Why can't they just fire all the BART workers and hire new ones?

[MadisonR]

Originally Posted by EdJS

My wife is a teacher, and this made me laugh out loud. Teachers with second homes? Maybe if her husband is a CEO of a tech company.

Experienced middle school teachers in Nassau county earn $150K/year. For averages, see here:

Long Island teachers highest paid in New York | Long Island Business News

"The average elementary school teacher in Nassau and Suffolk counties earned $90,560, while middle school teachers earned $90,650 and high school teachers earned slightly less on average at $88,390."

So the AVERAGE teacher makes $90K, which means that there are many who make a lot more, and can therefore easily purchase a second home. And those are just teachers, what about the thousands and thousands of cops and other civil workers earning $100K and up?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Fran66

Yes, they do have a much higher tax rate -- and they do a lot with it, for the good of their citizens. (Pretty soon we too will have a much higher interest rate and our government will be using it to just repay all the money it owes to other nations.)

The differences are these: The kids are really educated. (And did you read the link I gave?) Secondly, the kids do not have a choice.

Did you read my post? Do you live in the same country I do? Have you ever tried to talk to a HS graduate about anything important? H, you can hardly get them to think straight. You can hardly get them to acknowledge the question -- their eyes are on their smart phones!! Or their eyes are plugged up with their earbuds for their Ipads!

Oh, never mind. But thank you for definitely proving my point.

Do you really think the kids in other countries are not constantly on their Ipads? Obviously you have not spent much time out of the country. The first place we saw people, kids and adults glued to their cell phones was in Hong Kong. That was before any of us had ever thought of having one, back in 1990. Have you been to Europe recently and seen the kids, as well as adults walking on the streets or on the subway with their smart phones as their only way of communicating, even with the person next to them and the same in Canada. You can read all you want, refer to articles and links, but that certainly isn't the same as experience, which obviously you have not done. As for the kids having no choice, how sad is that? I like my country, where we do have choices.

As for taxes and us paying back our debts, I am not going to dispute that, you are right, but I don't think our national debt has much to do with the Bart employees going out on strike. Or am I missing something here.

I will add, as I said before, this isn't a slam on Germany or any other country. Germany has some great social programs, especially for seniors but they pay through the teeth in taxes. Is that what you want? It appears you are they type that always sees the grass greener on the other side. And no, you have not proven your point. You have proven nothing!!!!!!!!!!

[EdJS]

Originally Posted by MadisonR

Experienced middle school teachers in Nassau county earn $150K/year. For averages, see here:

Long Island teachers highest paid in New York | Long Island Business News

"The average elementary school teacher in Nassau and Suffolk counties earned $90,560, while middle school teachers earned $90,650 and high school teachers earned slightly less on average at $88,390."

So the AVERAGE teacher makes $90K, which means that there are many who make a lot more, and can therefore easily purchase a second home. And those are just teachers, what about the thousands and thousands of cops and other civil workers earning $100K and up?

First, that's there, not here. Second, a salary of $90K would be nowhere near high enough to be able to afford two homes around here. I make almost $150k as a software engineer in private industry and I don't think I'd be able to afford two homes.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by MadisonR

Experienced middle school teachers in Nassau county earn $150K/year. For averages, see here:

Long Island teachers highest paid in New York | Long Island Business News

"The average elementary school teacher in Nassau and Suffolk counties earned $90,560, while middle school teachers earned $90,650 and high school teachers earned slightly less on average at $88,390."

So the AVERAGE teacher makes $90K, which means that there are many who make a lot more, and can therefore easily purchase a second home. And those are just teachers, what about the thousands and thousands of cops and other civil workers earning $100K and up?

You're probably confusing median vs. average, and you don't seem to know about salary schedules for public school districts. You're also not factoring in experience. Typically, new teachers start out around 40K to 50K ranges. They get more for masters' degrees, and as they go up the experience ladder in years with the district, their salary goes up in increments. Typically, a teacher in the 90K range is a really experienced teacher, likely around 20 years' or more experience. They'll top out around 100K to 110K (usually for someone with 30+ years experience) - at least they do around here, which has a high cost of living. MVLA High School District and I think a school district in Pleasanton are the highest paying in the area. But naturally, they can pick and choose from teachers applying for jobs there. So it's likely that the teachers surveyed in Long Island are very experienced, and there are relatively few newbies/fledgling teachers who would be pulling down the salary level.

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by EdJS

My wife is a teacher, and this made me laugh out loud. Teachers with second homes? Maybe if her husband is a CEO of a tech company.

I know this is a SF thread, but in much of the rest of the country, a very nice first home costs $200,000 and a second home in a rural location costs something like $80,000.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

I know this is a SF thread, but in much of the rest of the country, a very nice first home costs $200,000 and a second home in a rural location costs something like $80,000.

I think some people do not understand, that second home might be a vacation home with 1 bedroom or maybe 2. No one is claiming teachers make enough to buy 2 homes in Malibu for instance. You understand that, but many do not. And of course, in most cases a teacher who has 2 homes has a spouse making a decent living but certainly not a CEO. Believe me, in my lifetime and it has been a long one, I have known many teachers that are doing very well. No, they are not rich but they made a good living, considering the summers off, the scholl holidays, etc. And yes, many of these were teacher is the bay area. We lived in Marin County for 5 years.

[04kL4nD]

Maybe the reason why they are doing so well is because of wise financial decisions (investments, savings, etc), NOT because of their salaries.

[EdJS]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I think some people do not understand, that second home might be a vacation home with 1 bedroom or maybe 2. No one is claiming teachers make enough to buy 2 homes in Malibu for instance. You understand that, but many do not. And of course, in most cases a teacher who has 2 homes has a spouse making a decent living but certainly not a CEO. Believe me, in my lifetime and it has been a long one, I have known many teachers that are doing very well. No, they are not rich but they made a good living, considering the summers off, the scholl holidays, etc. And yes, many of these were teacher is the bay area. We lived in Marin County for 5 years.

Yes, some teachers are doing well, just as some people in any profession do well. But it's not because they're teachers. Some people just do well financially no matter what career they go into, as 04kL4nD suggested.

MadisonR implied that ALL teachers are wealthy enough to buy second homes. And that is certainly not the case.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by EdJS

Yes, some teachers are doing well, just as some people in any profession do well. But it's not because they're teachers. Some people just do well financially no matter what career they go into, as 04kL4nD suggested.

MadisonR implied that ALL teachers are wealthy enough to buy second homes. And that is certainly not the case.

And certainly not the case in the NYC Tri-state area - where MadisonR is referencing - due to its high cost of living.