>I agree with you that it will be very difficult to fire teachers due to tenure. What makes thing even more difficult is that the secretary making $100,000 in salary costs the BOE closer to $225,000 a year in benefits, pension, taxes, etc.
As more and more towns in NJ face the problem of out of control taxes in the face of challenging economic times, things are going to change drastically. Pension plans for all state employees are going to change drastically and retirement plans will look closer to 401k benefits from the private sector. Health Care costs will become a shared expense, as the public sector cannot no longer rely on the tax-payers to pay for everything.
These benefits were once a necessity in order to make public jobs more attractive, since the pay grade was generally much lower than white and blue-collar private sector jobs. That is no longer the case, as public sector jobs pay on the same level as private sector jobs.
On top of all of this, administrators are definitely abusing the system in order to give cushy jobs (paying 6-figures) to friends and former colleagues and call them consultants, administrators, bull-shit, bull-shit, bull-shit.
We need accountability in our children’s education. I suggest that the Village Council oversee all hirings by the BOE in order to add a layer of accountability. It will make things much tougher for Regina to hire her $100k+ consultants if she actually has to prove that she needs them.
