Most professions and blue collar jobs work like this: The more experienced a  person is at work, the better the pay. And with more experience and better pay, they produce better results.

Seems that doesn’t necessarily apply to teaching.

A report in the Washington Stand, citing Open the Books evidence, found that in more than 12,000 school districts, there’s “a negative correlation between overhead and student performance.”

“In other words, districts that spent more on teacher and administrative pay saw their students’ standardized test scores drop,” the research organization reported.

Open the Books works with freedom of information and other procedures to access details. It boasts it provides public access to “every dime, online, in real time.”

“Using the Open the Books proprietary database of government salaries across America, we calculated how much each U.S. state increased its public-school payrolls from 2019 to 2023. We compared that number to the change in each state’s ranking on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures reading and math skills for 4th and 8th graders,” the foundation said.

“By plotting the percentage change in payroll, state by state, versus the percentage change in the national rankings of its districts, a surprising picture emerges. Growing payrolls are not closely correlated with improved performance among districts in a given state. In fact, the opposite correlation appears. There is a mild inverse relationship between these two data sets. Higher overhead costs are associated with lower test scores,” the group said.

There was a word of caution in the analysis: Just because there is a correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that higher wages cause lower test scores, and Open the Books said that raises another question.

“Is the negative correlation more likely the result of increased teacher pay or is higher pay for administrators a factor?” it said.

The report cited earlier studies, dating back some 40 years, that suggested higher pay for administrators was more likely a cause of lower student stores.

That means, Open the Books explained, “administrative bloat in public schools is not new.”

An economics professor at Kennesaw State University, in fact, found that non-teaching staff at U.S. public schools exploded 702% from 1950 to 2009, while teaching staff rose 252%. And during that time, student scores fell, the report said.

The report noted that in Maine, educator pay rose 19% from 2019 to 2024. But student scores dropped a startling 16 positions in the ranking of 50 statse.

The report said, “Maryland is making historic investments in education through its 10-year, $30 billion Blueprint for Maryland’s Future plan. However, the plan has put such a strain on city and county finances that local legislator Joseph Stonko recently called it the ‘Blueprint to Bankrupt Maryland’s Future.’ In Maryland, student performance has yet to improve. In fact, since the Blueprint bill was first discussed in 2019, Maryland’s ranking on NAEP exams has dropped eight spots.”

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.