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The public has every right to scrutinize the pay and benefits of public sector employees. What anyone in the private sector earns is none of my concern.
Are you suggesting that we don't have a right to hold our (public) employees accountable? They answer to the taxpayers.
Why didn't you complain last year when they got raises ?
Would that be because Fed stimulus money was used to pad the budget ?
We are where we are because for 3 years NO ONE acted.
Bury your heads in the sand and deny there is a crisis in America.
Listen to the talking heads in DC tell you the recession is over.
These budgets for states should have started the "trimming" back in 2008 or earlier as the warnings permeated.
Now instead of trim they have to chop and chop hard.
I always felt that the argument that teachers should be paid based on students' performance is weak. The teacher does not have a leg to stand on if the parents don't continue and reinforce education in the home. If the child comes home and plays video games and watches TV instead of doing their homework first and the parent allows this, how can the teacher ever succeed.
Its an uphill battle for the teacher. Consider that some parents may not respect the teacher, then their kids do not respect the teacher and feel that it is acceptable behavior to act out in class.
Mind you, I'm not a proponent of unions. I think the concept is good but in some states, teachers are horribly overpaid for what they do. It can be difficult to quantify a teacher's "value added" without taking student performance into account. Hence why the union bargaining for across the board raises can be necessary to increase their pay. Too bad that the good teachers and the bad teachers can get the same pay.
It's been well over 30 years since I was a student, but - - -...
I remember some teachers who couldn't teach to even the most willing of student's, and I remember teachers, that we would go out of our way for, just to get into their classes, or to see how much better our assignments could be than the last one.
I actually had a teacher, that with a simple frown, you felt like a worm crawling through the dirt, and a smile and a good job, and you were ready to walk on water. This teacher was inspiring to all of the students, and I cannot remember a one who was ever without homework more than once. We wanted this teacher's approval, and this teacher was always inspiring us to do better. This teacher's name is one of the few that I remember. Had dozens of teachers, only remember a few.. The really bad and the really great. This teacher, not only one of the great ones, but one of the ones whom I hope stayed with teaching, because this teacher was an inspiration.
Teachers just need to be paid more and given more in resources to educate our young. That is all. Teachers are much more important than cops or politicians. What is this Viagra angle?
Let's make a deal. I'll pay more in taxes to go to teachers if, you agree to performance testing and being able to fire incompetent teachers.
I get the feeling you have some connection to teaching.
$52,644 is the average BEFORE benefits. Those benefits add up to A LOT of money! You can easily add another $25,000 annually to that in benefits.
So brand new teachers in their first year out of college would probably get over $40K + the same benefits. A teacher teaching for 10-20 years is going to get something like $70 - $80K + the same benefits.
For working 9 Months of the year where they can even take another part time job in the Summer, teach Summer-School, or just sleep all day.
Actually most states take the 52K number and spread it out over the 12 months so that the teachers get a salary during the summer, number does not look so good at that point. I would also remind everyone that teachers also work more than 8 hours a day when you take into consideration that they have to grade students work and get ready for the next days course of instruction. Yes, they have real good benefits, maybe a little too good but the 52K number is not all that much pay for a someone that has a college education.
Casper
Who really cares if they spread out their pay over twelve months? They do not work 12 months and are only required to be on the job for 6.5 hours/day. Also, many teachers (especially in the elementary grades) have time built into their day to grade papers and lesson plan. The students aren't with their primary teacher the entire day... they have art, computers, library, P.E., foreign language.. at least in my school district. That is considered downtime for the home room teacher to accomplish other "prep" duties.
In my area, teachers also get all federal holidays off, two weeks vacation, two weeks for Christmas break, one week for spring break, and seven days sick pay plus personal days. They aren't really even working a full 9 months when you consider all the PTO when the school year is 36 weeks long. Without the PTO, their hours/year is 1170 (a full time regular non-teacher employee works 2080 hours/year not including PTO). That is the equivalent of making $44/hour on the job and doesn't take into account benefits.
Why didn't you complain last year when they got raises ?
Would that be because Fed stimulus money was used to pad the budget ?
We are where we are because for 3 years NO ONE acted.
Bury your heads in the sand and deny there is a crisis in America.
Listen to the talking heads in DC tell you the recession is over.
These budgets for states should have started the "trimming" back in 2008 or earlier as the warnings permeated.
Now instead of trim they have to chop and chop hard.
Why do you think I was adamantly against the stimulus money in the first place? All it was was one big band-aid that allowed states to put off making cuts until tomorrow which should have been made years ago.
I am glad you agree. The Unions are agreeing with the need to adjust pay and HC contributions as well as the Gov. However, the Gov saying they will be able to negotiate salary, is not true. Salary and several other things will not be negotiable. Take salary. Capped at COL. The only room for the Union on that, would be to negotiate salary down. Eliminating the Union's ability to honest negotiations, eliminates the Union.
I agree he is NOT eliminating the union as you claim. Just an example.If the CPI is, say 3%, why should the union try to get 4%? They can still belong to the union if they wish and negotiate up to the CPI.
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devils advocate
