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The Port Washington district on Long Island is sorting through 3,620 applications for eight positions — the largest pool the superintendent has seen in his 41-year career.
Even hard-to-fill specialties are no longer so hard to fill. Jericho, N.Y., has 963 people to choose from for five spots in special education, more than twice as many as in past years.
Wow, just wow. I didn't know the competition is that fierce now. This makes me wonder what the fair market salary/benefits would be if it operated under true capitalism.
I think we need a leader (e.g. someone like chris christie of NJ) to make major changes in the system. In the meantime, we still need to be more proactive spreading the word and contacting our representatives with our concerns. There's still so much brainwashing and manipulation out there and I have no doubt that the teachers' and administrators' turnout for the vote yesterday overwhelms the taxpayers'. Not enough taxpayers are involved in this process as noted in the total votes, at least in my area.
What is happening with the property tax cap that everyone, but the teachers union, is proponent of?? Boston, san francisco and their suburbs used to have huge tax burdens and the population was decreasing until a property tax cap was put into place. Then a flood of businesses/investments came in and now they are both thriving places.
I've also been following the LI housing market for a couple of months, and it's not good compared to the national conditions. Suffolk county foreclosure rate is still increasing compared to the previous year whereas the national rate is decreasing compared to last year. There is a glut of houses on the market and everyday the housing inventory increases.
I know the state is also considering eliminating the STAR and if they do, a few hundred dollar savings gone plus a few hundred dollar increase next year could mean on average about a thousand dollars more next year. I'm definitely holding off buying for now unless I can snatch up a good deal in a lower tax burden area. I don't see how the housing value can go anywhere but south under these economic conditions.
Wow, just wow. I didn't know the competition is that fierce now. This makes me wonder what the fair market salary/benefits would be if it operated under true capitalism.
I think we need a leader (e.g. someone like chris christie of NJ) to make major changes in the system. In the meantime, we still need to be more proactive spreading the word and contacting our representatives with our concerns. There's still so much brainwashing and manipulation out there and I have no doubt that the teachers' and administrators' turnout for the vote yesterday overwhelms the taxpayers'. Not enough taxpayers are involved in this process as noted in the total votes, at least in my area.
What is happening with the property tax cap that everyone, but the teachers union, is proponent of?? Boston, san francisco and their suburbs used to have huge tax burdens and the population was decreasing until a property tax cap was put into place. Then a flood of businesses/investments came in and now they are both thriving places.
I've also been following the LI housing market for a couple of months, and it's not good compared to the national conditions. Suffolk county foreclosure rate is still increasing compared to the previous year whereas the national rate is decreasing compared to last year. There is a glut of houses on the market and everyday the housing inventory increases.
I know the state is also considering eliminating the STAR and if they do, a few hundred dollar savings gone plus a few hundred dollar increase next year could mean on average about a thousand dollars more next year. I'm definitely holding off buying for now unless I can snatch up a good deal in a lower tax burden area. I don't see how the housing value can go anywhere but south under these economic conditions.
Interestingly enough, the only true "lower tax burden" areas on LI are the luxury seasonal areas where you can pay millions of dollars for a home on several acres and only pay in the low thousands for your property taxes.
Reason? Not a lot of full-time residents who need to use the schools. The school systems are a lot smaller with A LOT LESS HIGHLY COMPENSATED PERSONNEL AND ADMINISTRATION; less pushy union members.
Teachers' raises are not solely based on their education level. (Once again, look up step raises.)
When high wages and benefits are not EARNED, but rather are demanded by a powerful union and expected as if they are RIGHTS by the employees, that does not do anything for job performance, because the employee does not need to do an excellent job to keep getting raises, stay employed, etc.
And like I stated earlier, in my town to get a raise, you need more education or you'll keep the same salary.
On its face, that is absurd because EVERYONE PAYS SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES. That is ONLY true if you ignore local, state, social security and payroll taxes. Take a look at this from the CBO, 2007:
"...but the CBO also said that the top one percent paid 5 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the bottom 50 percent — many of whom pay nothing in federal taxes — paid 10 percent of their take, twice as much proportionately.
It also found that those in the bottom 80 percent of the earnings ladder paid around 9 percent of their incomes in Social Security taxes; the top one percent paid just 1.6 percent of theirs. After the income tax, payroll taxes represent the largest share of the federal take — those dollars represent a much bigger piece of the pie than corporate income taxes or taxes on capital gains."
Thats because SS is capped. So after the person caps out the percentage paid will decrease. Ditto for most other taxes. That was simple. Plus the rate of taxation would be more like a bell curve. Richer people will have increased tax shelters while the poorer will be subsidized, thus leaving us working class schleps to hash it out.
Interestingly enough, the only true "lower tax burden" areas on LI are the luxury seasonal areas where you can pay millions of dollars for a home on several acres and only pay in the low thousands for your property taxes.
Reason? Not a lot of full-time residents who need to use the schools. The school systems are a lot smaller with A LOT LESS HIGHLY COMPENSATED PERSONNEL AND ADMINISTRATION; less pushy union members.
What areas? I've checked out old field, nissequogue, and poquott areas and their taxes are close to 20k and oftentimes more... that alone scares me off.
The Education master's degree isn't taken seriously by anyone in academia. The undergrads ain't too bright (lowest SAT scores on most campuses),so most SUNY schools don't even have a GRE requirement. (Yes, I teach at SUNY, and have taught in the education dept).
It's something the unions instituted to prevent competition from outside workers. You could be a former NASA physicist with teaching experience and awards from teaching in other states, but w/o an M.Ed, the district is going to hire some bimbo with 12 hours of math classes and a masters degree in social justice and bulletin board making.
The Education master's degree isn't taken seriously by anyone in academia. The undergrads ain't too bright (lowest SAT scores on most campuses),so most SUNY schools don't even have a GRE requirement. (Yes, I teach at SUNY, and have taught in the education dept).
It's something the unions instituted to prevent competition from outside workers. You could be a former NASA physicist with teaching experience and awards from teaching in other states, but w/o an M.Ed, the district is going to hire some bimbo with 12 hours of math classes and a masters degree in social justice and bulletin board making.
The only reason they're getting away with this (and in the process driving Long Island right into the sewer) is that people just don't know about it. They just buy the "Talking Points".
The more people that know the truth, the sooner this will end.
Wow, just wow. I didn't know the competition is that fierce now. This makes me wonder what the fair market salary/benefits would be if it operated under true capitalism.
See that I_Love_LI_but.
Educating the public.
BTW jasminescent - Probably less than 50K. They're a dime a dozen, and have been for a long time. Wondertrev did a nice job outlining why they're a dime a dozen.
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