The Nation's Pulse
Out of Chalk
Public-employee compensation packages are unsustainable — as public school teachers are now finding out.
New Jersey taxpayers know all too well about the high cost of the array of generous defined-benefit pensions, employer-subsidized healthcare plans, job protections and degree- and seniority-based pay scales struck by states, districts and locals of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. The Garden State’s Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund offers annual payouts that can be equal to as much as 72.7 percent of average annual compensation, even as taxpayers wrangle with how to pay down $43 billion in pension deficits and unfunded retiree healthcare benefits (as of the 2006-2007 fiscal year). This is partly why the average retired teacher in New Jersey collected $34,643.48 in the 2007-2008 fiscal year (the last year available), 59-percent more than their public-sector counterparts elsewhere.
So when new Gov. Chris Christie announced earlier this week that he would require teachers (and other public employees) to contribute a modest 1.5 percent of salary to cover healthcare benefits (most districts currently cover the costs), the state’s National Education Association affiliate immediately rallied its members in opposition. “We urge parents and all citizens of New Jersey to not let the politicians use the people we all rely upon to educate our students as the scapegoats for their own irresponsibility,” wrote New Jersey Education Association President Barbara Keshishian in an e-mail blast.
Yet the teachers union isn’t getting much sympathy from the Democrat-controlled legislature — which gave Christie’s predecessor, Jon Corzine, the authority to impose those contributions three years ago — or from anyone else. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has already declared that Christie has his backing to “move ahead.” Meanwhile the anonymous author of local blog New Jersey Left Behind points out that there is “a growing sense among the public that the leaders at NJEA project a sense of entitlement ill-suited for these stripped-down times.”
A similar battle is starting to emerge across the Hudson River in New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools czar, Joel Klein, are faced with a teacher’s pension fund that lost $9 billion of its portfolio last year alone. In Albany, the Empire State’s spendthrift leadership recently struck its own modest blow for frugality by increasing the retirement age and segmenting teachers into a new retirement tier under which their contributions increase from 3 percent of salary to 3.5 percent.
All of this points to the reality that the NEA and AFT find themselves increasingly on the defensive as taxpayers, actuaries, school reformers and even legislators agree that traditional teachers’ compensation packages are neither fiscally tenable nor effective in improving student learning.
CERTAINLY THE ATTENTION these days is on the battles between school reformers and teachers unions over President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top reform effort and his plans to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act. With the prospect of Democratic congressional losses, Obama must satisfy demands from Centrist Democrats to expand charter schools and improve teacher quality, and still placate the NEA and AFT, whose campaign war chests (and rank-and-file members) the Democrats so desperately need. Both sides are already deriding Obama for essentially ditching No Child’s Adequate Yearly Progress provisions — the accountability measures that have helped reveal the woeful performance of urban and suburban districts alike — and adding elements of Race to the Top into his No Child plan.
But an even-more fractious battle, this time over teachers compensation, is heating up at the state level as the economic recession continues into a fourth year. Although the Obama administration helped stave off some of the squabbling last year by devoting $70 billion in federal stimulus funds to keeping teachers and other civil servants on the payroll, those funds are petering out. States and school districts can no longer hold off inevitable conversations about laying-off teachers. Nor can they ignore heavy pension and healthcare deficits that are being aggravated by investment losses and the upcoming retirements of Baby Boomers, who make up 36 percent of all teachers. None of this is good news for teachers unions, which have succeeded in making teaching the best-compensated profession in the public sector.
Last month in Vermont — where taxpayers faced the possibility of a 43 percent increase in annual payments to keep the pension afloat — state officials increased the teacher retirement age from 62 to 65 despite the objections of the NEA affiliate there. Green Mountain State teachers will also have to pay out 5 percent a year in pension contributions, an increase over the 3.4 percent annual payment — and may pay out even more if Gov. James Douglas succeeds in forcing them to bear 20 percent of healthcare premiums — or what private-sector workers pay.
In Pennsylvania, the NEA affiliate is already fighting to stave off efforts by state and local officials to enact an array of proposed benefit cuts, increases in retirement ages, and hikes in contributions on the salaries of its 191,000 rank-and-file members. Keystone State taxpayers are bristling over having to shell out $4.2 billion by the 2012-2013 fiscal year just to keep the teachers’ pension fund afloat, a seven-fold increase over this year’s annual payment. These costs, along with the $9 billion in pension and retiree healthcare deficits, promise to be a major issue in this year’s gubernatorial elections.
Meanwhile the NEA’s Indiana affiliate has fallen under scrutiny after last year’s collapse of the multiemployer health insurance plan it ran on behalf of the state’s school districts (I describe the collapse in this month’s issue of Labor Watch). School districts are mulling lawsuits against the affiliate and the NEA itself (which took over its operations) to recover $23 million in surplus payments. The collapse of the plan, which covered 50,000 Hoosier state teachers, also brings attention to the state’s pension deficit (now at $10 billion and growing). It is also a reminder that in some districts, teachers receive healthcare free of charge, which in turn explains why Indiana is one of four states that spend at least twice the national average of 28 cents in benefits for each dollar devoted to teacher salaries.
THE TRADITIONAL SYSTEM of teacher compensation dates back to the women’s suffrage movement of the 1920s when states extended tenure — or near-lifetime job protections — to public school teachers in order to protect women of child-bearing age from unfair dismissals. Pensions came into the picture as part of the development of the emerging civil service sector and the development of old-age pensions. Starting in the 1960s, the packages became more lucrative as the AFT and the NEA, through their successful efforts to force school districts into collective bargaining and a series of crippling strikes in New York City and other districts, sweetened the pot for their rank-and-file.
Until recently, successful lobbying by teachers unions assured that teachers would be well compensated no matter their performance. Other protections were offered by state laws that complicated teacher dismissals, desultory human resources practices at the school district level, the lack of well-developed school data, and class-size reduction programs enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Just two percent of newly minted teachers hired by the Los Angeles Unified School District were ever dismissed or not granted tenure.
But the emergence of value-added assessment, which allows for the measurement of student test-score growth (and, in turn, teacher performance) over time — along with the passage of No Child and other accountability measures — means states and districts now have tools to assess the quality of their teaching staffs. Research also shows that tenure and degree- and seniority-based pay scales have little effect on student learning; a teacher is no more successful in improving student achievement after 25 years of teaching than an instructor working for four years, according to a report by Dan Goldhaber and Michael Hansen of the Center for Reinventing Public Education.
Ultimately, it is the high costs that are forcing states and school districts to reconsider the bargains they have struck with teachers and the unions that represent them. By 2003-04, states spent $50 billion on teacher benefits, a near three-fold increase over the amount spent 16 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That number has likely grown even more thanks to Bush-era spending sprees. Although states were able to cover up the full tab through overly optimistic actuarial assumptions, the collapse of the financial markets (along with disclosure requirements enacted by the Government Accounting Standards Board) is forcing them to fess up to the debts.
The NEA and AFT will definitely oppose any cut-backs in the packages they have so zealously gained. But there are too many pressures for states to keep up the status quo.
About the Author
RiShawn Biddle the editor of Dropout Nation , is co-author of A Byte at the Apple: Rethinking Education Data for the Post-NCLB Era. He can be followed at Twitter.com/dropoutnation.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (87) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.11.10 @ 7:35AM
Many school systems are horribly mismanaged. While the teachers collect their salaries, many cities have drop out rates of over 60%. This would tend to indicate that public schools need an overhaul much more then health care. The reason health care is under attack is that for the most part it's not a unionized industry.
Mark| 2.11.10 @ 1:48PM
While I agree that teachers have a lot for which to answer, I'm not sure how they are supposed to keep kids from dropping out. Should they tie them to their chairs?
Troubador| 2.11.10 @ 2:24PM
Everyone's always looking to blame everyone but themselves for underachievement. Since most people dealing with this issue are or have been parents they forget to evaluate their own jobs on the home front. It's time for parents to start "parenting" their children so they come to school prepared to learn. America is lost without it.
Alan Brooks| 2.12.10 @ 1:41AM
You are catching on-- it is hopeless. The demographics (to be unPC about it, hispanic overcrowding in skools) precludes improvement.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 7:49AM
Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Education Edited by RiShawn links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
LQQKY| 2.11.10 @ 8:03AM
To add insult to injury, the teachers don't (or can't) teach. A degree in education is superbly teaches a person how to teach. Too bad it doesn't teach them what to teach -- i.e. math, history, geography or English.
Troy| 2.11.10 @ 9:44AM
At the college I go to I am required to take as Math credits as I am Teaching credits. The vast majority of these math courses are at the 300 level and above. You might want to check out the curriculum of one of your local colleges. I believe the state college I go to is preparing me to teach Mathematics.
FTM| 2.12.10 @ 3:39AM
I hate to be a jerk but i can't help myself.
When I was working on my undergraduate engineering degree I had a math teacher that was doing research on mathematics capabilities in regards to declared major. The lady told me that over 80% of the people in the education program couldn't compute the area of a square. If that's true then that's sad.
Caveats...
This included all people in the education program, math majors as well as art and music majors.
Another really bad statistic too was that over 80% of the people in the education program at the university that I attended had already flunked out of another defgree program. Can't handle the physics, math and the like for an engineering degree then be a teacher. Sad but true.
Jeff| 2.12.10 @ 9:53AM
I absolutely agree.
Here in Michigan I have a neighbor who was substitute teaching (6th thru 8th grade math) in the middle school. Her undergraduate and graduate degrees were in mathematics (Purdue).
She is now barred from teaching as she is no considered "qualified" since she has not taken the requisite education classes.
However my 4th grade son's teacher (not a math major I assure you) is qualified even thought she does not understand the commutative law with respect to multiplication.
The entire idea of "qualified teachers" is a farce. No subject matter expertise at all.
Ole_Sarge| 2.11.10 @ 11:03AM
I agree with Troy, but my undergrad degree is in IT, and in several states I am deemed "fully qualified" to teach middle school Mathematics. Really?
I am taking Grad School (MAT leading to meeting State requirements for taking the Teacher's Exam) and taking more undergrad, but 300 and 400 mathematics courses, to teach Middle School/Junior High School Math.
I have enough Gen Ed. to be a Social Studies teacher, but I want to work with kids BEFORE they get turned-off from Math.
I had too many young men and women come to me (their duty section NCOIC), after completing Basic Training and Technical School that could not do their duties because they did not have even basic math skills.
I want to teach, but I dread the Union working conditions and rules. I'm not in it for the money, and that is true for the majority of the people I know in "teaching."
Now, "administration," that's a different situation. Many are people with only minimal "classroom" time, but they are raking in $$$$$$. All while lead teachers (those that volunteer to have student teachers) make only half the lowest administrators' pay.
Old Soldier| 2.11.10 @ 8:21AM
All of the NJ public employee unions have to be broken and brought into line with private jobs. They are sucking the state dry like parasites right now.
I live in a small NJ suburban town. I'm quite happy with the public elementary school my kids attend. I just resent the state income tax I pay (created 30 years ago to reduce property taxes, ha!). Our income tax dollars never return from Trenton - they are swallowed up by the state bureaucracy and the urban schools.
Those urban schools continue to fail despite the new buildings and herds of assistant principles I bought them. Maybe something to do with the parents? The PC bureaucrats in Trento could never admit that so my money continues to be wasted.
Mattled| 2.11.10 @ 8:38AM
Any way that local school's can refuse Fed money and satet money and funnel all your tax dollars directly into county/district coffers?
Something to look into, no?
Anyhow, the "populist" anti-Wall Street rhetoric (which now has been exposed as fake---yawn--only a libtard would believe anything he says) would really harm teachers.
Why?
Their pensions are heavily invested in Wall Street (60%).
Obama---hates teachers.
Rich Cook| 2.11.10 @ 8:48AM
Since so many states are technicaaly bankrupt, why not run over public employee pesions to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. That way, public employees would be subject to the same fiscal risk at their private sector counterparts. The PBGC could start as usual with reducing the pensions of public retirees, beginning with the highest ones.
MikeD| 2.11.10 @ 9:12AM
I was the class clown because I was bored beyond belief. I whined and begged until my parents gave in and got me a set of Encyclopedia Britannica when I was 9. I had read it all by my 12th birthday. I hated school, but loved learning. So, since I thought I could 'save the world', I decided to go into education when I entered Penn State in 1963. To hedge my bets I doubled up and went extra terms to end up with a B.S. in Science Ed. and a B.S. E.E. (Electrical Engineering)
I taught for 10 years and loved every minute except for all the crap from the administration and the bitching parents who were heartbroken when their darling kid was dropped into a lower reading group. But, what I HATED MOST was when the NEA unionized us. I thought school vouchers was a good idea back then (Still do!) because it would get the lazy teachers off their collective asses. I got assaulted by the other teachers, and one even had the stones to tell me that: "Yeah, YOU can want vouchers, you'll have full classes because you work so damned hard. But what about the rest of us? We teach for three reasons; June, July, and August.") Unbelievably, that's a true story!
The president of the AFT, American Federation of Teachers said a few years ago: "When kids start paying union dues, we'll start worrying about education issues. We represent teachers."
Tenure needs to go. I know there was once a valid reason for it, back when local school boards were personal fiefdoms run for the pleasure and advantage of local 'big shots.' same with unions in general. They had a valid purpose. But, that day is long past. The biggest class warfare is between the taxpayers who are struggling and the 'fat-cat' government employees who now exceed private workers salary and benefits by an average of 43%!
All public employees need to have their pensions terminated, including elected officials at every level. They should have to go on 401k's like the rest of us. Then, they might actually understand what life, and pressures, are being felt outside their 'bubble'. Plus, a huge percentage of teachers are worthless. We've had two generations of teachers that have been ruined by the assinine curricula at teacher's colleges and universities. Very few of them know anything about their content they're teaching, and they've all been brainwashed into the far left idiology. (Yes, I know I'm generalizing, and there ARE some incredibly dedicated and hard working teachers. But, ask THEM what they think of their colleagues. You'll get an earfull!)
We are way past the time for long term studies and investigations. We need to eliminate the Dept. of Education and fire all the employees. Give them a start on a 401k, say $25,000; and turn them loose! And THAT'S JUST THE START!
For more outlandish ideas, go to my blog at Townhall at 'Doug's Discourse'. It's buried deep in the Florida section of Townhall's blog list, but you might enjoy it. You'll sure react one way or another! Now, react!
Ole_Sarge| 2.11.10 @ 11:09AM
Thank-you. The instructors we have in the MAT program are not the same instructors or professors in the School of Education Undergrad programs. The few I have encountered are actually rather dismissive of us that are starting second or third careers in teaching.
We aren't easily BS'ed, or pushed around, nearly everyone in my cohort are parents, some grandparents. I think we know a little more than that nice young woman or young man going the "traditional" route.
Thank-you American Taxpayers forthe Troops to Teachers program, I hope we all do you proud once more.
Mark| 2.11.10 @ 1:53PM
You think you were bored in school? You ought to have seen me trying to keep my eyes open while trying to read everything that you wrote. There is nothing more tedious than a man whose opinion of himself borders on worship.
Mark| 2.11.10 @ 1:53PM
You think you were bored in school? You ought to have seen me trying to keep my eyes open while trying to read everything that you wrote. There is nothing more tedious than a man whose opinion of himself borders on worship.
MikeD| 2.13.10 @ 5:06PM
Is that somehow related to the person who either loves himself so much he has to write his piece twice; or is so incompetent that he had to post it twice so he wouldn't forget what he wrote? I don't believe anybody forced you to read anything.
Civil Servant| 2.11.10 @ 9:52AM
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics which includes salary and benefits, the professionals in the private sector make $46.82 per hour and the professionals in the public sector make $1.12 more at $47.94 per hour. (This slightly higher rate for the public sector is not historically representative and undoubtedly reflects the corporate migration overseas). The private sector gets more salary; the public sector gets more benefits.
The depredations of the Darwinian capitalism have transformed our democracy into a plutocracy where the top 1% of the population control 42% of the nation’s wealth and the average person is out of luck. Our multi-national corporations have relocated their operations overseas where they can exploit people who have no organized union protection thereby diminishing good private sector jobs in this country. We are left with a service economy where many private sector jobs are minimum wage service positions. The furor over pensions is understandable for those who chose the private sector to find their fortune. They actually believed in the delusional Horatio Alger stories where anyone can go from rags to riches. That scenario has an extremely low statistical probability.
No one was complaining before because those who chose the private sector for self aggrandizement were doing very well in making large amounts of money. Now that the free market has been exposed as a gambling casino which is what it was all the time, these people are moaning about the job securities of the public sector that they spurned when times were good. Don't scapegoat those who sacrificed their earning power during their career to help others and to secure a safe retirement. They pay taxes also and the public services they perform should be supported by taxes.
Pensions have been under funded or not funded at all for many years because people, while they want public services, do not want to pay for them. This is called impaired reality testing
Instead of scapegoating public employees, look to the rapacious members of the financial sector and the corrupt politicians who have brought us to this sorry state of affairs.
2112| 2.11.10 @ 11:54AM
Memo to Civil Servant:
Please stop posting on blogs while you are at work. I would fire you personally but I am off gambling in the free-market casino.
Sincerely,
Your "Rapacious, Self Aggrandizing, Depredating Darwinist, Capitalist" Boss in the Private Sector
Allan| 2.11.10 @ 6:14PM
I see you missed the point of the article completely.
As the facts now stand, guaranteeing a defined benefit at actuarily unsound support rates cannot be done. Many states use a public empoyee's three or four highest earning years to compute retirement pay - a practice that is itself mathematically unsound.
Public sector employees refused to fund their benefits on the front end and they will find themselves out in the cold on the backend. And thats their own damn fault for being greedy.
Civil Servant| 2.11.10 @ 8:45PM
Guaranteeing a defined benefit certainly can be done and is done all the time by insurance companies and our Social Security system. Unfortunately what occurs is that insurance companies such as AIG get greedy and indulge in stupid practices. Then they moan for help and receive corporate welfare from the taxpayer which they use to increase their profits for bonus distributions.
Greedy politicians rob Social Security and pension systems to satisfy the "no tax" idiocy of people who demand government services but are unwilling to pay for them.
Social Security and pension systems would be fully funded now if it wasn’t for the failure of deregulated capitalism which is without question, the ultimate example of greed and the reason for the decline of the middle class.
That is not even to mention the “Party of No” who are doing everything they can to ensure that government will not work thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
See my remarks above in which you obviously missed the point.
FTM| 2.12.10 @ 4:09AM
Delusional?
Fact check time. The federal income tax on business is 35%. This rate doesn't include state and local corporate taxes. That's why business locate overseas. Reduce the federal corporate income tax to 10% and there won't be enough people to work in this country, we'd truly need to import labor from Mexico.
Have you been a public sector employee all of your working life? Please don't misunderstand I don't mean to derride you but if you worked in the private sector you'd know these things.
Civil Servant| 2.12.10 @ 9:36AM
No disrespect taken and yes, I have worked in the public sector my entire career. That was my choice since I believe in public service for the greater good.
However, because of the low wages that the public sector has historically paid, I have always had to supplement my income as a part time entrepreneur in the private sector in order to make ends meet. I am familiar with those challenges.
As far as the corporate tax rate of 35%, few corporations, if any, actually pay that amount since they generally receive subsidies obtained through the efforts of the fourth branch of our government...lobbying...not to mention they hire CPA's who exploit every tax loophole. But even then, they decide to relocate overseas to exploit unionless workers to make obscene profits.
The point is that the average person today is suffering as a result of:
1) Tax cuts for our royal rich class extending back to the Reagan years. (Did you know that during the so-called “Golden Age” of the middle class in the Fifties, the marginal tax rate was 91% as compared to the 35% of today? Our economy was just fine and the wealth was distributed more equitably);
2) The waste of blood and treasure on an unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq to “preserve” our access to oil. (If we were going to try to get rid of dictators or bring democracy somewhere, China or Africa surely would have benefited from our help);
3) Deregulation of our financial sector which has led to wretched excess in unleashing the natural driving force of capitalism…GREED.
MikeD| 2.13.10 @ 5:16PM
Wow! I wonder how many times you had to refer to your dictionary to make sure you managed to correctly use all the polysyllabic words you crammed into your post that was essentially a justification of your pension. The only government worker pension that is acceptable is for retired members of the Military. They earned theirs with blood or the willingness to shed blood. Civil servants are frequently neither; civil or of service. Remember that all those people you so easily dismiss as wanting the rediculous 'Horatio Alger' stories are the one's who risk security in hopes of making enough money to PAY FOR YOUR OVERBLOWN SALARY AND PENSION. You'd be wise to remember that; the gravy train will not last much longer; we're out of money. The people you dismiss in the private sector have to face lay-offs and salary cuts on a daily basis because they have jobs only as long as their employer is profitable. Remember profits? Those are the things you 'civil servants' love to denegrate and pretend that are beneath you. No profits, no taxes, no job for you. You're lucky the government isn't a business. If it were, you'd have been laid off long ago because your employer is bankrupt.
Civil Servant| 2.16.10 @ 6:06PM
Dear MikeD,
I apologize for using all those big words and complex syntax.
I didn’t mean to confuse you more than you are already.
Let me put it very simply.
There are other forms of service that we may render to society.
Society requires structure to function and to protect those who are born disadvantaged.
That is the role of government.
In other words, life is not just about you and how you can gain at everyone else’s expense.
Omigosh, there I go mentioning capitalism again!
The taxes you pay are your debt to society not only for the services that you don’t want to pay for…
But also to help those who are less fortunate than you.
I know that doesn’t fit into the conservative dog-eat-dog philosophy, but don’t worry, that 2% is making a lot of money with your support.
I hope that clarifies how you are being used and manipulated.
They don’t care about you.
Paul from SA| 2.11.10 @ 11:43AM
Teachers have the lowest test scores, the lowest IQ scores and the lowest grades, on average, of all college students.
Most of my teachers in public school were ok. Some were incompetent and didn't belong in the profession; some were outstanding.
Teachers are incredibly overpaid for their part-time, part-year work. Teaching children is easy work compared to other professions.
However, the teachers are not the problem. The unions are the main problem; second, the politicians; third the media.
Public unions should be outlawed. Private sector unions can eventually bankrupt their employer. Public unions cannot.
Remo| 2.11.10 @ 4:27PM
As one who has worked both in the private sector and at a teacher, I would respectfully submit that you don't know what you are talking about. Teachers are incredibly underpaid most of their career, and work harder during their "part time" than most 40 hour-a-week workers. If the pay scale was up to the equivalent for responsibilities and importance of the task, I bet that you would see a great difference in the applicants looking at teaching. Those who can, do... those who Care, teach.
I challenge you to spend 7 hours a day in the classroom and then go home to grade papers, plan the lessons, and buy the materials (thanks to budget cuts the school cant afford them anymore).
on another note... if Urban and sub-urban schools are struggling to educate students... why the push to consolidate the schools that are succeeding (rural) into them for the sake of budgets?
FTM| 2.12.10 @ 4:10AM
Abort.
No comment.
mama always said that if you can't say something nice don't say anything.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 11:53AM
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Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 12:03PM
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Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 12:18PM
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CalMark| 2.11.10 @ 12:36PM
Re: Civil Servant
Frightening sign of the times: a government worker who venomously hates capitalism. Those "1%" he so despises pay enormous taxes that fund his cushy job. Civil Servant is yearning for a system of absolute government control, where (motivation, anyone?) government workers have frightening power.
As for his comparative statistics, humbug. In the private sector that Civil Servant so despises, 6 figure salaries are rare and usually at managment level; in the public sector, 6 figure salaries are increasingly common, many below management level.
Pat| 2.11.10 @ 12:38PM
During the last 30 years here in California, I can’t recall an election where politicians didn’t promise to fix our state’s education system. Sure, you’re thinking the Democrats – right? - a political party that for no obvious reason receives large, no-strings attached gifts from the Teachers’ Union annually – but you’d be wrong if you thought that – every Republican candidate makes exactly the same promise, the Socialist and Libertarian candidates also promise to fix our schools, although the Wiccan Party candidate demands many more Wiccan teachers before the schools can be deemed barely adequate. Why, in election after election, does every candidate promise to improve our schools? Are our schools really that bad? Not if you judge our schools by the physical plant; we have beautiful school buildings paid for by the real estate developers, large, meticulously groomed playgrounds, the parking lots are filled with Beemers, baby Mercedes and the odd Lexus and that’s just the student parking area, the cars in the teachers’ lot are even more expensive
Armed with a $400,000 state grant and a year’s research into the subject, a retired Stanford political science professor found the truth. His research results concluded that “Improve our schools”, “Fix our broken education system”, “Focus on our kids’ education” and the often repeated and much loved “It’s for the children” are actually “code phrases” which translate into “Pay teachers more money”. Does the size of a teacher’s paycheck determine how well kids are educated? Maybe not in your backward, redneck state, but here in California it does. Are our teachers grossly underpaid? Nobody knows the answer to that question because no one in California can agree on how much teachers are paid.
I’ve heard estimates as high as $225,000 per year and as low as $18,500 in answer to the question: How much does an average California teacher get paid? Apparently, teacher pay is a closely guarded secret, no one here can ever agree on the true numbers. The FBI, Homeland Security and the CIA have tried to find out, they were unsuccessful. Every estimate of average teacher pay, annual benefits, car allowance, sabbatical pay, clothing allowance, etc. has been successfully refuted by our Teachers’ Union – the Union claims every one of these estimates have been deliberately inflated in a crude attempt to deny teachers adequate compensation.
Recently, the Teachers Union proposed that admittance to our universities must take into account how much teachers are paid within the applicant’s home school district. Want your kid admitted to prestigious Stanford or Berkeley, better move to a school district where teachers receive a “living wage”. If you’re a miser and choose to live in one of those districts where teachers are grossly underpaid, your kid deserves only Las Cheapas Community College.
DaveNorCal| 2.11.10 @ 2:37PM
In the school district my kids go to in California they have sheets in the district office that outlines teachers pay and benefits. I have found through the years that most teachers are competent and receive good pay but not great. I believe the problem resides in the administrators and beaurocracy. These are the people that we have no idea how much they make or even how many there are. In California, all education is effectively run at the state level with an enormous unelected, unaccountable beaurocracy.
Pat| 2.11.10 @ 4:48PM
I agree with you - teachers receive good but not great pay. And "improving education" is a perpetual local issue so it's something the politicians can lie about knowing their constituents will be interested in whatever their most recent vague promises are.
Teacher's pay transparency isn't as simple as getting a "fact sheet" from the office. A starting teacher always makes less than someone with 20 years teaching tenure, nothing unusual about that and it's much the same in private industry. But what is the "average"? Does it include the "bump" for completing your Masters in Education degree although you continue to teach the same grade and aren't doing anything different? What about poor districts like Richmond vs. wealthy districts like Danville, the state tries to spread the taxpayers' wealth around, the local districts try to keep the money closer to home to maintain the higher property values of the wealthier areas.
And then there's the age old game of: Are California teachers paid less than Arkansas teachers? Politicians in the back pocket of the Teacher's Union love to point out that we spend less on "education" than poorer states, so what's wrong with us? Except it depends on whose "numbers" you use to prove the point and how the numbers were compiled. Is a teacher's total comp. spread over 10 months when school is in session or a normal 12 month work year?
And does it make logical sense that in a state with some of the highest home prices within the country, the pay is less than low "cost of living" states in the South? If it does make sense, how could teachers afford to live here, not to mention the Beemers and Mercedes in the teachers' reserved parking areas?
MikeD| 2.13.10 @ 5:26PM
At the end of the day it doesn't make a bit of difference which teacher, firefighter, police officer, etc... is good or bad, well paid or underpaid. The states are out of money! The public employee unions are bankrupting all levels of government. The bottom line is that we can't afford all the pension liabilities that the politicians awarded in their efforts to buy off the unions. Ask a teacher how much the top five leaders of the NEA or the AFT make. It's more than $800,000 a year!!! See how many teachers make that much.
While there truly very good and dedicated teachers, the vast majority of them are worthless, especially if they're under the age of 45. The reason: The politically charged, politically correct, watered down, and 'dumbed down' curricula in teacher's colleges and universities. Too many teachers can't even pass the minimum competency exams their students have to pass in their states! See how they'd do on a GRE, or an LSAT or a GMAT. They would bomb it because the very worst students go into the education departments, and, once there, are taught nothing but politically correct crap! Make them do more and they might be worth more.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 12:42PM
Public Schools - Bad Education, Year After Year? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
DR_X| 2.11.10 @ 12:50PM
Teaching = full time pay for a part time job.
Richard Baker| 2.11.10 @ 1:02PM
Education Degrees and courses are the underwater basketweaving curricula in academia. The least capable students gravitate there nationally and having taken some of them myself when I was a Math/Science teacher I can attest that they don't prepare you for much. They are the requirements of the Teaching Establishment and signify nothing. Close the Schools of Education and get rid of the BS/BA in Education. Everything you would need to know about passing on knowledge could be taught using the Army Instructor course which is approximately 6 weeks, if memory serves. Teaching knowledge is no secret mystery. Or do we keep using the abysmal failure that is the "Science" of Education and the attendant failures?
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 1:23PM
How to Teach a Person Something links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Our Children and Grant Money For Community Development! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Fallgold| 2.11.10 @ 3:25PM
I always have felt that one of the big ripoffs in education is the constant whinning for lower class sizes. That is an on-going battle cry of the unions. Of course, this creates the need for many more teachers and more classroom construction. Years ago, I remember being in large classes, and if a few more students showed up during the first day, no big deal, the janitor would shove in some more desks. Somehow, we still managed to graduate.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 3:37PM
Help for Improving Test Scores links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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What Do I Need to Teach Overseas? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
A.S Fan| 2.11.10 @ 3:57PM
President Obama, Bernanke, and Jim Cramer are in a MOVIE about hedge funds called "Stock Shock." Even though the movie mostly focuses on Sirius XM stock being naked-short-sold to near bankruptcy (5 cents/share), I liked it because it exposes the dark side of Wall Street and reveals some of their secrets. DVD is everywhere but cheaper at www.stockshockmovie.com
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 4:24PM
The American Spectator : Out of Chalk | ez-review.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 4:32PM
Community College is an Excellent Educational Bargain links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 8:30PM
Home School Resources for Middle School links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Nyfarmer| 2.11.10 @ 9:14PM
Part of the problem is the exponential way payout increases are doled out to employee's and pensioner's. Eventually a pay increase as little as 2-3% per year will cause budgets to spiral out of control. (Aint there any of them math techer's able to splain the concept!!) Using the rule of 70 5% annual pay hikes will cause a budget to DOUBLE every 15 years . A $10 million budget has to be $20 after 15 years--$40 million the next 15 --and so on. Those that have to pay the bill have not had the same payout scale (primarily due to the competitive nature of real work!) as those in the public sector hence the reality--the money is not available. I believe that this is the death spiral that all government entities are on. Worse yet there is no way out without severe economic pain.
There are those that can explain in more depth than I -- if you choose to seek.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 11:55PM
Education Issues in the Classroom is Much About Parenting not Class Size or Assistant links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.12.10 @ 12:44AM
TOP 10 Colleges in America: Ranked According to Total Student Population (The BIG 10) links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jim Hlavac | 2.12.10 @ 1:37AM
While I have not read every word of every comment, what seems missing is the idea of simply requiring every student to be educated, but allowing schools to be free of the bureaucracy, in any way conceivable. Devolve the system back to the cities, the counties, the towns, even right back to the people. Wean the whole system from the government -- except require a sort of general national curriculum, but how that is achieved is up to the school, the parents, and the kids.
Makes no difference if one wants to concentrate on the African-American experience, of if another does detailed exposes of Jefferson and Washington. Math is still math, science is still science. How big the classes are, which books might be permissible to what age, uniforms or not, all these litigious matters would go away, and thus billions saved there too.
Still, there is a way for national standards implemented by varied and diverse formats.
Within about five to ten years the best school model will emerge, be copied, and save the Republic.
Until then it's like arguing over the spoils.
FTM| 2.12.10 @ 4:03AM
OK, here's the way that the racket works where I live.
I can say all of this because most of my relatives on my father's side of the family are school teachers.
What you ddo is get a education degree and then get a job teaching. preferrable Health and PE or English or something like that. While you're teaching you get your masters in education. You've got twenty years and in a lot of cases the school district will pay you to go to school. I have two aunts that retuired the first time around with PhDs in Elementary Education.
What you do is retire after twenty years. During the twenty years you accumulate sick time. When you retire the state buys your sick time from you. This amount can be well in excess of a hundred thousand dollars.
The two aunts with the PhDs then hired back into the school system as administrators. On retired as a middle school principal. Another twenty years of accumulateed sick time bought by the state. Another check for several hundred thousand dollars this time around. Principals are paid real well.
I encouraged both of my kids to get teaching degrees, this working for a living in the privarte sector is for the birds. I wish I had been smart enough to get a teaching degree instead of an engineering degree.
F. Delagarza| 2.14.10 @ 4:35PM
What state are you in? Do you think this applies to TX?
Pingback| 2.12.10 @ 6:10AM
Education Must Increase High School Graduation Rates Along with Reading, Math and Sci links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 2.12.10 @ 7:06AM
3 Tips To Help You Reduce The Cost Of Homeschooling links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Tough Love| 2.12.10 @ 9:32AM
Here's the ROOT CAUSE of the problem ... NOT a "revenue shortfall" problem, but an "excess expense" problem:
At EVERY income level, the present value at retirement of the employer (i.e., TAXPAYER) paid-for share of the typical (non-safety) Civil Servant's retirement package (Pension & retiree healthcare) is 2-4 TIMES that of the employer paid-for share of a comparable Private sector worker making the SAME pay, retiring at the SAME age, and having the SAME number of years of service, and, this multiple rises to 4-6 times for fireman & policeman due to their richer formula & earlier retirement age.
For those that question this, consider the following that ONLY Civil Servants get ... all VERY expensive:
(1) Post retirement COLAs
(2) Full retirement at 50-60 WITHOUT an actuarial reduction in payout for collecting early'
(3) Joint & Survivor annuity payout WITHOUT a benefit cutback for the longer payout due to 2 lives covered
(4) Richer pension formulas
(5) Vacation & unused sick-leave payouts, and allowances are often included in "pensionable income" for the payout calculation
(6) Pensionable income based on the single final year of pay instead of the average of the last 3 or 5
(7) Excessive overtime stuffed into the last year of employment to unfairly "spike" the pension payout
(8) Free or near free retiree healthcare (what Private sector worker gets this anymore?)
ALL of this is VERY unfair to TAXPAYERS who foot 80-90% of the costs.
WHAT is needed is CLEAR ... WE need a significant reduction in the pension formula for FUTURE years of service for CURRENT (yes CURRENT) employees. Reductions ONLY for NEW employees will save NOTHING fore 20-30 years until they begin to retire. We'll never make it ... we're near broke NOW.
We also, need to either eliminate retiree healthcare or SIGNIFICANTLY increase cost-sharing from the retiree.
Curtis| 2.12.10 @ 11:09PM
Bit of a sore point, my sister is a good teacher, and I was run through a school where a good number of the teachers were mediocre in the least, and dirtbags at the worst.
The core problem is the definition itself. When we say "teachers" we're not just talking about teachers. I'm a military man myself, I know a cluster screw of a top heavy organization when I see it.
Via the modern marvel that is the internets, I've examined my alma maters' personnel.
According to its website, the high school I went to has approximately 1200 students. For that they need 11-12 custodians, 6 office workers in addition to 5 administrators, 11 coaches, 4 guidance counselors, 12 slots in the special education department, an astounding 18 bodies in the cafeteria. A few teachers were double slotted, (department admin and teacher) but most were not.
the District main office was manned out by 20 bodies, and hosted such auspicious slots as "Public Relations director"
"Chief information officer"
"payroll"
"accounts payable "
"Instructional tech director"
"Title I director"
"Special ed director"
"Special ed Teacher consultant"
"director of pupil personnel"
"Benefits"
"Food services Director"
"Food services accounts"
2 "Administrative assistants"
and one receptionist.
All of these were single flag positions, no one was pulling two jobs.
The adult ed center that the board runs also had listed both a psychologist and a psychometrist. A title I have personally never heard of, and my spellcheck does not even recognize. Either way the ALS has less then 100 students at any given time.
The kings of the mountain are the nine "Board of Education" board members which includes the boards' attorney, a representative of students, a legislative liason, a chairman and vice chairman in addition to the board superintendent, and two members who have no other offical titles to throw about.
The elementary school I went to looked somewhat leaned out. For approximately 400 students it had 3 administrators, (Principal, secretary and counselor) 3 custodians, 5 cooks, 1 nurse, 1 librarian, and two coaches. I hope that "Speach language pathologist" is a long term for a speach therapy teacher, and not a highly paid semi-medical professional that the school shells out a small fortune for. But I'm betting I'm wrong.
Pingback| 2.13.10 @ 7:01AM
Weekly articles « MaddMedic links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Weekly articles « Interned In Northfield links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Some Reality Testing Around Coaching links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Scott Horn| 2.13.10 @ 10:37AM
29 year veteran teacher, OK, teachers are the dumbest college students on the planet, so pay me babysitting wages if that's what you think of me, i will gladly take 210 per week per kid i teach which is the going babysiting rate here. I would make 1.7 million a year, it would be great!
the problem isn't salary, the problem is the public has demanded more of schools over the years than direct instruction and you are now not willing to pay for it
you should be blaming bawney fank et al for monetray problems
Pingback| 2.13.10 @ 11:27AM
Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Education Edited by RiShawn links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 2.13.10 @ 12:49PM
The major problem is that it's a government run organization. When I was a teacher here in Florida, I couldn't believe the number of staff operating the system who seemed to be doing nothing to "teach" anything but were very busy responding to other governmental types for data and information. Privatize the school system and you'll discover a better product will appear and kids will actually begin to learn and graduate. Doubt that? Look at the school districts nationally and note the number and percentages of teachers who send their kids to private and parochial schools.
Pingback| 2.15.10 @ 8:19AM
Read: Shutdown Edition | Dropout Nation: Coverage of the Reform of American Public Ed links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Do You Need to Have a High IQ to Be Successful? Does an Average IQ Mean You'll Be Ave links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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links for 2010-02-22 « Overton’s Arrow links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Salvation for New Jersey « The Republican Heretic links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
سوريا | 6.25.11 @ 12:16AM
thank yuou vere nice
http://www.soryh.com
Puma x Alexander McQueen | 8.12.11 @ 11:21PM
is good