Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But you yourself question the criteria used in those rankings. The point is that there are great schools in areas that aren't taxed to death where students can succeed. You assume the status quo here in LI is the best way to go (with some tiny tweaks to teacher benefits).
I'm saying that we need to be open minded to a better way. There are other alternatives out there where we can reduce our costs and still maintain a high quality education system.
Do you question the criteria? What are your criteria? Where are the great schools in low tax areas THAT ARE NOT gifted and talented specialty schools? How many of them are there, and what percentage of the schools are in high tax area? Shouldn't you have to be able to find some amount that is statistically significant before you expect anyone to take your point seriously? Sheesh.
75th percentile in Raleigh NC for a teacher is 57K..but that is a number placed there by the UFT in NY to trick those angry about taxes.
I'd be interested in seeing the percentiles for the number of teaching years. While the salaries may be similar at the 75th percentile mark, teachers in other areas could have more (or less) experience, affecting the comparison (ie: if teachers as a whole have less teaching years here than in Maryland, the salaries in MD need to be adjusted downward, and vice-versa). Percentiles only tell one side of the story.
I'd be interested in seeing the percentiles for the number of teaching years. While the salaries may be similar at the 75th percentile mark, teachers in other areas could have more (or less) experience, affecting the comparison (ie: if teachers as a whole have less teaching years here than in Maryland, the salaries in MD need to be adjusted downward, and vice-versa). Percentiles only tell one side of the story.
The percentiles are an average for all teachers in that area..x number of teachers times x combined salaries/x number of teachers. It doesn't have anything to do with years of experience...to use your logic, one would ASSUME that most of the teachers in Raleigh NC are younger than on LI being that it is a growing area, therefore, that number will actually be higher as they reach the average age of teachers here. That makes the numbers even closer. Of course, you can increase the LI pay by 5-10K a year because of pension and medical ..maybe.
See, I'm making your guys arguments for you because you are so bad at this. LOL.
Nothing wrong with being single and living well. Getting married is a personal choice. Kids also. Not that it is a bad thing...actually it could be a blessing. Their really is no comparison to either situation.
Well...I'm not getting married...i want to, but it just doesn't happen for some people...so that is not an option for me really.
The percentiles are an average for all teachers in that area..x number of teachers times x combined salaries/x number of teachers. It doesn't have anything to do with years of experience...to use your logic, one would ASSUME that most of the teachers in Raleigh NC are younger than on LI being that it is a growing area, therefore, that number will actually be higher as they reach the average age of teachers here. That makes the numbers even closer. Of course, you can increase the LI pay by 5-10K a year because of pension and medical ..maybe.
See, I'm making your guys arguments for you because you are so bad at this. LOL.
You haven't made any argument, simply missed the point. I understand the percentiles have nothing to do with years of experience, that's the problem. That's a variable that must be considered.
And to ASSume anything, especially that teachers in NC have less experience than teachers on LI would make you an... well you know. And you bring up pension and medical for what reason? I think that's another ASSumption that NC teachers get a better pension and better medical benefits... but there are no facts supporting that.
The percentiles are an average for all teachers in that area..x number of teachers times x combined salaries/x number of teachers.
Come to think of it you have percentiles wrong. The 75th percentile is simply the point at which 75% of the salaries are lower and 25% of the salaries are higher. It's like the median except it doesn't split the list of salaries in the middle, it splits it at the 75% mark. I hope you didn't go to a LI school
I never said Long Island schools are average. I consider them to be strong schools. I simply believe compensation is way to high for what we are getting and that we can cut costs and still find efficiencies.
I never said we need to even cut salary by 20%. My proposal would be to stop the pension and medical bleeding with more contributions and freeze or trim salary slightly. It's simple:
1. Revamp the hiring process
2. Freeze the defined benefit pension plans and go to a defined contribution system
3. Contribute more to medical (or at least something in some cases)
4. Institute forms of incentive compensation like merit pay
Your response is essentially to keep the status quo (other than a few tweaks) while Long Island drowns in taxes. Mine solution is to offer up real changes that would cut costs, improve the hiring process (while reducing nepotism), and encourage and incentive teachers to be the best they can be.
You haven't made any argument, simply missed the point. I understand the percentiles have nothing to do with years of experience, that's the problem. That's a variable that must be considered.
And to ASSume anything, especially that teachers in NC have less experience than teachers on LI would make you an... well you know. And you bring up pension and medical for what reason? I think that's another ASSumption that NC teachers get a better pension and better medical benefits... but there are no facts supporting that.
I think when I said that I was making a point for you, that made it obvious that i meant NY teachers have better pension and benefits. My goodness.
Look, you don't like salary.com's stats. They CLEARLY indicate that on average, salaries for teachers in other areas with similar COL and well performing schools are very close to those in LI, Bethesda being one example. Raleigh NC has a much lower COL to LI, and the salaries are apparently not lower enough to make up for the difference in COL.
You don't like the facts that are stated on a website that is used by employers all over the country to support their workers pay scale. We've established that. Instead of offering an alternative of "because I think they are this...", maybe you should come up with something that displays some validity. It would be refreshing.
I never said Long Island schools are average. I consider them to be strong schools. I simply believe compensation is way to high for what we are getting and that we can cut costs and still find efficiencies.
I never said we need to even cut salary by 20%. My proposal would be to stop the pension and medical bleeding with more contributions and freeze or trim salary slightly. It's simple:
1. Revamp the hiring process
2. Freeze the defined benefit pension plans and go to a defined contribution system
3. Contribute more to medical (or at least something in some cases)
4. Institute forms of incentive compensation like merit pay
Your response is essentially to keep the status quo (other than a few tweaks) while Long Island drowns in taxes. Mine solution is to offer up real changes that would cut costs, improve the hiring process (while reducing nepotism), and encourage and incentive teachers to be the best they can be.
I don't actually disagree with any of your points, but if you DON'T create a 10% or greater decrease in the tax burden, you basically aren't going to change the COL for the average taxpayer on LI. Since you are so intent on the decrease in tax burden coming from teachers salaries, I've clearly explained that even a 20% cut in their comp would not change the situation significantly on LI, and that it WOULD change the pool of people you'd have teaching here, and I've cited a specific example as to how that would happen. Your response is: no it wouldn't.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
