Are the teachers on Long Island overpaid?

[maisy123]

If you really are interested in knowing how your district's salaries and benefits compare to the rest of the island see the below link. Get informed island wide to make a fair judgement about the market for teachers and where they are over or underpaid.




Nassau BOCES - Salary Report (http://www.nassauboces.org/salaries.htm - broken link)

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by IMlost12

One of the problems with school budget votes is the small turnout from the community but the actual budget votes have little meaning. Residents need to get involved with the budget now and attend the hearings and express their opinions.
The biggest problem with budgets that needs to be addressed are teachers health benefits and salaries of the the top level administration. Teachers pay a small percentage of their health benefits and the number of administrators and their salaries has severely escalated. Even medium size schools have a superintendent, two assistants, directors, etc. It’s not difficult to find 20 to 30 employees making over $130,000 with most superintendents making well over $200,000 and an enormous private industry like fringe benefit package.

Your post shows the deliberate misinformation put out there for people to believe because they don't want the public to know who is actually in charge. (Not saying YOU are deliberately misinforming anyone, but obviously someone misinformed you.)

The public is not allowed to vote on ANYTHING involving teacher and administrator compensation, benefits, etc.

So who DOES approve the union contracts and vote on compensation and benefits deals? It is the School Boards. So the key vote for the public is actually the vote for the School Board. If the unions continue to get sweetheart deals, VOTE OUT YOUR SCHOOL BOARD. However, it will not be easy, because the School Board elections are deliberately not publicized so they get low turnout and the people who tend to run for School Board also tend to have connections in the education field. It's an old boy network of "I'll scratch your back if you will scratch mine." The voters have to make a difference and they can only do that by voting out the "connected with agendas" and getting ORDINARY TAXPAYERS WITH NO AGENDAS EXCEPT THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN AND NO MORE RIP-OFFS OF TAXPAYERS on all School Boards.

The teachers and administrators GET THEIRS before the public gets to vote on anything and the public has absolutely NO say so on anything involving all their raises, perks and benefits. All the public gets to vote on are about the programs for the kids and that part of the budget is developed AFTER the employees get theirs.

Teachers and administrators get theirs first, the kids get the crumbs left over. This has got to change.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by hotkarl

School budget votes are a scam.
No matter what you vote, they still stick it to you in the end.

I'm not as militantly against teacher salaries as I am to entitlement and fairness issues. Fine, they make 110K a year, whatever. But quit pushing the need for greed.
Cap salaries or raises at a certain rate or time period. For some of these districts, sky is the limit for salaries, it's just not fair. And basically what happens is, you end up paying the majority of your tax money for executive salaries. If you have 20 or so big shots in your district making 100k or even up to around 200k a year, that friggin adds up quick. Salaries make up over 60% of the budget for most districts. That's just silly.

Look, what makes me angry more than the yearly dollar amount is that they hold the kids over your head as collateral. "If the budget don't pass the only ones your hurting are the kids"...WHY? So it's fine for the kids to suffer, but god forbid the employees don't get a raise. It's just plain selfish and greedy.
Really, unless you are a complete and total financially irresponsible idiot, are these teachers going to end up homeless if the salaries are frozen or even partially reduced for a set period of time? I don't think so. They aint gonna go down the toilet, maybe some wont be able to put the addition on the house or get that inground pool, big deal. Times like these everybody should be willing to make some sacrifices until this country gets on it's feet again.

Are the teachers overpaid? Some yes. Some no.

Totally correct!

Totally disgusting.

[hotkarl]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

Top 25 schools for production of "Girls Gone Wild" videos!

Nice! I thought I recognized you...

[I_Love_LI_but]

I am actually intrigued by where it led -- the Nassau Suffolk School Boards Association -- NSSBA Home Page.

It lays out their game plans for potential tax caps, budgets, their take on the numbers, etc.

Fascinating reading.

Check out this one (Nassau County Council of School Superintendents
“A Cautionary Tale” Presentation by Dr. Herb Brown Superintendent, Oceanside UFSD):

http://www.nssba.org/Conference%20-%20A%20Cautionary%20Tale%20-%20Dr.pdf (broken link)

Interesting snippet about budgeting:

4. And, this may me the most important – I would suggest that you budget
using a three-year time horizon. I would set up a three-year spreadsheet
and put in estimated numbers for:
· Salary Increases – If you have contracts in place for three years,
use those. If not, you can estimate increases.
· Teacher Retirement System:
2008/2009 – 7.63% of salary
2009/2010 – between 6% and 7% of salary
2010/2011 - might go as high as 12% of salary.
The retirement system has indicated it is likely that unless the
economy reverses itself, the rate for 2010/2011 will represent a
significant increase.

By laying it out for three years in this format, you will see what happens if you
apply too much fund balance in one year or use too much of your reserve funds
in one year. You will see gaps and tax levy problems three years in advance
which will give you an opportunity to change direction and prevent tax rate
increases from hitting too hard in any one year.

Notice how important the RAISES and PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS are and how they are assumed to BE THERE and are EXPECTED ON THE BALANCE SHEET FIRST. How about skipping a raise due to the economy or lowering pension contributions? Oh no!

It also looks like the taxpayers will be reamed out for ADDITIONAL percentages of pension contributions "unless the economy reverses itself."
God forbid THEY suffer any consequences of the bad economy; we should pay MORE. Yes, you heard it here, our taxes will definitely go up even more to take care of their pensions. No mercy at all on the taxpayers. No compromises. Take, take, take.

Also notice how they are advised to use a 3 year plan so they can try and fool the public by "spreading out the tax increase" (prevent tax rate increases from hitting too hard in any one year).

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by hotkarl

Nice! I thought I recognized you...

Please don't tell my mom and dad!

[DeadPool1998]

I won't vote on this. It is clear from the question what answer you want. I'm going to just guess at what the results are.

[Fastrudy]

Originally Posted by DeadPool1998

I won't vote on this. It is clear from the question what answer you want. I'm going to just guess at what the results are.

Agreed, no need for the "Given the current economic meltdown" part.

When business was booming, did you say, "Well everybody is making a lot of money, so we should give those teachers a raise."? I doubt it.

[IMlost12]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

Your post shows the deliberate misinformation put out there for people to believe because they don't want the public to know who is actually in charge. (Not saying YOU are deliberately misinforming anyone, but obviously someone misinformed you.)

The public is not allowed to vote on ANYTHING involving teacher and administrator compensation, benefits, etc.

So who DOES approve the union contracts and vote on compensation and benefits deals? It is the School Boards. So the key vote for the public is actually the vote for the School Board. If the unions continue to get sweetheart deals, VOTE OUT YOUR SCHOOL BOARD. However, it will not be easy, because the School Board elections are deliberately not publicized so they get low turnout and the people who tend to run for School Board also tend to have connections in the education field. It's an old boy network of "I'll scratch your back if you will scratch mine." The voters have to make a difference and they can only do that by voting out the "connected with agendas" and getting ORDINARY TAXPAYERS WITH NO AGENDAS EXCEPT THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN AND NO MORE RIP-OFFS OF TAXPAYERS on all School Boards.

The teachers and administrators GET THEIRS before the public gets to vote on anything and the public has absolutely NO say so on anything involving all their raises, perks and benefits. All the public gets to vote on are about the programs for the kids and that part of the budget is developed AFTER the employees get theirs.

Teachers and administrators get theirs first, the kids get the crumbs left over. This has got to change.

I didn’t state that residents vote on teacher’s salaries and I am fully aware that it is the school boards that approve the contracts. That is why the actual budget vote has little meaning as it only changes a very small percentage of the budget if it is voted down. My point was that residents need to voice their opinion to the school board at the budget meetings that are taking place now.

Although some contracts are not coming due for a few years there are districts with teachers and superintendent contracts that are in negotiation now. I agree with you on the school boards the make up is one sided but they have no one to blame but themselves.

[Keeper]

Thread is now closed. Apparently this discussion has run its course since the posts now involve nothing but personal attacks, calling other members names and insulting each other all of which are against the Terms of Service.