Morning Read: About those teacher salaries
Three of the region’s newspapers are wrestling with the question of school budgets and teacher salaries.
In this morning’s Plattsburgh Press-Republican, Stephen Bartlett points out that Peru’s school district has roughly a $4 million budget shortfall next year.
The biggest chunk of that shortfall is caused by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget cuts, but a sizable portion comes in the form of negotiated cost-increases for school teachers.
The district also estimates a $358,000 increase in negotiated raises, $412,000 more in health-insurance premiums, an extra $211,000 in retirement-system contributions for support staff and another $372,000 for contributions to the teacher-retirement system…
This might be an obvious time to question whether salary increases are timely, or whether teachers should pick up more of their own insurance payments, as Governor Cuomo has suggested.
In a column, meanwhile, Glens Falls Post-Star editor Ken Tingley argues that it’s time for every school district to have this wrenching, painful discussion.
The only place schools can save big chunks of money is with salary givebacks – or layoffs – and increases in employee contributions to health care.
That’s where the conversation should start.
Each and every school board should be asking its employees if they are willing to give back their raises or contribute more to their health insurance.
Governor Cuomo, obviously, is lobbying teachers, their administrators, and their unions hard to convinced them to choose the salary cuts option whenever possible. Here’s a statement he released over the weekend, via the Albany Times-Union.
“I commend the administrators and faculty of the West Genesee School District who have taken a voluntary salary freeze. These are the type of tough but smart decisions school districts across New York should be making. West Genesee clearly understands the economic pressures we are facing and other school districts should follow this example.”
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, meanwhile, is reporting that very few districts in the North Country appear to be able to rely on their cash reserves to hold their budgets steady for next year.
Most appear to be scrambling for ways to cut costs dramatically.
So what do you think? We’ve already seen widespread teacher cuts in the region. Is it time for another squeeze, or is Governor Cuomo misguided?
UPDATE: (from David S.) – The New York Times is reporting this morning Cuomo wants to reduce the reimbursements districts get for sharing services through BOCES. His budget staff says the reimbursements have been rising too fast.
But education officials say this would provide a disincentive for schools to do what Cuomo has urged them to do…consolidate:
“I think we are an excellent example of what the state has been promoting: sharing services, consolidation, saving dollars and providing equitable opportunities for all students in the state,” said Sandra Simpson, chief operating officer of Southern Westchester Boces, which serves 33 districts, including Scarsdale, New Rochelle and White Plains. “Why dismantle a system that is working so well and that people depend on?”
BOCES plays a huge role in the rural North Country.
Do there need to be concessions made on the part of teachers and administrators in these trying fiscal times? Including salary freezes, increasing pension and health care contributions? Of course!
But after reading some of the comments above, I can’t help but be curious to know how many here actually have worked in the field of education. How many here have actually worked in a classroom since they themselves completed high school? Anyone?
How many on here have a Master’s degrees? Teachers typically do. How many have a professional certification which also requires you to continually educate yourself (at your expense in most cases) until you retire from employment? Teachers typically do. How many have TWO professional certifications and TWO Master’s degrees? Most Administrators do.
How many here take work home after their 8+ hour day? How many spend a large portion of their weekend writing lesson plans, reviewing IEP’s, scoring exams, reading papers? How many call and/or email parents to update them about their child in the evening, on weekends, etc.?
And here’s what seems to be forgotten when we compare teaching with private sector, typically for profit employment. Education is not making products for resale. You can’t throw a lazy, difficult student onto the defective pile and ignore them like, say, a defective part in an auto assembly plant. Or send them back to the beater room like you can a bad roll of specialty paper. Or pour them down the drain like you can a tank full of bacteria ridden milk. Or send them to the repair shop when they’ve blown out a muffler. This is why education can’t be run like a business.
Success in education is a very abstract thing, despite the use of grades, scores on standardized exams, who earns advanced diplomas, etc. And teachers are but one factor in this success. It’s why education as a profession is so challenging and difficult. Parents, peers, communities, the school environment, etc. are extremely important factors as well. It’s a big reason why teacher evaluations are an art and not a science. People like to ask what is wrong with the performance of our education system today. Are descent directly relates to the demise of the family structure. The breakdown of the home is the problem. Why? Because parenting is the biggest factor in the success of a student.
It’s one thing to demand concessions in compensation, it’s entirely another to pigeon hole every teacher as some lazy, got their toes in the sand, has a cake walk 10 month job, and is very overpaid. If you think it’s such a great gig then I encourage you to go for it. But pursue it knowing the reality of what it truly is.
The Republicans are all about union busting. Myown makes good points.
As the schools and teachers have pointed out time and time again, the major costs of education come in the form of mandates from the states and the federal government.
The same holds true for town and county governments.
Blame the workers for everything is the cry on the right. Nothing is ever the fault of business. The poor dears at the top are just trying to protect us from our greedy selves.
Rationalandlogoical – I wish you were. Do you actually think we have free markets and capitalism? Please, that is a bad joke. What we have is a system where large corporations buy our politicians who pass bills that bestow favorable tax policies, monopolies, too big to fail guarantees and similar benefits that amount to corporate welfare and socialism. We the taxpayers just got ripped off by an organized crime syndicate (Wall Street) and not one CEO or gambler is being pursued or held accountable for outright theft. And little has been done to prevent it from happening again Defense spending is a huge part of the federal budget yet the Defense Dept. can’t even stop funding for projects they don’t need because some politician is being paid by a defense contractor to keep their government welfare checks coming.
You think people make money in a vacuum? How many successful businesses and millionaires are there in Somalia or any other third-world country where there is little government or stability? People underestimate the value of what our government and the public sector provides and we take the benefits for granted. It is selfish and short-sighted to think we should be able to keep all our “earned” money to ourselves and screw everyone else.
According to Jesus, the best way to EARN happiness is to sell all you have and give it to the poor.
If you want to EARN happiness, do what Jesus said. Sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor.
Rational – it is the state, govt.etc that makes earning money possible. A stateless free market is a hunter gatherer society.
But is anyone concerned about a Union that gives money and support to a political party that elects people to office who’s job it is to bargain with the same union over taxpayer dollars? Some of those dollars then go back to the elected official to keep them in power?
This is the reason that FDR was so against Unions in the public sector. The point of a Union is to represent the interests of labor AGAINST those of the capitalists, to ensure that labor receives a fair shake from the capitalist profits. How does that fit with a government agency?
Myown, I find your argument sort of confounding. We all agree healthcare and pension costs are unsustainable. How do we control these costs if the big unions can simply shut down their employer if they don’t comply with their demands?
I don’t believe we can have it both ways, haven’t we learned from the recent past? Look at GMC and Chrysler, the union damaged them so severely they needed public funds to bail them out. Management couldn’t say no without killing the company. Same thing with the teachers, or my former employer for that matter, there have to be limits.
“Rational”, the top tax rate in the fifties and early sixties was 90%, yet the economy was booming, and we built the Interstate Highway System. The FACT is that letting the ultra wealthy become even more ultra wealthy by keeping even more of their excessive wealth is very bad for economic growth, as is amply demonstrated by the Bush years.
Mervel – One of many important benefits of public employee unions is protecting worker job security. Without that a school superintendent who wanted to save a few bucks could fire an experienced teacher just because their salary was higher than a new teacher. Or fire a teacher because he wanted to hire a friend’s son or daughter or even a family member. Government workers could be fired every time there is an election and party loyalists hired to replace them. That’s what used to happen in the good old days that Governor Walker and his wealthy conservative backers want to return to when workers had no economic security or political clout and there was no middle class. And that’s where we are headed if these regressive politicians prevail.
Bret – Of course health care and pensions are issue. But pensions are not that big of an issue in NY (or Wisconsin). Both are well funded and steps have been taken, such as increasing worker contributions and extending the retirement age to address the problems of the recession created by the gamblers on Wall Street who walked away with millions of tax-payers’ dollars and haven’t suffered a bit.
For health care, as I said we need to stop arguing over whose pockets should pay the premiums. We need to confront the costs directly and realize we are being fleeced by the insurance companies and the medical industry and make radical changes. If we don’t do that we are just rearranging the deck chairs on a ship headed for disaster.
As far as the Big Three US auto companies go all three had unions and Ford is doing just fine. It was management at GM and Chrysler that did those companies in with bad decisions, bad designs and poor quality. And again the executives who destroyed those companies were never held accountable and walked away with golden parachutes while the workers were left with pension funds that had been raided.
Some observations, mutterings, niggling thoughts and meanderings that may lead to coherency re the state of education in NYS:
It costs up to twice as much to educate a student in NYS as in most other states (except in the North East) according to http://www.greatschools.org/improvement/volunteering/the-ins-and-outs-of-school-finance.gs?content=101&page=all.
For example, Washington spends $7,717 per pupil annually. Oregon spends $8,071. Colorado spends $7,826. North Carolina spends $6,904. Utah spends $5,216. NEW YORK STATE SPENDS $13,703 with New Jersey the highest at $14,117.
Are students in New Jersey and in NYS receiving a better education than students in those other mentioned states?
Why the descrepancy? Mandates, I believe is a big part of the problem.
In the the North Country, a beginning teacher’s salary is aprox. $35k…not much (plenty for a lot of us) until you add in retirement, health insurance and all other benefits (Alas, I don’t have the actual figures at hand)…then a teacher’s salary looks quite generous.
We all know the cost of living here in the North Country is much lower than it is downstate.
Consider that teachers work with students 180 days a year.
They work a few more required days. The rest of the time is theirs to do as they please.
Teachers’ holidays may be a sore point for workers not in the teaching profession.
Recently, teachers (and students) had a 10 day Christmas holiday. Back to school for a couple of weeks then a holiday for MLK’s birthday. Work a few more weeks then a week off for winter break. Work another 6 weeks then they have a week off for spring break.
Work a couple of months then have 10 weeks off work.
A seasoned teacher does not need to spend much time on preparation and the most classes a teacher is required to teach is 6 a day leaving them lunch (1/2 hour usually) + aprox. 45 minutes free period for planning, etc.
Teachers generally are required to be in school 7 to 7.5 hours a day.
Teachers will say they must work during the summer in order to support themselves and their families. That means that they can pick up an additional 10 weeks of work, which at minimum wage translates into a minimum of an additional $3,000. (This doesn’t address the fact that many teachers also work during those numerous holidays. Some even have their own businesses. Now, that is a dedicated worker.)
Other factors enter into the picture. A student teacher in a classroom allows a teacher more free time.
I’m not saying for one moment that teaching is an easy job. Nor is clerking in Price Chopper, plowing roads in winter, driving a bus, running a business, working construction, logging, trash pickup…need I go on?
I believe the above listed figures may be why we have a glut of teachers…not their love of our youth (obviously there are many exceptions to this generalization) but the great benefits.
Did you know that when a teacher retires, s/he receives a check for untaken sick days (up to 100 of them so we’re talking about thousands of dollars per teacher)? What other profession offers this?
Teachers have not always fared so well. I remember when teachers were almost without exception, women. They worked to suplement the family income. As more and more men came into the teaching profession, they along with the unions, pushed for more equitable pay and benefits. Like the GM and other auto workers, they have created their own job demise.
The solution: I believe we are now addressing it: Teachers contributing to their health insurance (as do almost all workers in other professions do). Teachers keeping their jobs based on their performance, not on tenure.
Clearly, solutions need to be found. The average working person cannot continue to afford tax increases.
In Canton’s latest newsletter, Bill Porter wrote a shining article about youth playing outside, making up their own games, creating their own rules, and having a great time. I would fear he has cut his job out of the school budget except parents insist on organized sports and all that goes with those sports.
Perhaps parents should also insist on better educations (if, indeed, that is what is needed).
I’m not convinced that our youth are not receiving good educations.
Rather, I believe that by including students of all levels of proficiency in the school’s statistics, a true, clear picture of a school’s students abilities are not shown.
Speaking of time off for teachers, don’t forget state mandate days off for mammograms and giving blood. Whenver a teacher takes a paid day off the school has to hire a substitute, which usually means a movie day for the students. While those are two very important events, I do not see why teachers need a special day of for them. They could be done during summer vacation, winter break, spring break, personal time, etc.
An old parable tells the story of a peasant with one cow who hates his neighbor because he has two. A sorcerer offers to grant the envious farmer a single wish. “Kill one of my neighbor’s cows!” he demands.
Sound familiar? Enough said.
I’m sitting here reading these comments and can;t help but notice that most of the people here are making the same argument that I would- those who work hard and do their job well deserve what they get. Teachers, doctors, stockbrokers, entrepreneurs, whomever.
Funny how when it’s your job it seems sooooo much more important.
Bret, Scratchy, etc, Wake up and smell the coffee. The world doesn’t work that way. Here’s the latest evidence that the rewards of hard work are more unevenly distributed than ever.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110223/ts_yblog_thelookout/separate-but-unequal-charts-show-growing-rich-poor-gap
The middle class is getting a much smaller proportion of the total economic pie that they help produce. And that is by design. The system is controlled and rigged by the super-rich and powerful corporations who pay politicians to give them tax breaks and other preferential treatment so their wealth increases at the expense of those with lower incomes. The manner in which income happens and wealth accumulates is determined by the structure of society and established rules, including taxes. And over the past 30 years the rules were changed and tilted in favor of the rich getting a larger piece of the pie at the expense of the middle class. That is undeniable.
What is really unfortunate is the same people who get an increasingly greater proportion of income and wealth have been able to distract attention away from that fact by having their conservative think tanks and media promote envy and jealousy among the middle class. They have been able to say to people who are struggling economically that “it is all the fault of the unions and teachers and public workers – they are the problem. They have it better than you, that’s not fair and you should take it away from them.” And predictably the mobs are forming with pitch forks to do that. Stop it!
Stop scapegoating teachers and public workers. They are your neighbors and friends. They are not the problem. Yes you can be angry, but you should be angry about why so many people are being economically screwed and that the middle class is disappearing. It should be directed at those responsible for changing the rules that allow the disparity in wealth and income to grow larger. At the politicians who sell you false promises – like tax cuts for the rich benefit everyone. At the self-serving conservative media who distort and distract and promote middle class division. We are being played and are acting against our own self -interests when we attack teachers and public workers. The middle class as a whole needs to band together and demand the rules (and taxes) be changed back to where they were 30 years ago in order to restore economic fairness, a vibrant middle class and a more stable society.
Feeling metaphorical this a.m.
As we get down to crunching the budget numbers, I’m hearing more and more what sounds to me like ‘socialism’. Kind of funny when you think about it.
Isn’t that what the Republicans have been accusing the rest of us of.
Let’s face it folks…we’ve been living high on the hog for several decades and now the proverbial s**t has hit the fan.
No one wants to give up a crumb…even if they have the whole enchillada.
The reality is, we all will sacrifice…the poor more than the rich…unless we do become socialists.
Personally, I think that could be a good thing.
Myown, I’m not scapegoating public workers at all. I’m a retired public employee, one that thought our union was overstepping good sense during negotiations years back. One who’s seen his own union go from a collective bargaining association to a full blown UNION, complete with campaign endorsements, etc. Unions have their purpose, but they should also have limits, especially in the public sector. I know we were limited by law in exactly what we could and couldn’t do and were legally prevented form striking. I thought that made sense. Maybe I’m wrong, but IMO when you take a job in public service you have certain limits that come with the bennies.
My other comment would be directed at your allegations it’s conservatives “fixing” the system. If you really believe that then it’s you that needs to wake up and smell the coffee! Our esteemed Democrats are just as active in ensuring they and their wealthy supporters retain as much wealth as possible. There is simply no way anyone can hang that charge on the right alone. Our wealthy upper class is not made up only of Republicans, that simply not true. Anyone claiming that is either working with blinders on or has an agenda other than the truth.
I would agree completely that the fault lies with our politicians over he past 50-75 years, and certainly over the past 30 years. Those same politicians are responsible for the S+L bailout/scandal, the housing bubble and collapse, the reckless borrowing, the debt, the stimulus/slush funds, etc. IMO there’s little difference between Republican and Democrat anymore, most are corrupt no matter what party they belong to. Yet we are presented with the same trash year after year. I don’t think much will change. I think we’re headed towards Claudias socialist workers paradise. That ought to be lots of fun.