Fair Pay, Not Financial Enrichment
What to know: There is brewing discontent over sky-high superintendent salaries and gold-plated benefit packages that oftentimes include housing subsidies, car allowances, lump-sum payments, and other perks. Commenting on this controversy, one observer recently remarked: “A basic principle of public-sector compensation is that public officials should be paid fairly for their work, but public service should not be a path to personal financial enrichment.”
The TPPF take: No one should get rich from public service.
“One real problem with Texas public education today is administrative bloat, which is exemplified by half-million dollar superintendent salaries and their gold-plated benefits. These lavish compensation packages foist a heavy burden on taxpayers and deprive the classroom of much-needed funding,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “It’s fine to make a good living as a government employee, but no one should go into public service and get rich.”
Health Data
What to know: Health apps on your smartphone could be selling your health data, new reports say.
The TPPF take: Few possessions are more personal than one’s own medical history, and few are harder to actually hold.
“Once health data leaves a covered entity for an app, vendor, or broker, federal protection ends, and Texas law leaves that gap open,” says TPPF’s Brooke Garner. “The harm is real and documented. Health apps have sold patient data to advertisers, brokers have exposed clinic visits through location data, and bankruptcies have put sensitive genetic records up for sale.”
Truth, Not Toys
What to know: The University of Michigan is eliminating first-semester grades for freshmen in order to “curb a mental health crisis.”
The TPPF take: The idea that the primary responsibility of education is to protect the student’s emotional state is a radical departure from the original purpose of education.
“Beginning with Socrates, the classical tradition understood education as the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful — not merely the accumulation of knowledge, but the formation of people capable of reason, virtue, and self-governance,” says TPPF’s Kate Bierly. “Allan Bloom later argued that a liberal education connects students to the enduring questions of truth, virtue, and human flourishing. A free society depends upon citizens capable of self-governance.”