OVERPAID SCHOOLMASTERS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—" Public School Headmaster " has done well to state the facts relating to schoolmasters' salaries, for the facts
are apparently almost unknown. Of the innumerable business men who have expressed to me the usual opinion that " school- masters are overpaid," all have been taken aback on learning the truth of the matter. The general belief seems to be that these salaries are anything from 50 per. cent. to 100 per cent. higher than they actually are. The present salary scale for graduate schoolmasters in secondary schools (£200- £400, net) is utterly inadequate for men of their status, education and training, marrying women of their own class and engaked in a profession which demands constant expense if they are to maintain their efficiency and freshness. A recent set of family budgets," taken at random from a number of schools, revealed that over half could afford no annual holiday, and that when secondary school masters wish to give their children secondary education this has to be done at the sacrifice of food, domestic help, insurance or " cultural expenses," or of all four. One wonders at times if• the people who hold the financial destinies of the schoolmasters in their hands are aware of the facts. Presumably the Civil Service salaries are a guide as to what the Treasury considers reasonable pay : if so, then it appears that schoolmasters are rated, consciously or unconsciously, between the General Clerical Class and the General Executive Class ; and, if the chances of promotion are taken into account, very much nearer the former than the latter
One point touched upon by " Public School Headmaster," though a minor. detail, is not without significance. Teachers, when their salaries were cut (for the third time), were forced to pay Income Tax on their uncut salary. This was a some- what striking contrast to the subsequent treatment of holders of War Loan at the time of its. conversion. , Rightly or wrongly, a cynical interpretation has been put on the sweet reasonableness displayed in the latter case ; and it is contrasts of the kind indicated which generate in the schoolmaster's mind, the suspicion that he is selected for special victimization, and that his part in the nation's life is unduly depreciated. The loyalty and devotion of the teachers, as I believe every headmaster. will testify, has .remained unimpaired, but it could hardly remain so if this suspicion hardened into con-
viction.—I am, Sir, &e., .
UNIVERSITY TRAINED 'HEADMASTER. -
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