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Do you actually KNOW any teachers? Because I'm sure if you asked any of them, they would tell you that this is a purely ignorant statement.
My sister is 3rd grade teacher and she calls it a part time job, it's 6 hours a day and you aren't even with the kids the whole day. In fact, MY 3rd grader's schedule for today looks like this:
8:10 - bell rings
8:20 go to special (gym today)
9:05 - Spanish (push-in teacher)
10:00 snack
12-12:50 lunch (teachers don't have lunch duty)
2:40 dismissal
You do the math and see how many hours his teacher is actually with the class.
My sister is 3rd grade teacher and she calls it a part time job, it's 6 hours a day and you aren't even with the kids the whole day. In fact, MY 3rd grader's schedule for today looks like this:
8:10 - bell rings
8:20 go to special (gym today)
9:05 - Spanish (push-in teacher)
10:00 snack
12-12:50 lunch (teachers don't have lunch duty)
2:40 dismissal
You do the math and see how many hours his teacher is actually with the class.
Your sister sounds like a lousy teacher...much like there are lousy employees in the private sector. Unless, like most teachers in my experience she is taking work home, getting there before school for prep and doing after school paperwork and attending events at night. It is still a nice schedule relative to the private sector but obnoxious "part-time" comments are ill-informed. And any one of us could have been a teacher. We do not live in a caste system.
I agree with you as to the root of the problem, but my mind draws a blank on what to do about it. This is a NYS Teachers Union thing, isn't it? I don't think the the Board of Education for the districts have much of a say (although I could be totally wrong). Maybe a fund should be started to hire lawyers or lobbyists to do whatever they do to get rid of the life time benefits and 8% increases in pensions. The average person has no time to get involved (too busy working to pay those taxes).
What do you think?
I agree with you as to the root of the problem, but my mind draws a blank on what to do about it. This is a NYS Teachers Union thing, isn't it? I don't think the the Board of Education for the districts have much of a say (although I could be totally wrong). Maybe a fund should be started to hire lawyers or lobbyists to do whatever they do to get rid of the life time benefits and 8% increases in pensions. The average person has no time to get involved (too busy working to pay those taxes).
What do you think?
The districts' BOEs are the ones that vote on the contracts presented by the unions and also on the contracts for the school administrators. They definitely are the ones who have the vote to say "yes" or "no" to raises, etc. They also hire "labor lawyers" to "negotiate" with the unions on behalf of the school districts. (I put those phrases in quotes because I think their negotiations are basically toothless on behalf of the taxpayers.)
As for NYS paying health insurance benefits for life for employee and their dependents (rather than what the rest of us get when we are old which is Medicare and which has been serving people fine for decades) AND as for pensions instead of self-funded plans like the 401Ks in private employment, actually both of these are not solely a teacher and/or administrator perk. They are a perk of MANY NYS public employee jobs. THIS OUTDATED SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE STAMPED OUT. Although they are changing the pension "tiers" to make the newer employees fund more of it for themselves, it is still not enough.
The politicians are promising, on behalf of the taxpayers of NYS, what we cannot guarantee anymore and what should not be promised anymore: lifetime support after retirement for employees. We need to be doing what every other private industry does, which is PAY EMPLOYEES AND PROVIDE BENEFITS ONLY WHILE THEY ARE WORKING INSTEAD OF TAKE THEM AND THEIR DEPENDENTS ON AS WARDS OF THE STATE FOR LIFE.
We cannot take on public employees and make promises to pay for their retirement (the private sector has proved that is not doable for profit-making businesses, so what makes anyone think taxpayers can do it and all you have to do is keep raising taxes) and they must get with the 21st century and no further pensions ... all employees should be on their equivalent of a 401K (a 403b in the case of teachers) saving for THEMSELVES (with an optional employer contribution) instead of expecting the taxpayers to hand them the money, like the rest of us have to. All employees should not be promised expensive private health insurance for LIFE after retirement, courtesy of the NYS taxpayers, for them and their dependents either. They should go on Medicare like everyone else. Also, if they can afford the luxury of retiring at age 55, then it should not be the NYS taxpayers' problem to provide them and their dependents with private health insurance. Anyone in the private sector who retires before they reach Medicare age has to provide insurance for themselves. Let's get real here and modernize this system before NYS goes totally broke. Giving way too much to a few public servants is going to bankrupt the rest of us. It's not worth it. It's totally ridiculous and anyone who is a public employee these days who thinks they are "entitled" to this on the backs of the taxpayers is nothing but a sponge.
As for what to do, we better make sure all the governor candidates KNOW THAT THEY HAD BETTER ABOLISH THIS SYSTEM if they want to be governor of NYS.
pensions were a managable cost of doing business in the USA until greed & outsourcing set in. 401k's suck.
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