Because they have idiots like this teaching:
New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie told a disgruntled teacher that if she doesn’t like the pay, she doesn’t “have to do it.”
Christie was speaking to a small crowd in a church gymnasium in Rutherford on Tuesday when the Bergen County Record caught the exchange between Kearny teacher Rita Wilson and the governor.
Wilson claimed that if she were getting paid only three dollars an hour for the 30 students she teaches, her salary would be $83,000 a year, a much higher sum than her current take.
“You’re getting more than that if you include the cost of your benefits,” Christie pointed out.
The teacher responded by saying that she has a master’s degree and that her current salary isn’t compensating her for the value of her higher education as well as her experience.
To that, the governor responded: “Well, you know then that you don’t have to do it.”
No one compensates you for your education, Rita Wilson, or your experience. You are compensated based on the value you produce for the organization. And it sounds like you produce very little value.
Actually it’s government, which means compensation is based on what a majority of board members think, and what taxpayers can afford. And no, it doesn’t have to make sense, but that’s what happens when something is guided by politics and not market forces. If this is objectionable, then there’s always the private sector.
Chris Christie, aka Governor Awesome, is almost Good enough to even warrant my return to the state of my youth. Almost.
This is typical Union Mentality. Do “X” get “Y”, no thinking, no relevance to bottom line or economical conditions. (Last year our company gave no bonuses, and our Corporate Officers cut their pay, this wasn’t a punishment, it was just tough times and non-unions think about their own survival)
My Dad is a retired School teacher and Union Thug. He sometimes gets pissy when I call him such. I point out that the only difference the Union (and the pay office) sees between him, and the teacher who was such an uncontrolled alcoholic that our Algebra lesson one day was watching “The Color Purple” on VHS while he slept off the night before on his desk (not kidding one bit, a most of us walked out on the class, and he didn’t even notice) , was that my Dad has a Master’s Degree.
otherwise same years of experience, same job title, same school system. Nobody seemed to care that my Dad would show up sober for work. That Dad would actually TEACH MATH rather than drool on his desk. That he spent his evenings correcting papers and working on lesson plans to keep the class interesting. (Its not family Bias that has me say Dad was an AMAZING Math teacher) While Teacher B was getting shitfaced at a local sports bar.
Nobody seemed to care that Dad scheduled Knee surgery during summer vacation so he could sweat like a bastard in a cast, and he’d only have to be on crutches for the first Month of school (I think he missed only a few days of school for sick time his whole 25+ years of teaching) meanwhile teacher B got to be replaced by a long-term substitute while he dried out in Rehab, and he was in rehab often enough that I bet they all knew his name.
I Point out all of this, then mention that Dad helped negotiate the Union Contract that stipulated all this. Dad was a great teacher, and Dad was a fucking IDIOT bothering to be a great teacher when he could have phoned it in for all the same.
Teacher B, got the reward for his behavior. Dad worked hard, he was drunk on the job, both were treated the same. Who do you think won?
Aaaaaaand it’s possible she makes over $86K —
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/05/26/i-sure-hope-rita-wilson-isnt-a-math-teacher/
Hate to bring this up, but that’s not her total compensation:
http://www.rutherfordschools.org/boardofed/contracts/rea.pdf
(That would be Article 6: the “Bennies”.)
If you guys want to take a crack at the budget:
http://www.rutherfordschools.org/boardofed/budget/budget.html
For all I know, this woman may be worth her price tag, but I am unfamiliar with a town government so ethically destitute that it doesn’t bother to publish a complete budget during budget season. This would never fly where I live.
I’d sure like to make $86K while working 8 months out of the year.
PLUS bennies.
“For all I know, this woman may be worth her price tag,”
If she’s bitching about her pay, and deciding cook up some goofball arbitrary numbers (Dollars per student hours? 100% bullshit, yest its harder to teach 30 students than 1…but its easier to teach 5 than 2 just because of efficiency, its not like she writes a lesson plan for EACH student, or verifies that EVERY point she makes it understood by EACH student) and in all this bullshittery she decided to LIE about the bottom line, she likely is high maintenance and low yield.
Pingback: Weer'd World » Cancer of a Healthy System