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First off, I definitely am a teacher, and have said so in many prior posts.
Second: Look at the teachers who are not in unions. They are way underpaid, abused, and are in terrible positions. I was hired by a Catholic school instantly and of course turned it down to be hired in a public school because of the salary, benefits, and pension.
Third: There are many teachers that go far beyond the call of regular teaching hours and do much for the benefit of the students. For example, during Regents Review, I stay after from 2-5 every week to make sure that every student is able to pass. There are unpaid hours and often go purposefully (and not) overlooked by the general population.
Fourth: Teachers have taken concession in districts to help the students as well as their fellow teachers. We took a pay freeze as well as a pay cut last year in my school district.
Fifth: Schools will not “do more with less.” They will do less with less. They will cut teachers, after school programs, and students will have a barebones education.
Sixth: Believe it or not, teachers pay property tax too.
Seventh: Teachers do pay into their pensions as well as their healthcare. Each district is different though. All school districts have different contracts and negotiations with their teachers. Teachers fund their own pensions 86%. Look up the stats yourself.
1. Great
2. Underpaid according to who? They are paid what the market will bear. If you compare private school wages, who need to have the same certification, to unionized teachers you will find out how overpaid union teachers really are. Abused? C'mon....I know private teachers and they love their jobs.
3. Great job giving extra effort. So do the abused, underpaid private school teachers. I don't think anyone deserves a medal because they put in a little more then the minimum effort.
4. The concessions teachers have given are paltry compared to the bloated salaries they have now and the tax burdens they have saddled the middle class of Long Island with.
5. Yes we know. Bureaucrats never can figure out how to do more with less. The bureaucrats of this state (including teachers) have figured out the miraculous concept of doing less and less with more and more.
6. Yes they do, but they make 200% of what they made 10 years ago, while the median LI salary is down over the same period.
7. Must not be a math teacher. That number is a result of what would be called "fuzzy math," because teachers get way more out of their pensions than they ever put in.
04-07-2011, 04:04 PM
grant516
n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYEconomist
2. Underpaid according to who? They are paid what the market will bear. If you compare private school wages, who need to have the same certification, to unionized teachers you will find out how overpaid union teachers really are. Abused? C'mon....I know private teachers and they love their jobs.
Private school teachers, aside from special education, do not need to have any state mandated certification to teach.
Teachers do pay into their pensions as well as their healthcare. Each district is different though. All school districts have different contracts and negotiations with their teachers. Teachers fund their own pensions 86%. Look up the stats yourself.
I can't believe anyone would actually try and pull that over on us. Sorry, we are not that gullible.
The fact is the taxpayers pay the VAST MAJORITY of teachers' pensions in NYS.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 is FULLY PAID by taxpayers. Teachers don't have to pay in one thin dime. Not one.
Tier 3 teachers pay a "big" 3% of their salary for their first (and lowest paid) 10 years. Now that's a bargain.
Tier 4 teachers only have to contribute 3.5% to their pensions for their careers. Still a bargain, considering that their pensions are guaranteed by the taxpayers of NYS to earn over 8% per annum (or the taxpayers have to make it up!!!).
What retirement (or other) investment vehicle in this day and age in the USA pays an 8% guaranteed return PLUS somebody else (taxpayers) has to put in the bulk of the money for you?
I realize that absolutely NOTHING I can say can or will change or mind. Thus, I will stop attempting to try to change your mind. If you are interested in reading facts about the pension system, please read below.
I figured I'd post the reality of the pension system below.
Here are the costs, as a percentage of total salaries, paid by local school districts over the last 30 years. The NYS Teachers' Retirement System refers to this as the "employer contribution rate (ECR)." The rate for the 2009-2010 school year is 6.19%, only about one-quarter of what schools paid in the 1979-1985 era. (How can it be that the ECR is LOWER this year in light of what happened to the stock market? You can get the full story about the ECR by clicking here to go to the NYS Teacher Retirement System website's ECR section.)
I realize that absolutely NOTHING I can say can or will change or mind. Thus, I will stop attempting to try to change your mind. If you are interested in reading facts about the pension system, please read below.
If you have facts to counter what I offer, please cite them. But you won't. You will just use hyperbole to exaggerate your own claims.
Quote:
Is Your Pension Safe?
There are two threats to your pension:
1) Market risk. The ability of the NYS Teachers" Retirement System to continue paying benefits depends on the management of the funds collected from school boards and members. Obviously, the downturn in the stock maket over the last 18 months has had an impact on the retirement fund. Click here to read the statement issued by the NYS Teachers' Retirement System.
2) Legal risk. Did you notice the part of the retirement board's statement linked above which said: "Despite market volatility, you can rest assured your retirement fund is safe, secure and guaranteed by the New York State Constitution."? It's important to understand that NY is the ONLY state to provide a constitutional guarantee that your pension, once earned, cannot be reduced.
That constitutional guarantee may disappear, however, if a constitutional convention is held. A convention could eliminate this protection for our pensions, and there are lots of folks out there who want to do just that! Here's a statement from NYSUT:
"Here in New York, the protection of public pensions goes all the way back to 1938, when voters amended the New York State Constitution to guarantee pension benefits. That's why holding a constitutional convention could be so dangerous....
We are the only state in the nation with a constitutional guarantee that one's pension benefits cannot be reduced. If there is a constitutional convention, the constitutional guarantee for all public employees, in-service and retired members, could be removed. If New York legislators truly want to reform certain lawmaking procedures like budget preparation ..., all they have to do is pass individual bills targeting the specific procedures they want to reform."
That doesn't negate anything I wrote above about the pension tiers for NYS teachers.
Nor does it "prove" your statement that teachers personally and individually pay 86% of their own pension costs.
But it does highlight something people should mention to their NYS legislators: We need a constitutional convention or these pensions will break the entire state! TY.
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