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Taxes as a percentage of household income is the issue, there is no entitlement to put home prices into the discussion, I honestly don't understand the argument. There are retirees that are living in $400K homes paying $10K in school taxes, do you expect them to cash in their homes and downsize to cover compensation of police and teachers. Once again the median income in Nassau and Suffolk is around 50-60K, many of those people are having a tough time covering the tax burden.
I would not be concerned about cops and teachers being paid "piddly"
As if anything like that could remotely happen on LI. Never.
@I Love LI -- I didn't get that from what LI Guy was saying. I thought he was saying "I think the reason that we're talking about teachers' salaries is because we're actually upset that our own salaries don't get us as far as it should."
Oh I got is as saying let's bring down property values so we can continue to pay into infinity and beyond on property taxes so the big public sector union teachers will never have to sacrifice a thing.
OK.. folks you so far this has been fairly civil and lets keep it that way. If someone starts attacking you or another member please just report it and do not respond. We do not want to close threads so please no snarky remarks about other members
The big problem that i have with the teaching profession is tenure. It allows bad teachers to keep their jobs. It allows them to take the easy way out and not care after they get it. Now i am not saying all teachers do this, but lets get real- teachers can do anything they want pretty much except abuse/hurt a child and they will keep their jobs... And even in that case they'd most likely be suspended with pay. Teachers should be able to be fired if they suck- plain and simple. If ur a bad employee in the corporate world, u will be let go. Why is the teaching profession exempt to that?
Taxes as a percentage of household income is the issue, there is no entitlement to put home prices into the discussion, I honestly don't understand the argument. There are retirees that are living in $400K homes paying $10K in school taxes, do you expect them to cash in their homes and downsize to cover compensation of police and teachers. Once again the median income in Nassau and Suffolk is around 50-60K, many of those people are having a tough time covering the tax burden.
I would not be concerned about cops and teachers being paid "piddly"
I appreciate what you're saying. The dollar amount of property taxes is what nearly all long-time LIers seem to focus on because it's the easiest to see (especially when making out that tax payment check).
What I'm saying is that in order to get that dollar amount down (whether as a $ amount, % of home value, or % of income) people need to see the root problem and complain about that; not complain about the results of that problem. Those in government (and union leadership and business) have a certain psychology that looks at both $ and % to arrive at decisions and the long-time "my taxes are too high" complaint just doesn't cut it with them.
And I guarantee you, the perception of someone that lives in a $400,000+ home does not garner any sympathy anywhere in the U.S. (or Washington, Albany, etc.). It doesn't matter if one is making $50K or $250K.
If you or anyone else disagrees, fine. I don't see why anyone would get bent out of shape unless there's a fear I might be jeopordizing a tightly held myth. There's nothing more for me to say on this topic here. Take care.
lilibrarian says "You get what you pay for." But "you" (the taxpayer) shouldn't have to pay through the nose for teachers when there are so many available to work! Quality of teachers and education is not necessarily related to salary...This is the myth and the mantra perpetuated by obscenely compensated administrators and school boards with self-interest not to "rock the boat." This is especially true when board members' friends or relatives are employed by the district. As a result, boards routinely rubber-stamp salary increases (even when the community residents are suffering from unemployment, high taxes and high living costs). As a former Long Island educator and long time resident, I've seen too many mediocre school employees receive rich rewards as a result of politics and longevity, not competence. In private industry, these poor performers would be booted out of their office, not rewarded year after year.
lilibrarian says "You get what you pay for." But "you" (the taxpayer) shouldn't have to pay through the nose for teachers when there are so many available to work! Quality of teachers and education is not necessarily related to salary...This is the myth and the mantra perpetuated by obscenely compensated administrators and school boards with self-interest not to "rock the boat." This is especially true when board members' friends or relatives are employed by the district. As a result, boards routinely rubber-stamp salary increases (even when the community residents are suffering from unemployment, high taxes and high living costs). As a former Long Island educator and long time resident, I've seen too many mediocre school employees receive rich rewards as a result of politics and longevity, not competence. In private industry, these poor performers would be booted out of their office, not rewarded year after year.
School boards are supposed to be representing both the taxpayer and the students, unfortunately they are in a difficult position with close ties to the teachers and adminstrative staff. There have been rare instances of hard line approaches and many are driven by the opinion of the superintendents, hard to take on the school system as a part timer but I have seen some changes. The school budgets this year will have some of the largest increases we have seen, school boards are going to garner some attention, especially those districts where the teachers contract is up for renewal.
School boards are supposed to be representing both the taxpayer and the students, unfortunately they are in a difficult position with close ties to the teachers and adminstrative staff. There have been rare instances of hard line approaches and many are driven by the opinion of the superintendents, hard to take on the school system as a part timer but I have seen some changes. The school budgets this year will have some of the largest increases we have seen, school boards are going to garner some attention, especially those districts where the teachers contract is up for renewal.
It seems that boards are becoming closer to the superintendents and not to the teachers or to the public. I can't help thinking of Syosset and elsewhere where the board members act as though they are publicity agents and enablers for the superintendents as opposed to folks looking out for the taxpayers.
I see less and less pro-teacher board members and more and more pro-superintendent board members and almost no pro-taxpayer board members.
It seems that boards are becoming closer to the superintendents and not to the teachers or to the public. I can't help thinking of Syosset and elsewhere where the board members act as though they are publicity agents and enablers for the superintendents as opposed to folks looking out for the taxpayers.
I see less and less pro-teacher board members and more and more pro-superintendent board members and almost no pro-taxpayer board members.
Very good observations. New BoE Trustees are sent off to Albany for training. At that training, they are basically browbeaten into only voting YES for Superintendent recommendations that ultimately get voted on in public. If there is division on the Board on an issue and the Superintendent doesn't think he/she is guaranteed passage, it will never make it to the light of day.
Usually, it is an attorney, not a BoE Trustee in charge of negotiating with the teacher's union. The union has way too much power and I, for one, am sick and tired of these overpaid teachers wearing black on Fridays and fleeing the building the second their contract hours are up.
In my district, the AVERAGE salary is $107,000 for 182 days of work. We pay $37,500 PER STUDENT and enrollment has DECLINED by 10% over the past 6 years. We have a Gym teacher who makes $150,000! Enough is enough!
Very good observations. New BoE Trustees are sent off to Albany for training. At that training, they are basically browbeaten into only voting YES for Superintendent recommendations that ultimately get voted on in public. If there is division on the Board on an issue and the Superintendent doesn't think he/she is guaranteed passage, it will never make it to the light of day.
Usually, it is an attorney, not a BoE Trustee in charge of negotiating with the teacher's union. The union has way too much power and I, for one, am sick and tired of these overpaid teachers wearing black on Fridays and fleeing the building the second their contract hours are up.
In my district, the AVERAGE salary is $107,000 for 182 days of work. We pay $37,500 PER STUDENT and enrollment has DECLINED by 10% over the past 6 years. We have a Gym teacher who makes $150,000! Enough is enough!
It seems like the school attorneys are awfully close to the superintendents and thus they can team up and outmaneuver any independent minded board member.
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