[geeks] Teachers

[Dr. Robert Pasken]

On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 08:22, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> >From: Dr Robert Pasken <rpasken at eas.slu.edu>
> >Date: 2007/09/05 Wed AM 06:35:25 CDT
> >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [geeks] Goodbye, I guess
> 
> <snip>
> 
> >Let's not forget that teachers salaries are reported as if they were paid
> >for 260 days of work (5 business days for 52 weeks) when in pointof fact
> >they work 180 days. Thus a teachers salary is reported at $42,000 when in
> >point of fact they receive $24,000. For years my wife's W2 form said that
> >she was making $25,000 a year, but the school whined that teachers like
> >her were getting paid $50,000, they just didn't mention that teachers got
> >paid according to the number of days they taught and never saw the $50,000
> 
> What? In my discussions and exp. the salaries are what teachers are paid for the work the are contracted to provide in a 12 month period. If teacher's salaries were reported the way you suggest they are, our local school district would say our teachers make over $100K/year, since the average (again, take with a grain of salt) salary in our district is over $64K/year - that is take-home pay (less taxes/union dues/etc). In other words, the average teacher has a pre-tax monthly paycheck of around $7K/month (assuming nine months worked).
> 
> Lionel
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks

That is EXACTLY what is happening. A teacher in my wife's district has a
Ph.D. in mathematics and 40 years experience. When the district
published the teachers salary in the newspaper as $120,000 per year the
local teachers union objected. The district superintendent freely
admitted the teachers actual salary was only $60,000. Unfortunately the
newspaper never printed the correction and now everybody thinks teachers
make $120,000 a year. This is a common practice in Missouri. It is okay
for the autoworker to cry a river about the low salary ($40,000) the
autoworker makes and that teachers make $120,000 a year, but in reality
the autoworker is making close to $130,000 a year, because of seniority,
overtime, special rates for type of car produced, PLUS benefits and
retirement, but teachers make $60,000 per year and pay for their own
benefits and retirements OUT of the $60,000 per year.