In 1996 the former Filmon government passed a piece of legislation titled the Public Sector Compensation Disclosures Act, which requires the names and salaries of those in the public sector earning over $50,000 be reported to the public. Everything from how much doctors are billing to payments made to individuals providing legal aid services must be made public within six months after the end of the fiscal year.

Not surprisingly, most Manitobans have likely never heard of this important piece of legislation or any of the information that is required to be disclosed. There was no news release, there were no radio or TV ads to let the public know this information was available. But why would there be when there are so many other issues for the government to report to the public such as Dan Vandal's new job and the province hosting a wildlife enforcement officers conference

Fortunately, the Winnipeg Sun's Tom Brodbeck managed to cut his way through government bureaucracy and report on the outrageous salaries for the senior staff at Winnipeg School Division No. 1. The province's largest school division's chief superintendent, Jan Schubert, earns an annual salary of $161,204 ($50,000 more than Premier Doer) with K.J. Collin, director of program support services coming in at an excessive $155,884. Other senior positions including director of research planning and director of human resources earn $109,626 and $119,097 respectively.

Aside from the obvious that these individuals are paid way too much, what makes these high salaries just that much more difficult to swallow is the amount school division taxes have increased - over 80 percent since 1990. Last year alone a number of divisions had double-digit increases, and if the funding scheme with the province isn't changed, we can expect more hikes in the future.

Clearly school boards in Manitoba have shown not shown the willingness or the ability to keep spending under control so this begs the question, why do we need them Homeowners would be much better served by centralizing spending through the Finance Minister and de-centralizing governance issues like curriculum development by putting the power back into the hands of the parents, principals and educators. Perhaps this cumbersome layer of bureaucracy should be removed and replaced by voluntary committees to oversee our schools.

Other options include the province and school divisions freezing all school taxes and implementing annual school tax cuts. The province should extend the scope of the Taxpayer Protection Act to municipalities and school boards so that all school and municipal tax increases must first be passed by voter approval through referendum.

While a competitive wage should be paid to school administrators, they must be in line with public expectations. With a declining student enrollment, there is little to no justification for the salaries earned by senior bureaucrats at Winnipeg School Division No. 1 - put another way, does Ms. Schubert earning more than $161,000 do anything to improve student skills, which should be the final goal of all educators The short answer is no.