or at least not entirely. We hear from both the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the school district that we need to raise salaries for deputies and teachers to attract better people to both positions. Each can provide surveys to prove the pay for each is below what their counterparts are paid around the state.
However, when we simply raise pay, we reward the mediocrity in the ECSO and public schools…unless we have an objective employee evaluation system that removes the low performers and rewards those who are doing their jobs properly. We may hire better people, but we have to deal with those already employed, too.
Blanket pay raises are a disservice to the public and a slap in the face of those deputies and teachers doing their jobs well.
And by objective evaluations for teachers – I don’t mean FCAT scores. The evaluations need measurable statistics -not subjective assessments like “has a nice attitude.”
We need objective evaluations of all government employees, and the results should be available to the public for review.