As a bureaucrat gets older and less energetic, he perceives an increase in his workload. He can't quite put a finger on it, but he is certain to cite No Child Left Behind or Act 60 as a primary factor. It's actually the natural aging process. Another reason for the phenomenon is the feeling of prestige one gains with a large staff under one's supervision.

It's now common for a superintendent to have an assistant superintendent, business manager, curriculum coordinator, technology coordinator, and special services director at her disposal — all receiving professional salaries — as well as a platoon of clerical staff. And it is now customary for a principal to have an assistant principal, a guidance director, an athletic director, a transportation coordinator, technology administrator, bookkeeper, curriculum coordinator, executive secretary, multiple front office secretaries, not to mention guidance secretaries and special education secretaries. In addition, schools have an ample supply of psychologists, counselors, and case managers — and an army of aides.

Parkinson's Law occurs for another reason. Newly hired bureaucrats quickly solidify their soft positions by making work for themselves — and, unfortunately, others. Take a new part-time school psychologist, counselor, or case manager. A person in one of these positions has it in his best interest to increase his caseload and paperwork load. (This can mean a referral to the psychologist — and, of course, regular follow-ups, during class time — for the average ordinary student who might simply be having a bad day.)

Our children's education suffers because of the actual harm that "support" personnel do. Beyond a certain number of these personnel, they become a hindrance to teachers. They do not reduce the burdens on teachers. They increase the demands on teachers. Education suffers because of the actual harm that "support" personnel do. Teachers must be at their beck and call to fill out countless information request forms and respond to all their other requests.

The worst effect that Parkinson's Law has in education, however, is in the money it spends. This phenomenon holds down teacher salaries, making the profession less competitive. It keeps class sizes higher than they could be. It causes teachers, and thus academic programs, to be cut. And it risks taxpayer backlash.

Teachers would be better off starting their own union, one that does not include "support" personnel. About 377,000 of the NEA's 2.7 million members are what they call ESPs (education support personnel). They pay a relatively small fraction of the union's dues revenue. It's not in the best interest of teachers to help these people keep their jobs and make more money. Nor is it in the best interest of education.

I've seen too many instances of science and math teachers getting cut while clerical staff gets increased. Given our nation's ranking in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), this makes no sense. We're not a nation at risk because we don't have enough secretaries.

Education should be the basic mission of our schools. It once was. And it can be again. Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, makes an interesting, yet astonishingly simple, proposal. It's most often the case that when CEOs get involved in education, it's a disaster. But this one is on to something. It's called the 65 Cent Solution. It merely says that 65 cents of every dollar of education spending should go directly to the classroom.

The business mogul has founded a group called First Class Education. The group is running television commercials across the country touting the idea. Only four states (down from seven states three years ago) currently meet the threshold, but a few state legislatures are considering mandating it, and the governor of Texas has made it an executive order.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 61.5 percent of education budgets reach the classroom. First Class Education figures that a mere 3.5 percent bump could buy a desktop computer for every student in America or hire 325,000 more teachers at $40,000 a year.

Our state should join the effort, first by making cuts in the state Department of Education, which is already bloated with over 200 employees. Then it should mandate the 65 Cent Solution for our school districts. It may not be a "solution" in the sense that it would make all the problems in public education disappear. But it would restore education as the basic mission of our schools.


Curtis G. Hier is a teacher at Fair Haven Union High School and author of the book, "A Teacher Talks Back: A View of Education Reform from the Classroom" (available soon from Infinity Publishing).