Teacher salaries issue sharpens across region(SE PA NJ) - Teachers vs Taxpayers

[RamboLiberal]

When Neshaminy High School biology teacher Louise Boyd looks at her paycheck – with yearly pay of $97,652 and fully provided health insurance - she sees the fruits of a long campaign to pay educators what they believe they're worth.

"We had to fight, claw, scratch, and beg," said Boyd, president of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers, "and now we do make a professional salary."

But when Levittown parent Susan Porreca looks at Neshaminy teachers' pay and perks, she sees red. A 47-year-old office manager who was unemployed or underemployed for most of 2009 while her welder husband spent three months out of work, Porreca has joined a local taxpayers' group because she's furious at the union's tough tactics in fighting to keep those gains.

"I've taken a lot of time, read their collective-bargaining agreement - none of it has to do with the education of our kids," said Porreca, whose daughter is a sophomore at Neshaminy High. "It's a gimme, gimme, gimme - all the things they have and things they want to keep. And they don't want to contribute to health care when they're making six-figure salaries. That is unbelievable to me."

In many ways, the sprawling Lower Bucks County district, where a protracted contract dispute has played out in the streets and over the airwaves for more than two years, is the tempest-tossed center of a perfect storm sweeping the region, starting with a war of words in New Jersey and spreading to more than a dozen suburban Pennsylvania districts.

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20101220_Teacher_salaries_issue_sharpens_across_region.html

[stray cat]

1. and an excellent pension plan - it is a great career in some parts of the country

[pacalo]

2. This woman should be invited to assist one of these teachers for one week.

That salary sounds about right for what those teachers are getting. I wish it were that much for all teachers nationally. They earn it & deserve it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Does that woman have a masters degree?

I feel certain her husband the welder doesn't have the same level of education as the teachers educating her child. And I can remember when welders made better money than teachers and some of us in this country thought that was wrong.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. How anyone can say a teacher doesn't earn his/her pay and

benefits and retirement, is beyond me.

As someone posted in another thread here a while back, why is it that we see what other people have and want to take it away, rather than get it for ourselves?

The woman who is an office manager -- and white collar workers have traditionally been opposed to unionization -- also deserves a comfortable salary and benefits. Whether she works for a manufacturing company, an insurance company, a small business or a large business, she has many of the same daily responsibilities as a teacher. SHE TOO SHOULD BE PAID WELL.

But rather than fight for herself, she would rather do the grunt work of the aristos and attack someone else who is much more like her than different from her.


Tansy Gold, tearin' her hair out in frustration at the stupidity

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Amen

She needs to direct her energy at improving her own pay and working conditions instead of taking gains away from workers who have fought for gains.

[adnelson60087]

15. It truly is stupidity and ultimately destructive to America.

This is straight out of the playbook of the Cons for the future breaking of Unions. The average taxpayer simply does not see the value of education and most see us as glorified baby-sitters. Until we educators begin to attack the anti-teacher, anti-public education meme running through our nation by not supporting Dems in Con clothing, we will keep losing everywhere. But mostly the country loses, since we won't have life-long educators worth a damn.

[daleanime]

4. Their are worried about a teacher making $97,000....

paying their fair share, but not anyone making over $250,000?:banghead:




I'd like to see more teachers making $100,000 and fewer CEO's making $100,000,000.:grr:

[HopeHoops]

5. Asswipe Corbett wants to undermine public schools any way he can. Fucking vouchers my ass.

The only people who benefit from vouchers are ones who don't need the money in the first place - hmm - sounds like a certain tax cut plan I recently heard about.

[msongs]

6. the people at the bottom trying to drag everyone down regardless of merits nt

[HelenWheels]

7. I don't have what you have

so you shouldn't have anything either. They are making teachers targets because they aren't employed so teachers shouldn't be either. I wonder if that office manager has a Master's degree and is able to teach others. I am a retired nurse and had to do teaching occasionally. I found teaching to be exhausting and it required twice the preparation time as the actual teaching time. My hat is off to teachers and I wish they were making even more money. And I don't think $97,652 is a six figure salary. As far as "gimme, gimme, gimme" if you don't ask for and protect your salary and benefits you will get nothing.

[spedtr90]

8. the amount of money isn't the issue

Salaries mentioned in the article are twice those in my district (different state). We pay part of insurance and all of it at retirement if we want to stay in the group. But even this is considered too much because it is more than some earn in private sector jobs. It's full attack on anyone working in the public sector, no matter how low the pay and how few (in any) the benefits. Minimum wage paid with tax money is too much. Apparently we are "taking" their money and are completely unproductive. How easy it was for the right to get workers to declare war on other workers. This class warfare thing may work out very well for the wealthy class.

[1monster]

9. Yes, well people will always find a way to covet what someone else has when they themselves

are having a bad financial time.

There is no way any teacher in the public schools in my county will EVER see that kind of money. Our teachers are paid lower than most of the counties in the state, and Florida has the lowest funded schools in the nation, but there are still those who think teachers are paid too much here. Those are the people who make a lot more than the rest of us and those who are surviving on next to nothing.

The need is not to bring the salaries of the teachers down, but to get jobs for and to pay those hurting a living wage.

Teachers earn every single penny of their pay, plus more.

(and on edit, just for bragging rates, our county's schools are the best in the state...)

[spedtr90]

11. reading about your new governor

You have my sympathy.
Mother Jones has an article about Scott's plan to decimate public education. Given his track record with health care he will do his best to cut costs and not give a damn about the results.
I hope parents can see what a disaster for their children a "free market" education system would be. Every state will have some versions of this issue to deal with soon. We have a real battle ahead.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/rick-scott-florida-education-jeb-bush

[1monster]

21. I'm not sure why Rick Scott wanted to be governor. He doesn't seem to want to do the job. He has

asked most of Governor Crist's staff to stay on for at least three months because he has yet to hire ANY (that's right, not even ONE) staff members in the two months since he was declared the Governor-elect.

I think Florida is in for even worse times than under Jeb Bush. And not just for education.

[Thav]

10. So why doesn't Susan Porreca argue she deserves

those things from her employer as well? IIRC office managers can get paid very well, and why wasn't her husband unionized? Welders and steel workers can also make very good money.

Race to the bottom!

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Welders used to make better money than teachers

I wouldn't be surprised if they still did.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Would you want your kids taught by someone who DOESN'T deserve that kind of salary?

This is not a zero-sum game. Shorting teachers does not mean higher salaries for everyone else -- it probably means less success, including lower salaries, for today's students when they enter the work force.

[Hannah Bell]

17. Bucks County = 76th richest county in the nation.

Neshaminy High is in Langhorne PA.

The median household income borough was $56,389, and the median family income was $75,429.

About 2.6% of families and 3.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those age 65 or over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langhorne,_Pennsylvania


Salaries range from $26K to $101K. Weighted more heavily to the top because the teaching staff has a lot of years in, and the higher-salaried people are also lead teachers & dept heads. The two people making $101K have 38 & 31 years in.

http://www.neshaminytaxpayers.com/Certified_Staff.pdf

http://www.neshaminytaxpayers.com/Lead%20Teachers.pdf


This fight against the high school's funding has evidentally been going on for some time & is being led by a pastor. I'm suspicious:

"Pension Tsunami It is one stop shopping for those that truly want to understand how public worker pension, teachers included, are destroying state budgets and sucking up taxpayer wealth."

"The Long Reach of Teachers Unions by Mike Antonucci Please take the time to read this important article truly exposing the power of teachers' unions. Elections matter and in November we need to ensure we get the right people in Harrisburg and we get a PA Gov like Chris Christe in NJ who is not afraid to stand up to the teachers' unions and protect us from strikes and escalating taxes for teacher compensation. The Long Reach Of Teachers Unions"

http://www.neshaminytaxpayers.com/

http://www.neshaminytaxpayers.com/neshaminyemployeecost.htm

[spedtr90]

18. why no outcry about admin?

Administrators make double the top teacher salary here. There benefits are much bettter. Many schools are administration heavy. I don't understand why they are never part of the outcry - it's always anti-teacher. Why?
A) Because a principal never gave someone an F?
B) Because they don't work directly with kids so their job is so easy any anyone can do it?
C) Because they don't have a union and we all know from FOX unions are evil?
D) Because it's easier to scapegoat a larger group.

[spedtr90]

20. Correction:

A) Because a principal never gave someone an F?
B) Because they don't work directly with kids, so their job isn't "so easy any anyone can do it"?
C) Because they don't have a union and we all know from FOX unions are evil?
D) Because it's easier to scapegoat a larger group.

[n2doc]

19. Race to the bottom!

Divide and Conquer at it's best. Makes ideal use of Envy to make sure everybody is kept poor.

[CreekDog]

22. costs a lot less than her plumber

and her plumber won't have to choose her nursing home later in life.