Tag: teachers

School Choice Going, Going, Gone Bipartisan (In Some States)

By
Adam B. Schaeffer

The USA Today takes note of the fact that support for school choice is growing among Democratic, often black, politicians:

While vouchers will likely never be the clarion call of Democrats, they’re beginning to make inroads among a group of young black lawmakers, mayors and school officials who have split with party and teachers union orthodoxy on school reform. The group includes Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony Williams.

I’d only add that this broadening support is hardly limited to black Democrats, and that support for education tax credits is spreading even more quickly among Democrats. And while choice might never become a Democratic “clarion call,” it just might become the new consensus among serious education reformers in both parties.

For instance, a Democrat-controlled and, I assume, mostly white legislature in Rhode Island passed a donation tax credit. And Democratic governor and legislature in Iowa raised their tax credit dollar cap by 50 percent in 2007. The paper mentions black mayor Corey Booker’s support for school choice in New Jersey, but the white, former Democratic state party chair, and current state Senator Ray Lesniak is also pushing for a donation tax credit bill.

The model case is Florida. When the Florida legislature passed its education tax credit program to fund private school choice in 2001, only one Democrat supported the measure. Last year, the state legislature expanded the program with the votes of one third of statehouse Democrats, half the black caucus and the entire Hispanic caucus.

In the past few weeks, nearly a third of Senate Democrats and half of House Democrats voted to significantly expand the program’s revenue base. Virtually all Republicans did the same, and Republican Governor Crist is expected to sign the bill soon. In all, 43 percent of state Democratic legislators in Florida voted in favor of education tax credits.

The toothpaste is out, and the teachers unions can’t put it back in with all the dues money in the world.

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy, General

Teachers in the Money

By
Neal McCluskey

A few months ago, I wrote a report that busted two pervasive education myths: that student loan burdens are crushing recent graduates, and that teachers get paid peanuts. In the paper, I itemized first-year public school teacher salaries in districts around the country, and pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics research showing that teachers work significantly less time for their salaries than do most other professionals. Even accounting for time teachers work beyond their contracted hours – grading papers at home, meeting with students after school, etc. – teachers work on average 18 fewer minutes a day than other professionals. And that figure does not include summer and other vacations – it is only for the contracted school year.  Perhaps most important, at least when it comes to earnings, I noted that that free time can be used to pursue additional employment.

After making my point about how much time teachers work for their salaries relative to other professionals, and noting that teachers can make more bucks with the extra time they have available, I pursued the point no further. But a New York Post article today shows just how much overtime pay intrepid public school teachers, at least in New York City, can make.

At the top end, a teacher at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology made $60,000 developing a data analysis system for numerous schools. That brought his total compensation to $141,159 for 2007-08. A teacher at Chelsea Career & Technical Education HS took in $52,001 of OT teaching night classes at another high school, bringing his total earnings to $152,050 (his base salary was $100,049).  And the Post offers several other examples.

Now, some people will read this blog entry as an attack on the big earners in NYC and teachers generally. They will be wrong: What these teachers did to earn their extra dollars might have been worth every penny, I don’t know, and they very likely put in much more time than other professionals to earn all their dough.  This does, though, just strengthen the almost irrefutable point I made in my report: On an hourly basis, teachers get salaries comparable to other professionals, and the fact that teachers work many fewer hours to get those salaries gives them significant time to earn extra dough. Sometimes, a LOT of extra dough.

Topics: 
Education and Child Policy

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