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Go take a look at a municipal budget over the last 5 years, pretty much anywhere in the US. It's not a straw man. State and local budgets have been strapped s
by jbooth 16y ago
Go take a look at a municipal budget over the last 5 years, pretty much anywhere in the US.
It's not a straw man. State and local budgets have been strapped since 2002-2003 or so, all the way through the supposed "boom", and it got worse after the collapse.
The stimulus bill, for example -- it was like 40% tax cuts, had a bunch of earmarks, but the local aid that would've helped teachers was what got stripped out in order to get the last couple votes. Congress can reduce the deficit by cutting state aid. States can balance their budgets by cutting local aid. School districts get stuck with the lack of funding from their congressman's admirable devotion to balanced budgets. In between voting for putting 2 wars and a $50 million senior center for his district on the credit card.
I'm just giving you the truth - you can accept it or not.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoI don't dispute that congress is a bunch of crooks. I dispute the term "everyone else" - most people who criticize teachers for being overpaid and underworked (which is uncommon) also criticize pork barrel spending.
- jbooth 16y agoWell, first off, people who criticize teachers for being overpaid and underworked are just plain wrong. Teachers have a really hard job and it's one of the top 5 most important jobs in our whole society. Regarding my original point, that nobody stands up for teachers.. I mean look at that stimulus bill. Teacher pay makes up a huge portion and often an outright majority of local budgets. When local budgets are crunched, and it's either lay off teachers or raise taxes, guess which way the local populace usually goes? Everyone wants something for nothing.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoTeachers are certainly underworked relative to other professionals, even for the 9-10 months that school is in session. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art4full.pdf http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art4full.pdf They are also overpaid, particularly if you account for the value of all their fringe benefits, including summer vacation, tenure, defined benefit pensions, early retirement and gold-plated medical care (all of which are very expensive). In fact, they are usually paid right on the money if you look at salary alone - a 45 year old teacher with 20 years experience in NYC gets $83-95k/year (equivalent to $99-114k/year if they worked all year). That's not bad even for NYC. http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DHR/TeacherPrincipalSchoolProfessionals/Salary/Salary+Step+and+Differential+Schedules.htm http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/DHR/TeacherPrincipalSchoolPro... It gets even worse when you realize teachers tend to be low human capital individuals, at least compared to other college grads. Most likely they would be below average if they pursued other professions: http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/gre_0809_interpretingscores.pdf http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/gre_0809_interpreting...
- jbooth 16y agoYour link doesn't say what you claim it does. In fact, it goes on about how much extra work teachers do at home and on sundays. You're proving my point: everyone wants something for nothing, and nobody stands up for teachers.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoLook at table 5. Over the entire week, teachers work about 2.5 hours less than other professionals, for the 9-10 months/year that they work at all.
- rick888 16y ago"Everyone wants something for nothing." Is this surprising to you? Look at many of the discussions about piracy. Many people feel it is their "right" to download and use software that would otherwise cost them money. It doesn't surprise me that people would have this same mindset for other things in their lives.
- jbooth 16y agoIt's not surprising. It's just disgusting when they try to justify themselves by ripping teachers and other public servants who they rely on all day, every day.
- adolph 16y agoYour second comment illustrates the straw man aspects of your first comment. There is very little military funding in municipal budgets.
- jbooth 16y agoIf you willfully misinterpret people, you can tell yourself you won every argument. But in the long run, it's going to make you stupid.