Invasion of privacy?? You're opening the doors for potential identity theft.

This left a bad taste in my mouth. I had no problem looking up a few friends who work for Baltimore County Schools. What I found is information we've shared as peers already, but things I'm sure they wouldn't want readily accessible to the public.

Poor form, Sun.

I understand having salary scales published, after all teachers are “public servants” so to speak, but what I don't understand is having such personal information published. What is the purpose of knowing what each specific teacher and administrator earn? How does that benefit education? The big joke was a teacher’s salary. Now people can prove it.

Hey Liz, when are you going to post your annual salary so all of us could take a look at what an outstanding writer makes?

Oh, and hey, we were wondering, will your pay get docked for performance because of that typo in the first sentence?

We understand you aren’t picking on county schools. What would that even mean--picking on schools? I don’t think you can hurt a school’s feelings, can you?

No, you and your employer are picking on the people who put in the hard work for the county schools.

I understand that there are certain jackasses in the world who think it’s their right to scream at a cop or teacher, “I pay your salary.’ But I am surprised the Sun would adopt this same mentality.

It’s one thing to make public what the average pay is for certain positions in the system, that’s fair. But what added service have you provided your readers by printing each teacher's name with an exact salary paid to him or her…other than titillating a certain type of jackass reader?

I read that the Sun didn't ask for this information, but County Executive Kevin Kamenetz required that this personal information be released. This does not excuse the Sun for their publishing the information on the website. Everyone should call Kamenetz's office and complain.

From Liz:
I want to clarify that The Sun requested the salary information, not only from the school system but also from the county, state and city governments. Most of it is already online.

PS

Let me say that I know this wasn't your idea Liz, to add the teacher salary database to the Sun's website. I wasn't picking on you, but using your blog to make a point.

If I didn't know better I would suspect that adding the database was a Joe Hairston orchestrated PR stunt, forcing the Sun to help him embarrass the teachers who look to him for leadership -- the teaching rank and file who recently exposed a shady deal to profit from the county-developed evaluation software, and who exposed his approval of costly administrative hires after he cut classroom jobs.

But I know better than that!

How dare you publish employee salaries!
I am aware that as a public employee my salary is
public knowledge but for the Sun to go out and have a database
for neighbors, friends, co-workers, our children and students to
find our salaries is disgraceful.

What was your point?
Perhaps some people may be embarassed if their salary is shared to others, including their family. Perhaps this could put a wedge between co-workers or teachers and parents, even students. I work hard for my money and I want my very private information to stay private. No one ever told me when I was hired or at any time since then that my salary and date of employment would be published in the online edition of the state newspaper for everyone to see. There should be a better way to have transparency in public employee salaries than this. Those who wish to see what anyone makes should have to go to a Baltimore County government office to request this information and NOT have it published to on line for everyone to see and possibly have posted on Facebook or anywhere else publicly. If we did not have the internet, what would the Sun have done then? What would Kamanetz have done? There is your answer.
Every person who reads this message should boycott,
permanently the Baltimore Sun.
Since you have now published the salary earnings and
times of employment for BCPS staff, you MUST now do
this for every public employee in every county in Maryland, not just the state, city, or Baltimore county. But again, why? For what purpose. If it is true Kamanetz is behind this, then every Baltimore County resident needs to write to him and remember this at election time. He is not a friend to teachers and staff.

An even better reason for the Sun to go out of business.

I agree with every post here. Legal or not;this blog post was tasteless! One more effort to teacher bash! When Baltimore City/county teachers are driven out, is there a waiting list of new teachers? Almost every good teacher in my school quit last year. QUIT. And don't believe the party line. Under different circumstances, they would still be with us. They are teaching elsewhere. We deserve every penny we make and more. We spend a large amount of personal money every year. We DONATE countless hours every week in unpaid committees, clubs, and events. This includes weekends. I recently worles 14 straight days including events and meetings.For every naysayer, walk in my shoes for a week. And start trying to figure out who will teach in the cities of America.

What a despicable reason to push sales of an online newspaper. Shame on you, Baltimore Sun and Kamenetz, for publicizing such personal and private information. I can guarantee I will be canceling my subscription and will encourage everyone to do so as well. What good are you doing? If you want to tell people about "that outstanding teacher", WRITE about him or her! How would knowing that teacher's salary impact the reason for him or her to teach? What a way to use freedom of information.

Great, now you pit administrators against teachers. Maybe exemplary teachers should be compensated for excellence. Why should a mediocre teacher make the same as an outstanding teacher? Unsatisfactory teachers get paid the same salalry. Go figure?!
Again, increase the school day of instruction to match all the other Maryland school districts and you can compare teachers salaries. Add 2.5 hours of instruction to the school week in Baltimore County, then raise the salaries of effective teachers to be comparable to other competitive districts already teaching students a half an hour more each day. All Maryland students and schools are measured by the same high stakes testing.Baltimore County children are being ripped off of equitable instructional time each day, year and about 3/4 of a school year over a school K-12 career! That is worth reporting.

In addition, you might want to report more accurately. Dr. Alonso gets an additional 40% of his base salary annually, if student progress is reported. That makes him the highest paid superintendent.

I have to say most of my comments have already been stated so I'll take a new angle with the salary debate. Looking up the salaries of some the piss poor 25 year veterans I have worked with who have nothing better to do with their life than collect college credits brought my anger to an all time high. Since there is no financial reward for planning engaging lessons, they spend planning periods doing online courses to inflate their salary. Maybe I am the dumb one…

Sadly, I had to take the plunge so I can send my kid to college. I'm in a master’s degree cohort. By the way – it’s is an utter waste of time. Fortunately, BCPS is picking up most of the tab thanks to federal grant programs and good old Baltimore County taxpayers! Why we equate master’s degrees and time on the job with effectiveness is the great mystery? Can someone explain to me how History of Education class is going to close the achievement gap? I guess it’s just a way to funnel PUBLIC money into PRIVATE colleges and keep some decaying professors on the job. At $2000 per course x 20 students, just where does all of that money go anyway…not towards improving schools, teaching or kids in any way I can assure you.

By the way - I make 74K in case you haven't looked it up yet.