“For the first time in history, the average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools system will exceed $100,000″ in 2011.
In light of Paul’s comments, which were made during the heat of the nationally watched Wisconsin budget debate, we decided to take a closer look at MacIver’s claim. It has resurfaced in the budget debate in comments on websites such as the Huffington Post and TheNation.com.
In announcing the $100,000 figure, the institute produced a video that included brief clips of an MPS administrator reciting salary and fringe benefit numbers during a school board meeting the previous day. The average total compensation figure for teachers exceeded $100,000. We asked MacIver spokesman Brian Farley if he had any additional evidence. He cited a February 2011 posting from the School Zone blog on JSOnline.com, which reported slightly different numbers than those in MacIver’s video.
The posting quoted MPS’ budget manager as saying that in 2011-2012 (the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2011), the average MPS teacher would receive total compensation of $101,091 — $59,500 in salary and $41,591 in benefits.
We double-checked with MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin and she confirmed the figures. The conservative think tank said the average annual compensation for a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher would exceed $100,000 in 2011. As of July 1, 2011, according to the school district, that figure will be $101,091.
MacIver’s claim is True
And if you don’t think benefits are a part of your salary, try being self employed.
I would agree that that is high for a Milwaukee teacher. However that is not representative of most of Wisconsin teachers.
Please check out post #22 above by paranoiac.
Most Wisconsin teachers are making far less.
What you have to also consider is that includes what benefits cost the school district. Think of what the place you work work pays in benefits to you beyond your salary. What is the health care premium a company pays for its workers. What about the 401K match and etc, those all add up.
Plus all teachers have a bachelors degree, most have credits beyond that, and many have masters degrees. These are highly educated people.
Lastly, consider this. “That was lower than eight other school districts in Milwaukee County, including Greendale, Greenfield, Shorewood, Cudahy, Fox Point, South Milwaukee, Franklin and Nicolet, which was highest at just over $103,000.” from this page talking about this issue. http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/04/maciver-institute/maciver-institute-says-average-annual-salary-and-b/ So for the area, that salary is right in line with other school districts.
Ruger the ass you make of yourself is bigger than jennifer lopez and beyonce combined
#26
I work fulltime for a major bank in a professional position, responsible for $M in accounts, including your checking accounts. I get paid $30,000/yr before taxes and medical ins premiums are deducted. Medical insurance that doesn’t even pay for me to visit a clinic with a common cold.
All the while, more and more “civil servants” are getting paid 6 figure salaries with great benefits.
So are you suggesting everyone get paid the same as you? So you handle millions of bucks, big hairy deal. What price would you put on 28 or 30 kids?
It’s hard for me to care that my school district cannot afford to keep within their budget.
I find it hard to care when I see what the big banks do. You’re part of that.
Boards of Education are elected. Did you vote last election? Have you expressed your concerns to your Board Trustee?
The hardest workers are paid the least. This country continues to be built on the backs of slaves.
You already admitted you get paid so you can’t be a slave. Maybe a serf. Probably a peon. But not a slave.
Have you thought of unionizing?
25 read your post, think about it for a while. Now go thank a teacher. Apparently you learned more than you thought.
“If it’s such a great gig, why don’t the posters here apply for it?”
There is a waiting line, with far more applicants than available slot.
#27 Cap’nKangaroo,
To suggest teaching is akin to engineering is to vastly underestimate what an engineer does. An engineer starts the day with an unsolved problem where the answers are unknown, and the wrong answer will bite him or her most painfully. This is true for most jobs I’d say, not just engineering.
A teacher starts the day with all the answers known! That is a huge load off!!! After the lesson plan is designed in the first year, just lather, rinse, and repeat! And if you’re lazy, don’t even try to reach the outlier kids because they won’t demote you if some fail – everyone receives pay on a scheduled advancement routine (after tenure I assume).
And don’t give me that sad story about how kids are monsters. Adults are just as bad, be they completely bizare and quirky engineers, or members of the public that can be difficult as can be.
Also, I keep hearing how teachers can’t be fired outside of a case of gross misconduct. If I had that kind of security, I wouldn’t have to save a large portion of my income for a rainy day/month/decade.
$100,000 is a lot of compensation for Wisconsin. A lot.
If I’m get caught up in a lay off at work, one idea I have is to teach math or science. I’d take $100,000 for that, even would be willing to work myself up to that level.
#25 Somebody_Else FTW.
Oh, and my healthcare costs my company about $6000 a year, and me about $1200 (they tell me the numbers). They pay half my social security, about 7%, and give me about $4500 in 401k matching. I don’t know what the payments are for other payroll taxes, if any.
I thought I was well compensated until I heard what those teachers are making.
Our school systems are very wasteful because they are too local. People on both sides use the schools as political springboards or ideological statements.
Centralize the message on math, science, communication, and tech. Let the local districts add their local fluff. Local history, important families of the state, and other crap like that.
I think school boards are a bigger problem than teachers unions. You just don’t need policy groups to teach kids basic skills.
Everyone keeps dancing around the elephant in the room. Health Care costs entirely too much money. double digit increases year over year, and it’s insane.
“If it’s such a great gig, why don’t the posters here apply for it?”
“There is a waiting line, with far more applicants than available slot.”
There is a waiting line, with far more applicants than available slots. There, fixed it for you.
“There, fixed it for you.”
Nice dodge.
“The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009, despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year. . . . from 1998 to 2008, Wisconsin public schools increased their per pupil spending by $4,245 in real terms yet did not add a single point to the reading scores of their eighth graders and still could lift only one-third of their eighth graders to at least a ‘proficient’ level in reading.”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/sunday-reflections/2011/03/now-comes-lower-education-bubble
I’m not necessarily a “teacher supporter,” whatever that means, but I doubt teachers are the problem in how stupid your kids are. As for $42k in benefits per year? That seems ridiculous. Who believes that? Let’s see that broken down. I seriously doubt any teacher sees much of that. Why do you think employers negotiate to pay benefits rather than wages? Because they often do not have to pay them. Do you really think those teachers will collect pensions? That will definitely be the next thing to go. It is interesting how the Wall Street folks had to be paid their billions of dollars in bonuses because “they had a contract!” Then, the next day, we found out the auto workers had to renegotiate their contracts so GM could get a bailout. Jesus Fucking Christ. Wake the fuck up.
Of course, you earn your benefits.
It’s stunning, to me, how many people don’t get this.
They think the states can just retroactively take away the retirement plan that cops and teachers have been earning for decades.
Could you imagine the howl you’d get from rich people if the government said, “We’re broke. Society can’t afford to pay back your 401ks anymore. Sorry.”
Here in Oregon, teachers are required to have a masters degree.
How does $100,000 compare to what the average masters degree holder earns? — all inclusive.
I honestly don’t know but I will Google it.
[tap tap tap]
The Economic Policy Institute has a good article on it:
>>> The figure below shows that when comparing the total compensation (which includes non-wage benefits such as health care and pensions) of workers with similar education, public-sector workers consistently make less than their private–sector peers. Workers with a bachelor’s degree or more—which constitute nearly 60% of the state and local workforce in Wisconsin—are compensated between $20,000 less (if they just have a bachelor’s degree) to over $82,000 a year less (if they have a professional degree, such as in law or medicine).
Here is the figure: http://tinyurl.com/4ccbq8b
here is the article: http://tinyurl.com/5rbe5vr
It’s a reasonable wage for some of the teachers, like the advanced level teachers, particularly in math and science. It is not a reasonable wage for a kindergarten teacher. Unfortunately, in most school districts the two are paid the same, so if you want to get top science teachers you have to raise everyone’s pay.
I think if I were in MPS, I would want my salary to be higher and my benefits lower. Those benefits are probably being shared disproportionately, at least the health care part. Pensions are OK, though if they are being controlled by a union pension manager, I’d rather that get cut out too.
#39 What?said
I am familiar with what engineers do. My BS is in Aerospace Engineering.
As to your point of teachers preparing one lesson plan and then “just lather, rinse, and repeat!” The world is constantly changing around us (including teachers) and they have to constantly adjust that lesson plan.
Also,consider that each year, if not each semester, they receive a brand new bunch of students with all the different learning abilities/disabilities. That lesson plan has to be tweaked and torqued to fit the new bunch.
And teachers don’t have to deal with adults? No, they have to deal with parents, which is a whole order of magnitude worse. And they have to deal with the school board (minor petty preening politicians), and the local religious institutions who want to vet every single word of that lesson plan to make sure it doesn’t offend their religious sensibilities.
And tenure? I have seen instances of “tenure” saving the job of college professors but have never seen it save the job of teachers in my local area. And in the private sector, you haven’t seen instances where poor workers retained their job and even got promoted because of who they knew. I certainly have.
“$100,000 is a lot of compensation for Wisconsin. A lot” The article referred to total compensation (salary + benefits) for the Milwaukee Public Schools. Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and is located approximately 40 miles from Illinois and roughly 70 miles from the affluent northern suburbs of Chicago. And Illinois has the 3rd highest average teacher salary, according to this link: http://teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state
The Milwaukee Public School System has to pay a premium (in relation to the rest of WI) to recruit and retain teachers since higher average pay is only a 60 mile move away.
From my inbox … Next Season on Survivor:
Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 1 school year. Each business person will be provided with a copy of his/her school district’s curriculum, and a class of 25-30 students.
Each class will have a minimum of five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.H.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.
Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly. They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences. They must also stand in their doorway between class changes to monitor the hallways.
In addition, they will complete fire drills and [Code Red] drills for shooting attacks each month.
They must attend workshops, faculty meetings, and attend curriculum development meetings. They must also tutor students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to take the state assessment. If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show.
Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment to motivate students at all times. If all students do not wish to cooperate, work, or learn, the teacher will be held responsible.
The business people will only have access to the public golf course on the weekends, but with their new salary, they will not be able to afford it. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to thirty minutes, which is not counted as part of their work day. The business people will be permitted to use a student restroom, as long as another survival candidate can supervise their class.
If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials before, or after, school. However, they cannot surpass their monthly limit of copies. The business people must continually advance their education, at their expense, and on their own time.
The winner of this Season of Survivor will be allowed to return to their job.
I am with what someone said earlier. I don’t mind that good teachers are getting paid $100,000 a year (though its only for 9 months of work, not really a year), but that bad teachers are too since the union protects both equally.
We really need to go to a voucher system in this country, let the schools and teachers compete for the tax money that the public is forced to give them. The schools with the best end product will win in the end, instead of this lowest common denominator like we have now.
“They think the states can just retroactively take away the retirement plan that cops and teachers have been earning for decades.”
They can and they will. There will be municipal bankruptcies otherwise, and instead of getting 80 cents on the dollar they’ll get 25 cents.
Don’t look now, but the New York Times agrees:
http://nytimes.com/2011/03/06/opinion/06sun1.html?_r=2
Buckle up, government employees. Get ready to join the real world.
#55 Lou said “Buckle up, government employees. Get ready to join the real world.”
Is this like the old Soviet system where the elite were able to shop in special shops while the working man or woman had to stand in line? Where do the local and state workers spend their money? Do they get a major discount by flashing a secret sign when they shop in “real world” shops? Are they really getting paid for the “unpaid furlough” days that are imposed on them?
By my estimation, they are standing in line to pay the same prices at the local supermarket that my family does. They have to pay taxes on their earnings just like I do. They don’t even get to go to the front of the line to check out books or videos from the public library.
Only 59K in actual pay… How many people, if asked, would have even a clue as to what their employer pays for benefits for them? I’m guessing very few.
In response to # 36:
My advanced placement US history teacher taught that the US Civil War had little to do with slavery.
My AP World History teacher was a young Earth creationist.
My biology II teacher said evolution was ‘just a theory.’
Oklahoma’s public education system was a waste of my time.
is this what every teacher makes?
AP US History teacher correct it was about states rights.
AP World History teacher was religious, so?
Biology II teacher, evolution IS a theory, whats the problem?
1 The issue of states rights was not about a specific “right”. It was the ability of the state to determine its own destiny without the interference of the federal government. It also set the path for the current style of government that we have today. I did not say that slavery was not an issue. It was not however the primary issue. You apparently learned to read in school. I guess you should read more.
2. So apparently you knew the curriculum enough to know that you were not covering it. Wow I guess you did learn something, teachers are human.
3. Evolution is a theory, as someone who has a BS Biological Sciences and MS in Microbiology I think I can safely say I know something about the scientific method. No were in my comment did I say evolution was something I disagreed with, nor did I mention intelligent design.
So I refer back to My previous posts. You apparently did learn something.
Oh and on that computer based curriculum I give you four words “no child left behind”. Yeah that’s working out so well. Test scores do not an education make.
“Students should be taught by the best scientists and educators we have” While I would agree in the general principle. The cost to pay those self same experts would cost more than what is currently paid to teachers. Which is the whole point of this thread.
ps That should have been a where in comment 62 section 3. Damn submit button.