Superior athletes at Bonners Ferry High

s this caption true? I know it isn’t. Then what can the reason be for the low quality of athletic performance over all? The answer is not so simple because it is a school personnel mentality (not athlete), but the resulting effect is simple enough.

Several years ago I remember hearing teachers complaining about their low pay when compared to national norms.

They like to compare their salaries against salaries which include New York, California, Illinois, and other states (in fact all states). The intelligent and honest method of comparing compensation is to look at buying power.

With this in mind I decided to compare the cost of purchase for a three bedroom and two bath home by a teacher with a five year tenure in Bonners Ferry, and compare it with the same tenure teacher in San Diego, California Unified School District. Let me give you my findings after gathering salary figures at the Boundary County School District office and from the San Diego Unified School District.

The salary in Bonners Ferry was approximately $34,000 and the cost of the home on South Hill was approximately $80,000 which means the purchase cost approximately 2 years and four months of annual earnings.

The San Diego teacher made approximately $66,000 and the home cost was approximately $650,000 (many miles inland). It is pretty easy to see that it takes the San Diego teacher nearly ten years of annual salary to purchase the home.

And don’t forget higher sales tax at one third higher; vehicle licensing nearly 20 times higher; and higher living costs (at the time of this writing regular gas in Bonners Ferry was $3.48 and in San Diego was $$4.12).

Don’t forget higher property taxes and income tax; teachers with the same deductions might pay twice as much in California. Boohoo, I feel so sorry for Idaho School District 101 teachers. They’re here and not in California known as the land of wacky dreams and political schemes. That is a definite non-economic advantage we up here easily recognize.

So what about our athletes? I have talked to parents of children in some of the other sports. They feel the same as I do about football, but they can speak for themselves if they choose. I in the past attended both home and away games of Bonners Ferry. In the last couple of years I have limited myself to home games. It is not the kids, but the coaching and the environment.

During the current head coach’s first stint of coaching I had a grandson who was a nationally competitive kicker and punter. I made the coach aware of this and that I would be happy to help, uncompensated. I never heard back and the team never kicked once that year and punted poorly. Fair enough. We stayed to the year end and that was the end.

I’ll finish this next week.

Bob Michael