Yesterday morning, El Monitor staff writer, Neal Morton, posted a writeup on various salaries of school district employees that he compiled into easily viewable Google Documents from the original spreadsheet files so that anyone wishing to do so would be able to quickly and efficiently view this public information. It should be noted that the info was not all current. Some of the information submitted was from the prior year, and not all of the districts had yet responded to the request. Well, the files were posted online, at the Education Blog portion of El Monitor’s site. Yes, on the blog, not the main page. That didn’t seem to matter all that much, as a multitude of comments were soon to follow. So much so, that I suspect El Monitor pulled the article for all the heat they were receiving.
The current page, located here, returns a 404 error which is an invalid page error. This means there is nothing there. There used to be an article there, but no more. However, this doesn’t mean that the information is gone. Google has done it’s job in data mining every piece of information it can get it’s hands on, and has a cached archive here.
This is important for two reasons.
Firstly, it demonstrates the continuing Editorial Policy of El Monitor to remove articles it deems “difficult” to deal with.
Secondly, it demonstrates the power of the Google. Yes, Google knows all and sees all. Or at least, it wants to. It tries to.
Side note: A Google StreetView car was spotted yesterday driving near Nolana and 23rd street. This means StreetView data will be updated for the valley within the coming months. Additionally, Google satelite imagery has been updated for the RGV from the previous 2007 data to mostly December 2010 data. The current photography clarity is decidedly clearer than the 2007 data.
So, back to the article at hand. I’ve PDF’d the cached article at Google just in case someone decides to have it pulled. You can download that PDF here if the cached link above seems to stop working.
Perusing through the comments posted on this article, of which there are 29 pages worth in the PDF, will quickly alert you to several irate ISD employees which seem to be predominantly teachers by profession. This is interesting because the article was originally posted at 9:04AM with a few followup morning posts, but as soon as those teachers got home and on their computers, there was a torrential spewing of angst towards El Monitor, and more particularly towards the article’s author, Mr. Neal Morton.
Here are a few samples of these individuals:
Inorzetroc says:
Please. You could have redacted the employees names. With the way things are now, any lunatic can look me up, know what I make (it may be a lot to some, but come on I have my living expenses, family student loans to pay etc.) and then come and stalk me. I am one of those teachers that is at school late into the evening with no security. It is a necessity since I teach various grade levels and ability levels. The public has the right to know what the amount is, not who specifically is making it. I think it was in very bad taste to publish OUR NAMES!
MariaDesamparadaDepresiva says:
I sugggest we that every employee listed or going to be listed needs to boycott The Monitor! Cancel your subscriptions! Shame on The Monitor because in their uneducated opinion there is nothing better to report than personal information!
THEMONITORSUX says:
ATTN EVERYONE mr moron DOES NOT WANT YOU TO BUY HIS PAPER SO DONT TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW CANCEL SUBSCRIPTIONS DONT BUY IT AT ALL AND WHEN IT STILL ENDS UP IN YOUR YARD REPORT THE MONITOR FOR ILLEGALLY DUMPING TRASH IN YOUR YARD
Well, so we have a publication of public information, and now we have these three loons talking about being stalked, boycotting El Monitor, cancelling subscriptions, and general foolishness. Where do I start? El Monitor is the “paper of note” for the McAllen area, and arguably for the entire RGV. *cough* *cough* for what that’s worth with their decidedly slanted Editorial Policies. But I digress…
We have these three loons and others like them complaining that “now people know how much I make” Oh NOES!!!11!!11 Guess what Inorzetroc, MariaDesamparadaDepresiva, & THEMONITORSUX – that information is PUBLIC RECORD! You, as employees of the various school districts are funded in part through the tax dollars of guess who – TAX PAYING CITIZENS! Yes, me, my neighbors, and the rest of us who are able-bodied workers in the workplace that earn income and pay taxes on said income. You may not receive 100% of your income from taxes generated on MY LABOR, but you are receiving some of that money that came from MY POCKET. As a precondition to accepting that income you get year-round, that information becomes public record. I have the ability to file a Public Information Request with nearly any governmental entity to receive that sort of information.
According to Chapter 552 of the Texas Governmental Code, I have the ability to request this information, just as any other taxpayer does, for a nominal fee. I may have to pay a few dollars for “administrative costs” or multiple sheets of hardcopies, or similar minor expenses, but the information itself is PUBLIC and PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.
Please understand, this is not meant to broadcast what each individual employee of the various districts are making. Instead, this is meant to educate the Public, which has the Right to this information, as to where exactly their tax dollars are being spent. In turn, this allows us discourse with our Representatives in charge of the bodies which delegate or decide over their jurisdictions. As a resident of McAllen, community activist, taxpayer and voter, I intend to use this information to shape whom I vote for. This is particularly poignant for me as there are several MISD school board candidates vying for my vote. If I’m happy with the expenditures, I’ll vote for the incumbents. If I don’t like the expenditures, I’ll ask the incumbents to alter their decisions. Otherwise, I’ll vote for a new candidate.
Now, as a recipient of tax funds, you don’t really have a right to decide what happens with that information. However, I’ll still listen to your views on this matter. Please understand though, that as a tax payer and private sector employee, I will help decide these matters of public fund expenditures as I see fit. If you don’t like that fact, then you are free to leave the public sector and join the private sector instead. We’ve already got 51% of the workforce locally employed by Government, Education, & Health Care industries. We could use some real jobs out here anyway, and I’m not talking about minimum wage Liberal Arts jobs.
Feel free to comment. I’d like to hear some opinions on this one.
