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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (78032)	3/2/2010 5:30:15 PM
From: Jim S	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

I'm not sure about your count of the days. 365 days/year -104 days to weekends (52 weeks/yr x2) -4 to 10 paid holidays (christmas, 4th of July, etc) -vacation time (from 7 up to 30 days per year) -sick time (from 10 up to 45 days per year) So, depending on the employer and a person's position, the number of days a person might work could vary from 240 to 176 days per year. So, if a teacher works 220 days a year, that's actually in the same ballpark as an employee for a commercial company.

To: TimF who wrote (78032)	3/2/2010 6:21:51 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

Tim, figuring 52 weeks in a year, there are 260 "business days" a year. Subtract from that the usual holidays and your down to the low 250s. Then subtract the 2-4 weeks of vacation most businesses allow all but the newest of newbies to accrue and you're in the 210-235 area, depending on the firm. YMMV, but I don't think that's enough above 200 or so to call teaching a "part-time" job, even if you assume they do absolutely nothing professionally during the 2-5 weeks difference. You might also consider that a full five-day week in many hourly jobs in the US is 35 hours. That is, 9-5 with an hour off for lunch. From my experience, teachers were expected to be on the job, onsite, from roughly 7:30 to 4:30 with about a half hour for lunch. That's 42.5 hours per week just at school, not counting the hours of grading and other work at home. Also, teachers unions have more control in some states than in others. Teachers in GA have no union. Or didn't 6 years ago and I haven't seen any evidence that has changed. Nevertheless, I'll agree that private schools can often get away with paying less, though I think the reasons are more complex than simply that government salaries are higher because they are government, not free market. To attract new teachers, all schools, public and private, compete in the same labor market. If some teachers opt for private schools despite lower pay, it is probably because of the greater prestige (on average) of teaching at a private school, some affinity for the school or its mission (e.g. at religious or special needs schools), and/or the belief that the students will be generally more motivated and better behaved, and parents more supportive.

To: TimF who wrote (78032)	3/3/2010 12:38:31 PM
From: Peter Dierks	2 Recommendations Respond to of 90947

Still having said that I think most of the escalation in costs is from extra administrators, not teachers. It is both. In a Rhode Island town the Superintendent fired the union teachers who were making roughly 3 1/2 times the median income. They would not accept a 2% raise. The observation I can add is that when the budget is fat Administrative costs are added. When the budget is lean schools threaten to cut teaching staff rather than administrative staff. This is a flagrant attempt to gin up sympathy for the need for higher taxes.