Comments from Scott C. Johnston, who toils in the alternative investment industry. The opinions here are his own and most definitely not those of his employer.
Scott ... Well researched and reported. I graduated from H.S.in 1960 and college in 1965. At that time teachers were consider to be significantly underpaid but produced a generation of extremely well educated students "just for the love of teaching." As your post reveals a lot has changed in 45 years. I certainly do not intend to deny very good teachers, very good compensation and good teachers, good compensation but it is obvious that public education has become about the money and not the students education. How else can one explain the sorry product of our public education system today compared to other countries. And it has been enabled by the duplicate and unchecked public unions. The fall of the public union Berlin Wall cannot occur fast enough! .... Cous Bobby
Brilliantly put Scott. I have several teachers in my family, and I know their dedication and hard work make them the exception, not the rule, these days. (I am shocked they make so much)I heard recently that many young adults in their 20's become teachers for the salary, and for the summer break. They go in on shares in summer houses (NJ) and go wild....nice job, and these kids are teaching our children?Maybe I'm in the wrong profession!
Such an outrage!! The teachers wrap themselves in the phony, earnest flag of "we need to value teaching, we need to pay our teachers", but the reality is teachers come from the bottom of their college class, hardly work, and our paid a fortune.
Bad teachers are not an accident. Before the unions gained power, bad teachers were weeded out based on their performance--as they are in other professions. Unions have fought merit pay for good teachers from the beginning, because once you declare one teacher to be superior, you have to acknowledge that there are others who fall short. Unions see any hint of accountability as anathema. They seek the lowest common denominator. Public school teachers receive "tenure" after a few years and, after that, are almost untouchable. It's a deliberate and insidious strategy embraced by the unions, just like the compensation schemes that Scott pointed out.
Scott,You should check to see whether unused sick days can be cashed in during the final year before retirement to increase the salary basis for calculating pension benefits. There was a case of a California Highway Patrolman paid $260 K during his final year, and his pension is 90 pct of his last year's comp. That sick day bank could be the real ticking bomb in the pension accounts.
TEMPLATE ERROR: No dictionary named: 'post' in: ['blog']
Read Full Article »