grossly underfunded edumacation
 

December 14, 2010
The good life on 36 weeks a year of workThomas Lifson

Champion News has just published data on the top teacher salaries in Illinois, making it clear that unionization has enabled a massive raid on the taxpayers' funds. Teaching can be a noble profession, but many of these teachers are cleaning up like bandits for a 9-month work year. In all, over 14,000 teachers in this one state make more than 100,000 a year in salary. When you add in pension, health care, and other benefits (15 days a year of sick leave, payable upon retirement if not used), which can add another 40% or more to salary, these teachers are doing much better than most college professors and many doctors.


•A Phys Ed teacher $191,124 for a 9 month work year.
•19 who made more over $1,000/day including 6 Phys Ed and three drama/music teachers.
•A Drivers Ed teacher whose salary is $18,205/month to teach teenagers how to parallel park.
•Six teachers make more than the Governor's $177,500.
•Top 100 Teachers average $17,603 per month salary.



$100,000 Teacher Salaries By Subject -　Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2010

　
　
Subject 2010 HighSalary / Greater $100K 2010/ Greater $100K 2009 increase
　
Art $154,748/ 166 / 145

　　　
Clothing/Apparel $144,895 / 9/ 7

Drama $171,595 / 26/ 24

　　　
Drive Ed $164,985/ 138 / 132

Elementary Ed $137,175 / 800 / 556

English $189,219/ 493/ 430

Foodservice $131,005/ 20/ 15

French $172,992/ 49/ 40

Latin $145,596/ 9/ 8

Librarians $154,071/ 193/ 111

Music $164,415/ 275 / 231

Nurse $136,166 / 26/ 23


Phys Ed $191,124/ 710/ 591

Speech $167,476/ 123/ 92
　

SOURCES:
　
Salaries from ISBE, Teacher Service Records year Ending 6/30/10

When you add in the value of benefits, it is clear that many of these teachers qualify as "millionaires and billionaires" according to the arguments Democrats used on taxes last week.

Blame the school commitee, they are the people that approve what the unions want.

When it comes to your city or town unions, blame the city council or town selectmen, they are the one's that cave in to the unions wants.

Fly Rod, I agree with you to a point. I feel the Unions are more to blame, I guess it is the old "Chicken or the Egg"

I've posted this before but it's worth posting again. This is the type of Union nonsense that is out of control and the blame here is on the Union.

Who is against library volunteers? Teachers unions in Raynham and Bridgewater. - - Budget Blues - Boston.com

You can't just blame the town, not here in CT anyway. I have been involved iin two teachers contract negotiations. Both times, the board of ed and the teachers unions could not agree, so according to laws common here in CT, it goes to binding arbitration. So the contracts get decided by arbiters who are not answerable to the citizens who get stuck with the bill.

Teh teachers unions, in the 2 negotiations I was involved in, were unbelievable. If I suggested that teachers could survive with 401(k)'s like everyone else, I get accused of hating education and not caring about kids.

Teachers unions want more and more insane benefits, and they could not care less about the tax burden that they pass on to the public which they claim to "serve".

In my town the elected seven person School Comittee is has only one member who ISN"T an educator or related to an educator, the taxpayer doesn't stand a chance. Now when it comes to arbitration, the people doing the arbitration are people who are staff members of other unions, the taxpayer doesn't stand a chance again....

I mentioned to a union staff member that we have plenty of money for teaching but never any for eduacation and he shut up instantly.....

I'm not saying teaching isn't difficult, I am saying teachers should try competing with the Chinese for marketshare and have to keep stockholders happy.

Good point. Teaching is difficult, draining, stressful, and pretty important.

That being said...teaching is a public service, menaing teachers are public servants. Here in CT, those public servants get insane benefits that dwarf anything available to the public whom teachers serve. It's simply not sustainable.

I have a 3 bedroom raised ranch on a half acre in an average town. My property taxes are $7,800 a year. It's not yet insane, but it's getting damn close.

based on the recent elections in Mass Ri and Ct the entrenched will continue to "sustain" it till it collapses

I agree with ya about this arbitration bull@$#%. There has to be a way for a city or town to stand fast.

The biggest item that drives up city and town taxes are pension funds. This does not have to be arbitrated when hiring new people. I have brought this up with a few city councilors about doing away with pension plans when hiring new employees, they are afraid to mention it. I have suggested to pick a year lets say 2012, any new employees would have a 401K paid for through the employees pay check, existing employees on a pension would die off as they age. This would save cities a lot of money in the long run. Private companies are doing away with pensions and having their employees on 401k's

Couldn't agree more.........................

Teacher Unions are the #1 reason why, when I have kids, there is no way in hell I'm having them go to public schools.

Strictly Seniority-based raises are a joke. Any teacher that's been employed for at least 10 years becomes virtually untouchable, as long as they keep to the absolute minimum standard and don't diddle the students (even those two requirements are arguable).

Be careful with private schools too (just because a school is public, doesn't mean it isn't high quality). I went to both public and private schools (before going to College) and can say that the public school gave a better overall education than the private one (maybe just by experience). It is all in what you put into it. I firmly believe it is the teacher (and parents), not the school that makes the difference.

Where I live a teacher gets tenor after 3 years.

And there in lies the truth. I would switch teacher/parent to parent/teacher
in importance though.
As I've mentioned in other posts, I taught for 4 years after I retired after working
32 years for a 500 company to give back some experience for the kids.
Trust me, ya gotta be there to understand the problems.

My Brother, a retired Navy Captain, is doing the same in the inner city schools
as well as my son who has taught 15 years.

They will get a turn out of 2-3 parents at back to school nights, if lucky.
There is little if any cooperation from parents, and no respect from students because
they are not being taught the right values at home.
Parents expect the teachers to do their job.

Until parents take the responsibility of being parents, teaching values and
respect at home and stay on top of their kids studies NOTHING will change
no matter how many $$$ are thrown against the wall.

Just like any business, there are good businesses and there are bad ones. People need to do their research to be sure the school is a good fit for their kids.

In a private school, bad teachers get fired (more precisely, their contract doesn't get renewed). I've done some freelance music instruction at a handful of schools, public and private, and have seen it. In a public school, bad teachers continue doing the minimum possible to keep their jobs, bitch and complain about the kids and the entire work environment is a "them vs. us" mentality - where "them" includes the town, superintendent, principal and the parents.

Teacher Unions have way too much leverage when it comes to the negotiation process. They bully the administrators to squeeze every penny out of them then cry poor mouth.

St Mary's is a good school in town here.

I guess I'm Lucky...Georgetown has a very good public school system. The parents are well involved w/ the school. Parent Teachers meetings that I've been too are Standing room only sometimes....a lot of young teachers that relate to the kids too.

I even talked to the new Music teacher last year and got him signed up as a Merit Badge Counselor.

Just as important, in the private schools the parents
care enough to spend the $$$ to educate their kids and stay involved, and when kids are disruptive or don't meet expectations of the school they are thrown out.
A lot more discipline.