Teacher supporter claims :
Average private sector wage increases for 2015 were above 3%. Pay raises for people with college degrees are fairing even better than that. Are there people who aren’t seeing wage increases? Yes. But perhaps that says something about the person or the job rather than the economy.
Teachers have been taking home less money each year for a number of years.
Teachers will never get bonuses, no matter how good the economy gets.
Teachers will never get company cars, club memberships, or any other perks that are seen in the private sector.
Teachers will NEVER get anything more than a mediocre pay raise because of the 2% cap.
So when teachers fight for the scraps from the table it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Do you really want to devalue the profession to the point that nobody will ever want to be a teacher? There is already a teacher shortage, which will only get worse.
But keep up with the lies about teachers who don’t care. Teachers who earn $200,000 a year. Teachers who won’t write recommendations. Teachers who only work 181 days a year. Teachers who only care about taking from taxpayers while doing nothing. Keep up with these lies and tell the potential future teachers that it is not the best career path. Why would anyone subject themselves to such outright lies and hatred?
Reader responds …..What planet are you on???? Private sector wage increases above 3%??? Please provide your source because no one I know got more 3%. I got 1.5% after 4 years of 0%. My wife got 2% after getting .5% last year and 0% fand additional 4 years. Really, name your source. Everyone is taking home less and bonuses have shrunken. There are no company car, club memberships, expensive meals, expense accounts, perks. Keep lying dear teacher. There is no teacher shortage in Ridgewood; I can assure you that you can be replaced on a moments notice.
Perks? I guess if you define 12-14 hour days 12 months a year, putting hours on the weekend, long commutes, conference calls with other parts of the world at 2am, being “penalized for taking sick or personal time, skyhigh contributions to marginal healthcare perks, then I am lucky.
It is all union and teacher propaganda, come in to the real world. If you do not like your tenured job and benefits then quit!
Good, if there is “already a teacher shortage, which will only get worse” like this poster claims, then those teachers unhappy with their deal in Ridgewood are free to look at other school boards or the private sector for work. You can be replaced. There are lots of hungry young teachers who would love to work in Ridgewood and go above and beyond their contractually stipulated duties. The complainers are free to leave.
Let the teachers walk. There’s a new crop of enthusiastic teachers waiting to fill these spots at great salaries and benefits. Time for the old guard to admit that there has bean a dearth of jobs, salaries and benefits for the past 7 years,
Very few private sector employees I know with the exception of top level executives get company cars and I’ve never known any to get ‘club memberships.” Sales people may get bonuses but the majority of rank and file employees do not. Wage freezes have been the norm over the years and most people are grateful if they get 2%. These teachers are really pushing. I am very pleased with the BOE taking a hard line. Personally, I think they should be told to walk if they don’t like what is being offered. Plenty of people would be very happy to fill your slot. I really feel for the kids. Also, many of us are intimidated to speak up because we know that teachers will take it out on our kids. It happens.
“I guess if you define 12-14 hour days 12 months a year, putting hours on the weekend, long commutes, conference calls with other parts of the world at 2am, being “penalized for taking sick or personal time, skyhigh contributions to marginal healthcare perks, then I am lucky.”
My god what a pathetic statement. Is this how you work??? by choice? Good lord. Since when would anybody do such a thing? working 60-80 hour weeks only devalues the work your doing because it shifts the measurement from results and quality to time and quantity.
Is that what your work is? How much time you put in? When your work is measured simply by how much time you put in you just become cheaper and more expendable…that is, you just become someone who is willing to do twice the work for half the salary. And you won’t get anywhere with the “company”, (if you can call it that) because promoting you would oppose the interests of this lovely establishment you work for. As a result, over-dedicated employees like you are “rewarded” not with a promotion but with more work at the same pay.
How’s that Harvard thing working out for ya?
I am one of those soon to be “hungry young teachers” – I also happen to live in Ridgewood, and have been a substitute teacher here during my years of undergrad.
As a grad student, I now don’t have time to point out the gaslighting and strawman arguments the commenters here are posting, nor to express the multitude of ways in which your counters are entirely too simplistic to be reasonable, so I’ll just say this: Considering the total lack of respect and regard that Ridgewood parents apparently have for their current teachers, I no longer have any desire to teach here. I hope all the experienced,
I am one of those soon to be “hungry young teachers” – I also happen to live in Ridgewood, and have been a substitute teacher here during my years of undergrad. So I know a little something about teaching here. As a grad student, I now don’t have time to point out the gaslighting and strawman arguments in the comments here, nor to express the multitude of ways in which the counters are entirely too simplistic to be reasonable, so I’ll just say this: I am seriously reconsidering my intention to apply here. Feel free to be dismissive of that, but it does seem counter to your expectations, does it not?
D.S. Please don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too….
D.S.: Not so sure I’d want you teaching my children! Good luck. As for 11:15’s comments, many people work under very difficult situations now. Toil might be a better word. This is the reality for many – perhaps not to such an extreme but the corporate world is tough now and certainly not a 40 hour work week. Executives/Professional levels do work very hard and you try taking the train every day…very wearing. I still maintain that the teachers complaining about the BOE not caving to their demands are clueless and have been sheltered from the reality of the real economy!
Best of luck DS, I’m sure you’ll love working in the private sector if you can’t find a job as a teacher
DS – Go out there in the real world and try to find a job that comes even CLOSE.
You do seem to fit the union teacher’s mold perfectly though – entitled and grounded in fantasy.
I hear you 8:24 but the simple fact is it’s YOUR reality. Do you really want to “Toil” at your place of work? For god’s sake why?
Blood, sweat and tears ? For what???? All’s your doing is suffering for what your “company” did to create this disaster that was 2008.
Now their shitting all over you for the problem they created and your going to take this beating because your a professional???
If this is the way the “Corporate World” is…Why are you there? Just think about that for a second. What are you doing to yourself and your family?
I’d like to know what 11:15pm and 11:23am do for living. They seem almost comically underexposed to what is real life for most professional people – especially people trying to maintain the quality of life standard that dominates living inBergen County. Maybe they are teachers.
11:35 – He/she sounds like a limousine liberal whose granddaddy left behind a stash for her to live out his/her life without a day of work.
Only such a person can ask a question like – What do you work so hard for?
11:23, do they have unicorns and talking animals in your fantasy world?
Will be great to fire these ungrateful, entitled teachers. They can be replaced.