Salaries on the public record

ONLINE READER REACTION
Published: March 7, 2008

These are some of the online reader reactions to a March 3 story about salaries and compensation for Prince William County School teachers, administration and staff. This includes Prince William County Superintendent Steven L. Walts, who stands to earn an extra $14,357 this year.

As usual the Potomac News has crossed the line. Whatever happened to basic privacy and decency? Just because it is legal to do it, doesn’t mean you should. Meanwhile has this paper told you how much the House of Delegates wants to cut public education funding over the next two years to the tune of over $20.7 million? Of course not. It doesn’t meet their agenda with Corey Stewart to slam the schools and cut support for our children.
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Salaries of public employees are public information. The public’s access to this information is a basic part of the checks and balances on our governance and allows for transparency and accountability to the public that provides the dollars that pay the salaries. However, employees should expect that personally identifying information such as addresses and phone numbers should remain private. There is no public right to know personal information.
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As a teacher for Prince William County, I am outraged at the amount of money the superintendent and the other high ups make each year. Earlier this school year, the school I work at had to destaff a faculty member because of lack of funds for the teacher salaries. As a result, the three smaller fourth-grade classes became two overcrowded classes. I wonder if this could have been avoided if some people had smaller salaries.
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As an employee of PWCS, I absolutely object to having my friends and neighbors being able to search on my name and being able to pull up exactly what I make. I wouldn’t object to being able to pull up a certain job title and being able to see the range of salaries for that title, years of experience, etc… But I think just about anyone in PWC would be complaining right now if the Potomac News put their salaries online for the world to see. Quite frankly, I think you have totally crossed the line on this one.
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Thank you so very much for publishing my salary. I am sure that my friends and neighbors will be pleased that I am adequately compensated for my expertise and experience.

While I appreciate the need for public information, I believe that the Potomac News should have exercised some caution in their publication of this information. Would you like my tax returns for the last seven years as well as all the information about my spouse, my children and sex life?