Personnel Costs Prove Tough to Contain

Pay and Pensions Constitute a Massive Portion of Schools' Costs, but Reining Them in Requires Creativity and Realistic Expectations

By Sean Cavanagh

Personnel costs—the salaries and benefits that sustain the K-12 workforce—consume an enormous portion of school budgets, and many policymakers are determined to drive those expenses down, even as they also seek to improve academic achievement and the quality of instruction.

Yet reducing those costs is not as simple as chopping away at the state or local education budget, or eliminating programs or services.

State pension systems, which typically cover teachers, generally are protected by state constitutions and other laws, and courts have made it difficult to reduce benefits for current enrollees. And teachers’ salary schedules and health-care costs are often protected by hard-fought collective bargaining agreements...