Thank you tonight BOE, for supporting Ridgewood properly. Not easy with all these teachers barking at you. The unions need to all be abolished. There was a time and place for these in the early nineteen hundreds. The kids are the real losers here. How can we have fair negotiations if every time it does not go their way. The sick outs start, the field trips are without teachers, and now after school clubs are being cancelled. So one sided and unfair. Shame on the teachers and their unions not the BOE. Some women had the nerve to say we will pay more taxes for these teachers…she is a party of one…even her husband won’t support that! Chuck talking about the bottom half of the county per student? Why weren’t you talking about your second shore home? That you are able to buy because of Cadillac healthcare and pensions we provide? Maybe it’s time for the truly aging overpaid teachers to go? Unions won’t allow it, That’s discrimination, etc. The fact is our teachers are paid fairly and must now use some of this pay to cover more healthcare. Same as everyone else. No one likes it but it has to be done. Healthcare is going to be the death of us all. Fact, I’d pay for the teachers healthcare premiums now if we could…my family now pays 20,000 per year, plus deductibles and $45 co-pays. Wake up teachers and know the facts not what the unions feed you. Enjoy your summer off, we”l be working to pay our very high taxes for you!
While I appreciate all that Ridgewood teachers have done for our children and the commitments they have made, this issue can not be argued in a vacuum. The context within which the teachers demands should be viewed is NOT solely how it affects them but how it affects them in comparison to what’s happening in the real world. In the real world, with market based economics determining rates of change for incomes and costs, the teachers have fared very well over the past decade. Income levels are declining all across the country for private employees, while their health care costs are rising. the percentage they pay has done nothing but go up. Not to mention private employees rarely have retirement benefits that span a period of time that is greater than their actual work years, nor to they have the benefit of guaranteed employment, as teachers do post tenure. The teachers need to look in the mirror and realize, when compared to the private sector, that they have it pretty good. Unfortunately, the unions have clouded their thoughts and put them in a position to appear greedy. Our students deserve better.
The problem is not paying the teachers, the problem is that our Board of Ed treats the teacher salaries as a lower priority. We should pay talent and retain talent. That is the heart of any great business, especially educational businesses.
The start of the solution is getting rid of the 35 people in that building on Franklin Ave. We have far too many administrators each of whom just creates the need for more administration, more secretaries and keep teachers from teaching kids. If the kids in Orchard and Somerville learn a little bit different stuff in math–WHO CARES? It will work out. They will be close enough by the time they get to HS. Use a simple curriculum outline and let the teachers teach.
Also, its enough with the bells and whistles. Make a decision about whether you want new text books or lap tops. You can read on a computer so you really should pick one or the other. Use the laptop and an older text book. They will get what they need.
We dont need rock climbing walls and the insurance that goes with them. Let them play dodge ball. What about considering the real costs of having Football–insurance, equipment, staff, etc. Get rid of the fat and focus on the mission of educating kids. To me it is simple, pay the teachers and let them teach.
Thank you to our hard working elected BOE officials. You have a thankless task, and as we all know by now the REA and their full-time NJEA lawyers and lobbyists have been personally attacking you with bullying tactics, veiled threats, and abuse; we can only imagine the personal toll this is taking on you all, but we want you to know that we are with you and we support your tireless efforts. Teachers should not be greeting better health benefit plan than the tax paying residents who subsidize them. Sick leave is not meant to accumulate year after year to be paid out at highest final comp rates. And if teachers don’t like the deal they have with the Ridgewood BOE, they are free to quit. There are lots of talented educators who would love to work with our kids in Ridgewood, and who wouldn’t shirk their obligations to our students like this current group of malcontents is doing…
Thank you BOE.
From the Economic Policy Institute:
The major findings of our review and analysis include the following:
• Recent research shows that teacher quality is key to student and school success.
• A continuing issue is whether teacher pay is sufficient to attract and retain quality teachers: trends in relative teacher pay seem to coincide with trends in teacher quality over the long run.
• Several types of analyses show that teachers earn significantly less than comparable workers, and this wage disadvantage has grown considerably over the last 10 years.
• An analysis of weekly wage trends shows that teachers’ wages have fallen behind those of other workers since 1996, with teachers’ inflation-adjusted weekly wages rising just 0.8%, far less than the 12% weekly wage growth of other college graduates and of all workers.
• A comparison of teachers’ weekly wages to those of other workers with similar education and experience shows that, since 1993, female teacher wages have fallen behind 13% and male teacher wages 12.5% (11.5% among all teachers). Since 1979 teacher wages relative to those of other similar workers have dropped 18.5% among women, 9.3% among men, and 13.1% among both combined.
• A comparison of teachers’ wages to those of workers with comparable skill requirements, including accountants, reporters, registered nurses, computer programmers, clergy, personnel officers, and vocational counselors and inspectors, shows that teachers earned $116 less per week in 2002, a wage disadvantage of 12.2%. Because teachers worked more hours per week, the hourly wage disadvantage was an even larger 14.1%.
• Teachers’ weekly wages have grown far more slowly than those for these comparable occupations; teacher wages have deteriorated about 14.8% since 1993 and by 12.0% since 1983 relative to comparable occupations.
• Although teachers have somewhat better health and pension benefits than do other professionals, these are offset partly by lower payroll taxes paid by employers (since some teachers are not in the Social Security system). Teachers have less premium pay (overtime and shift pay, for example), less paid leave, and fewer wage bonuses than do other professionals. Teacher benefits have not improved relative to other professionals since 1994 (the earliest data we have on benefits), so the growth in the teacher wage disadvantage has not been offset by improved benefits.
• The extent to which teachers enjoy greater benefits depends on the particular wage measure employed to study teacher relative pay. Based on a commonly used wage measure that is similar to the W-2 wages reported to the IRS (and used in our analyses), teachers in 2002 received 19.3% of their total compensation in benefits, slightly more than the 17.9% benefit share of compensation of professionals. These better benefits somewhat offse
t the teacher wage disadvantage but only to a modest extent. For instance, in terms of the roughly 14% hourly wage disadvantage for teachers we found relative to other workers of similar education and experience, an adjustment for benefits would yield a total compensation disadvantage for teachers of 12.5%, 1.5 percentage points less.
• The hourly wage data in the NCS, the relatively new Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, has been used in several recent analyses that found teacher wages to be on par with those of other professionals. Our examination of these data show that the vast differences in the way work time is measured in the NCS for teachers (K-12, as well as university professors, airline pilots, and others) and workers following a more traditional year-round schedule preclude an accurate comparison of teacher hourly wages relative to those of other professionals. These inconsistencies in work hour measurement (hours per week, weeks per year) in the NCS are so large as to obscure a 23.4% greater hourly wage advantage for professionals relative to K-12 teachers.
Let’s OUT those teachers in the picture above, names and schools please.
11:55- So how does this apply to a teacher in Ridgewood ?
extracted from above • Although teachers have somewhat better health and pension benefits than do other professionals, these are offset partly by lower payroll taxes paid by employers (since some teachers are not in the Social Security system). Teachers have less premium pay (overtime and shift pay, for example), less paid leave, and fewer wage bonuses than do other professionals. Teacher benefits have not improved relative to other professionals since 1994 (the earliest data we have on benefits), so the growth in the teacher wage disadvantage has not been offset by improved benefits.
Response: Somewhat better, SO MUCH BETTER health and pension benefits! Smoke and mirrors here, you can not spin this. Less overtime, less paid leave, bonuses? I think you’ve forgotten to mention get all what they get and only work 181 days. They get every holiday off. They get 10 weeks off in the summer months every year. Some tutor and put cash in their pockets. Do not be fooled by the unions: Ridgewood teachers base of $100,000 calculates out to about $200,000 per year. Someone mentioned $30,000 per teacher for healthcare, then they receive 70,000 per for pensions. They work for tenure and being covered 100% in their retirement. Work 25 years and possibly be paid an additional 30-40 years after retirement. This of course depends on how long you live but your Cadillac Healthcare may even keep you alive longer? Teaching is an excellent profession in Ridgewood. Only during contract negotiations do we hear how horrible they seem to have it…NOT TRUE. Unions need to go away. Give them big salary raises and put them all on 3% match 401Ks. Teachers along with Congress and every private sector job should be put on Obamacare. Watch how great Nobama Care becomes if everyone had it.
11:55, explain how teachers have only “somewhat” better health and pension benefits than do other professionals? And are you serious when you say that teacher benefits have not improved relative to other professionals since 1994? Surely you’ve missed a step there. Do you actually know any private sector workers who still get defined benefit pensions like teachers, paid for life after the average TPAF retirement age of 62? Do you know anyone who accumulates sick leave year after year without losing it? Or who gets contractually guaranteed annual wage increases before that early retirement? What private sector workers get “platinum” health benefits subsidized by taxpayers? The simple fact that you could post something so factually inaccurate claiming that teacher benefits have not improved relative to other professionals since 1994 exposes your greed.
Can anyone post the names and schools of the REA members pictured above?
11:55 – Great point! Private sector has it soooo much better.
So let’s get you teachers on-board into private sector compensation schemes – as that is what you seem to want.
No collective bargaining. No unions. No contracts. No guaranteed pay raises. No platinum healthcare. No tenure. No guaranteed sick time cashout. No summers off. No defined benefit tax free lifetime pension.
I think you are onto something very interesting here. Why don’t you ask your union to propose this at the next negotiation round?
John- Perfect !
I think the BA makes close to 175 thou and there is an asst BA also – why?