The Right State

I just love the way the Associated Press uses a misleading title of an article and the first part of the story to totally mislead their reading audience.  The AP conducted a study of Texas’ High Schools using the Texas Information Act to find out what the state’s highest paid coaches were paid compared to teachers.

Football coaches at schools in the state’s two largest classifications average $21,404 more in salary than teachers, slightly less than they did 10 years ago, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday following an examination of public records.

The Statesman reviewed the salaries for the 2005-06 school year from schools in Classes 5A and 4A through documents obtained under the Texas Public Information Act. The findings were very similar to a similar study done by The Associated Press in 1996, using records from the 1995-96 school year.

The latest numbers show coaches making an average of $73,804, compared to $42,400 for teachers.

You have to dig way down into the article to find facts left out of the beginning which would make a difference to the readers.  First is the fact that the study only evaluated Head Coaching jobs, and does not included their assistant coaches.  Second, they leave out the fact that some teachers make more money than the head coach makes at the same high school.

The Statesman reviewed the total compensation paid to the head football coaches and salaries of their highest-paid teachers, high school principals and superintendents for all school districts with schools in 4A and 5A. To be classified in 4A or above, schools had to have at least 950 students; that covered 461 schools. There were 428 schools in 4A and 5A during the AP review. (snip)

In Houston, the district’s highest-paid teacher makes $95,191 — far more than the $76,913 drawn by the district’s top-paid coach, Tom Nolan of Houston Lamar.

And finally the kicker is near the bottom of the article which includes how many days a year each is paid and how many hours a week a coach works.  This sounds more like a joke than anything else.

Coaches receive a base salary, plus a coaching stipend that ranges from $1,000 to the $35,000 paid to Dodge. Their contracts usually are based on a 226-day work year, while teachers’ contracts are based on a 187-day year. It’s common for football coaches to log 70 to 100 per week during the season, including time on Saturdays and Sundays, compared to 40 to 70 per week for teachers.

As a former coach I can tell you that coaches work far more than 226 days a year and I worked a heck of a lot more than 70to 100 hours a week.  As an assistant football coach at a 4A High School, I worked seven days a week from 2-3 weeks from the start of school and through most holidays until the end of football season.  As an assistant coach I had other sports to coach like basketball and sometimes baseball.  There was no such thing as Spring break or Christmas break.  Summers were filled with football camps, coaching camps, weight rooms to open and other such duties.  During football season my day started at 0700 in the morning and ended at 1900 on practice days.  Three days a week we played football: varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen squads.  On game days, the day ended when all the equipment was stored, students gone and films broken down.  Saturday started at 0800 and ended at 1800.  Sundays started at 1400 and ended at 2100-2200.  This did not include preparing for classes and grading papers.  Coaching involves a lot of long days and long hours.

This is not complaining.  I could not wait to go to work and did not want to go home—I loved my job.  But there was not one teacher at my school who wanted to trade hours with me.  Their day started at 0800 and ended at 1600 on weekdays.  Then there is the issue of job security.  Teachers only have to teach to keep their jobs—coaches have to win games to keep theirs.

I was a highly paid assistant coach.  Once I tried to figure out how much I was making per hour while working after school while coaching.  I was making a whopping 50 cents an hour.  What the school did not know was I would have worked as a coach for nothing.

What I find disturbing about the article is how misleading it is.  Sure coaches make more money than teachers, but a winning coach will bring in paying fans.  The schools make a lot of money from winning sports.  Good Head Coaches are worth every dime their paid.  They bring in money, prestige, and good teachers.  Most coaches are in the business because they love their jobs, while many teachers are just going through the motions with their jobs.

So I wonder, did the writers had an agenda or did they just conduct poor research.  If the AP writers were doing their research, they would know the hours coaches work and what they bring to their school.

Tags: Bias, Culture //