On November 10, 2011, the Amarillo Globe News published an article titled “Teachers overpaid, study says” and included as part of the article a database containing every teacher’s salary in Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, River Road and Highland Park school districts.

While it is within Amarillo Globe News’ rights to publish the teacher salary database, it certainly wasn’t necessary. The article discusses budget cuts, teacher benefits, pension plans, and unions (which the state of Texas doesn’t even have). The database had no relevance to the article; it just provided a way to create controversy. Anyone can request the teacher’s salary list for themselves, so the Amarillo Globe News didn’t need to take the time nor liberty to publish it. General salaries are discussed in the article, so what point did publishing individual teacher’s names, job title, years of experience, and salaries serve?  Nothing, except to create tension between teachers’ right to privacy and the news’ right to request the information and publish it. The article didn’t mention any specific teacher that was supposedly “overpaid”, so the reader didn’t need to look up any salaries anyway. Furthermore, the article blames benefits as being the financial bane on school’s budgets, not teacher’s salaries.   The database was an unnecessary addition for the article, which barely brushed the actual topic of teacher’s salaries.

In addition, people should recognize that it is common courtesy to maintain a degree of privacy for others, even if it is within your right to do the opposite. Our teachers work hard for the students they serve, and posting the salaries will only create animosity between teachers and the community. The database and article conveniently overlooked the individual teachers who expect nothing less than excellence from both themselves and their students in the classroom, yet still make less than teachers who are not as dedicated. The database is just that: a database. It is only statistics; the real importance remains not what a teacher makes each year, but what they accomplish in the classroom through their own hard work and genuine care for their job and students.