Boortz: GOVERNMENT SCHOOL TEACHER GETS SCHOOLED

Then you should have read that the teacher calculated her $3/student salry to be $83,000.

The game changer in all this is that she actually makes $86,000 before benefits.

Unless she gets paid more for a. being a union rep and or b. being a department head or vice-principal, or c. is about to retire, there's no way that is and average base salary.

Again, if you, if it is public record, go and check out what the average teacher is making, it MIGHT be, perhaps, 40 000 a year before taxes.
That was approximately my base starting wage with an Honours degree and a Bachelor of Ed.

I don't believe the article mentioned an average base salary in the case of the teacher trying to make her own case.

Why don't you go check the public record, if it's available, and get back to me since it was you who brought it up?

I'm not an American

I KNOW what the base salary is here, because I'm a teacher.

Very well. I shall help you.

The average teacher in New Jersey makes $56,635. Though you mentioned both average and base salary, I won't be arsed with doing anything more than a simple Googling.

http://www.employmentspot.com/employment-articles/teacher-salaries-by-state/

This is with outstanding benefits and without a VAT, so... well, what was your point?

I was just looking at the link (thanks btw) and it looks like they vary from state to state-I guess due to funding or Cost of Living. Much like it varies province to province here.

My point is, teaching will never get you rich. Most do it because we love it. The general atomosphere that the woman got 'pwnd' makes it seem that there quite a few bad feelings towards teachers and their unions.

My impression was the teacher stuck her foot in her mouth big time. I have no bad feelings towards good teachers, but I do have bad feelings towards unions who defend bad teachers.

^fair enough. I wish there WAS a way to weed out the bad ones while protecting the good ones.

AHAHAHAHAHA

Are you kidding me? Have you ever been through an inspection? Everyone knows full well in advance and spends at least a week cleaning up and making everything up to code, and that's in a union shop.

Look at that mess in West Virginia, where Massey ran things so far out of whack that they intimidated their workforce and fought every single complaint/citation.

Government regulations. Give me a break.

Stuck her foot in her mouth? The governor basically told her to fuck off for no reason and blamed the teachers for educational costs. She didn't get "pwned", she got a reason to strike.

I'm not sure how I feel about teacher's unions, since that job is very dependent on the individual, but basically incurring the wrath of the electorate and your workers isn't a smart way of going about your business.

Spoken like a true member of the United Auto Workers.

You don't like the truth, leave the room.

Why are you still here?

I'm a modern-day Jeremiah.

You're a bullfrog?

I like to think we're good friends, despite our differences, Fox.

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On the subject of average base salaries, $86,000 could easily be the average in New Jersey.

The Michigan Department of Education's Bulletin 1014 lists average salaries in every district in the state. They're lower than $86,000, but when you take cost of living in New Jersey vs. Michigan into account, the numbers get closer.

I actually don't think teacher salaries are all that unreasonable, when you consider the training and expertise the job requires, as well as the fact that in order to retain their certification and keep their jobs, teachers are required to keep taking college-level continuing education courses at their own expense.

It's the complete salary-plus-benefits package that's out of whack. Most teachers here pay either nothing at all or a very small portion of their health insurance premiums. And because health benefits in Michigan are subject to collective bargaining, the MEA almost always forces boards into going with the ridiculously high-priced insurance provided by MESSA, which is a subsidiary of the MEA. School districts also pay an additional 16.94% on top of every employee's salary (19.41% next year) into the public school employee pension fund. (Don't you wish your employer kicked 19.41% of your paycheck into your 401(k), without even requiring any contribution from you?)

It used to be that teaching was a low-paying profession that made up for the low pay with great benefits. Now the pay has caught up and the benefits are great, and the result is that schools -- which get their funding through taxes levied on a population that's much less prosperous than it used to be -- are stuck with unsustainably high expenses.

In Florida (at least in South Florida) teachers have the option for the county to do that automatically by pulling out each check a certain amount of money so teachers get a check every two weeks for the whole year.

Without quoting it all again:

1. The idea that some outside agent can evaluate a teacher and get them fired is kinda scary-what if there is some bias some how? We too, in Canada, get evaluated by our principals. I wonder if a committee of teachers at the school could evaluate their own teachers? I suppose there could still be some bias, but there would have to be some proof to dismiss the teacher.

2. I, as a teacher who gets the summer pay in a bulk amount-because of the amount of the cheque, it falls into a higher tax bracket, and is taxed to the hilt. Also, two months worth of union dues, health care payments, U.I. and CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and my TPP (Teacher's Pension Plan) comes out as well. It winds up, divided by 8 weeks, to be less than my school year pay.

3. I wish we could opt in a steady pay all year 'round, instead of the summer budget-which in my household always runs out mid-August, which is why I teach summer school.

3.b. As I've noted, I'm a single parent and my ex hasn't paid child support since November, so money is tight. My son is growing out of his clothes at an alarming rate!

Making $86k a year and bitching about your pay is pwning yourself.

Not actually, no. At least not if MS is any representation. The actual length of summer is closer to 70 days. Generally clases end the week before Memorial Day and start in the first week of August. And teachers are working 2-3 days after and before.

The state requires 180 class days per year. Divided by 5 days in an ordinary week, that's 36 weeks...two at Christmas, one in spring, makes 39 which leaves a full quarter but that's before you take out all the various holidays and in-service training days (at least one in most months).

On top of that, every state has extensive requirements for teachers to continue their training in order to get re-licensed and so many of them spend a lot of that summer vacation as students themselves.

That's not to say they are not above average when it comes to "days not working" but it's a lot more complex than "three months vacation"

Wow. It's a long time since we've seen some n00b blow his wad so ineptly as our boy, Skippy.

Wait -- so in Canada, your tax bracket is determined by the size of each check, not by how much you make in a year?

O, Canada.

When we do our taxes at the end of the year, it's on the total earned, but during the year, it depends on how much the cheque is. So if during the year, you pay too much, you get a refund-not enough, you pay more.

My single parent status always gets me a refund by tax time. It's not alot, but it's better than paying!

More on Governor Christie (from an admittedly partisan source):

:bittersweet:

So true.