School board didn’t deserve raise; they shouldn’t even be paid

I'm amazed that the Horry County School Board gets paid, let alone have the right to vote on their own raises. Sixty-two percent of school boards in the country do not receive any compensation. It's a privilege to serve on a school board to make sure our students get the best possible education available.

I was on a school board in Connecticut, with a budget of more than $60 million. Not one dime went to paying our members.

We had nine people on the board who were there strictly for their service to the community. Granted, we had only 9,000 students within 11 schools, but we had a meeting almost every night, with different committees, and we attended so many functions that I was barely home during my four years of service, two of them as chairman.

A board member argued that the board deserved a raise because it is more involved in making decisions. What did he think he was doing when he ran for the board? $16,000 per year for board members and $19,000 for the chairman for a system that is substantially below the nation’s standards for excellence?

What are they thinking?

The state is at the bottom of the scale for education, ranking 40th out of 50 states. My state, where there is no pay for school boards, only dedicated private citizens, is at No. 2.

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 4:05 PM with the headline "School board didn’t deserve raise; they shouldn’t even be paid."