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Being an incorporated county all departments, schools, fire, library etc. must submit their budgets to the county for approval and inclusion in the budget. We only pay property tax so these various areas can not tax seperately.
Cut it perhaps, definetly go back and evaluate what is really needed at what price? The last 30 years of rampant spending hasn't produced any major improvments in students. If anything they seem to be regressing in many
areas.
From experience I'd say there are a lot of major improvements, but the areas where they are regressing are due to horrific laws that enable children with no discipline to disturb and slow down classrooms.
Literally NOTHING can be done to a disruptive child anymore without violating serious laws.
As for people complaining about salaries and benefits it always goes down to crab mentality. I can see where people are coming from, but the reality of the matter is you'd be nuts to desire a private industry job on LI- the pay is ridiculously out of whack in the low proportions.
Nassau & Suffolk should strive for higher minimum wages laws. Counties and Cities have enacted them before in the past- 7.25 is pittance in these areas. No one in public sector is making these salaries, and shouldn't be increased because of these changes-
Public sector salaries make a lot more fiscal sense to employees.
Top level bosses, like those beloved superintendents you all complain about, make perhaps 5x the salary of the lowest tier teacher. 45K vs 225K, and perhaps 10x that of the lowest custodians and full time food service people. 21K vs 225K.
Meanwhile in the private sector, a company like Best Buy, who has one of it's most profitable stores in the country in Westbury... or companies that have retail stores in Roosevelt Field, have employees making $7.75 and a top tier exec. bringing home over 8 Million in stock options and pay.
16K vs 8000K.
The dollar is inflated on LI. Private sector pay is not.
It's a big problem.
I don't blame teachers asking for a 1% raise. Meet them at 1/2% and be done with it.
^^ If you don't renew it then it goes to a contingency budget which is sometimes more than the original budget. I never seen anything like it till I moved here. Its almost illegal, def. corrupt, I really dont understand how they get away with it.
Im sure very few of you care but I believe this is now incorrect. If a budget is voted down twice I think that now means an automatic 0% increase.
I think we should just pay teachers in pocket lint and mud pies. Or at least make them fight in gladiatorial contests to the death in the summer. I am sure they will "come running". This is one of those threads that I never know why I read it to begin with.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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I'm not going to bash teachers (my sister, daugher and GF are teachers) but I WILL bash teachers unions.
Below is the salary they make in my jurisdiction. Guess what... they want more AND want to work less instructional hours. Bennies are about 23%, including indexed defined benefit pension worth 65% of average of final 5 years of work.
Crazy, huh?
IMHO, teachers in Florida are not paid enough at all... they are at less then the starting salary below.
BTW, our jurisdiction also scores consistently in the top 10, and usually in the top 3 of standardized international tests; yes, we do have a lot of good teachers.
I'm not going to bash teachers (my sister, daugher and GF are teachers) but I WILL bash teachers unions.
Below is the salary they make in my jurisdiction. Guess what... they want more AND want to work less instructional hours. Bennies are about 23%, including indexed defined benefit pension worth 65% of average of final 5 years of work.
Crazy, huh?
IMHO, teachers in Florida are not paid enough at all... they are at less then the starting salary below.
BTW, our jurisdiction also scores consistently in the top 10, and usually in the top 3 of standardized international tests; yes, we do have a lot of good teachers.
If by teacher union bashing, you mean teachers should be the highest paid within the union and not everyone else, then I agree with you. Personally I don't feel like we pay teachers enough, especially at the starting pay. As they say in the corporate world, if you want the best employees, you have to pay the best amount...or at least that's what is said when it comes to Wall Street.
I'm not going to bash teachers (my sister, daugher and GF are teachers) but I WILL bash teachers unions.
Below is the salary they make in my jurisdiction. Guess what... they want more AND want to work less instructional hours. Bennies are about 23%, including indexed defined benefit pension worth 65% of average of final 5 years of work.
teachers.
That salary schedule -must- be off.
No teachers exist on a salary schedule with only 4 years of university education beyond a 5th year. There is no way they can remain certified to teach.
"As they say in the corporate world, if you want the best employees, you have to pay the best amount...or at least that's what is said when it comes to Wall Street."
That's not what they say in the corporate world, at least not anymore......It's more along the lines of "Do more with less" or "Your lucky to even have a job."
The one thing I could never understand with these public union contracts is why does everyone get a raise? Cost of living adjustments I understand, but compounding that with a raise just doesn't make sense. Only portion a certain amount of money each year to distrct raises and reward the best performers who fall in the top 10 percent. However, in order to accomadate this your gonna have to perform evaluations, which the teachers and their union feel are unfair, so that will never happen.
BTW, 57 to 65K as a starting salary for zero expreince in any profession (unless your in sales working on commision) is outragous (based on avb3's graph).
BTW, 57 to 65K as a starting salary for zero expreince in any profession (unless your in sales working on commision) is outragous (based on avb3's graph).
Don't look into first-year attorney's salaries at NYC biglaw. You'll have a cardiac arrest.
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