Comments on: More on Public School Spending

By: Steve Dickinson

Steve Dickinson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:09:30 +0000

An earlier posting assumed certain hourly work numbers for an elementary teacher. Have you taught before Mr. Smith? I have. Based on my real experience, planning time is generally 1 hour for every three hours taught. So, using your number of 6 hours per day, the real hours per day would be 8. Also, include conference time, grading time, communicating with parents time, etc. . .

Suffice it to say, your assumption is inaccurate. I do agree with you in one sense. That is that teachers overall compensation for arguments sake should include benefits.

By: A More Inconvenient Truth

A More Inconvenient Truth — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:35:12 +0000

As a young American, I can attest to the ranks of VPs and administrators in today’s school system. As I say on my blog (http://moretruth.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/inconvenient-links-for-february-5-2008/) “The current school system is designed more to benefit administrators than students.”

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:25:09 +0000

I think you need to refigure the number of hours that a teacher works. My wife’s a Junior High School Science Teacher. She has to be at the school at 6:45 AM to stand bus duty (watching the kids come off the busses). Home room starts at 7:30 AM. Then she starts a day consisting of 9 40-minute periods. In these 9 periods she has 3 7th grade classes, 3 8th grade classes, 1 planning period, 1 lunchroom monitor period and her 40 minute lunch break. Then she’s back on bus duty from 2:30 PM until 4:00 PM. I’m not even going to count the time she spends grading papers and lesson planning in the evening at home. As far as the only working 9 months out of the year goes, get real. We are lucky if we can take a week for vacation at the same time. Last year school ended on June 15th and this year started (for her on Aug. 27th. In the time between these dates she attended 7 5-day weeks of Continuing Education classes at a nearby State University, that were mandatory if she wanted to keep her teaching credentials. You don’t even want to know what those classes cost. As far as those great benefits go, if they are so great then how’s come we are using my medical insurance?
I’m not complaining, we chose to do this and she loves her job. I’m just saying that it isn’t the cash cow everybody thinks it is.

By: JoshK

JoshK — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:18:42 +0000

I don't think anyone actually factors in capital costs and properly accounts for pension obligations in the public school. Any time there is a bond issuance it is completely off-balance sheet (for the school) and is treated as a state debt issue for the purpose of figuring $$/student.

And, by us in NYC, we have schools that sit on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real-estate, but that would never get accounted for like it would in a private company.

By: Ironman

Ironman — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:05:20 +0000

Most people would disregard the benefits portion of teacher pay in computing the comparable compensation with actual full-time workers. Here's a tool to run those numbers.

For the 2003-2004 school year, the average public school teacher's salary in the U.S. was $46,597. Using the tool linked above with this salary figure and assuming the teacher works an additional two hours beyond the typical six hours spent in an elementary school classroom would put their equivalent "full-time worker" annual pay at $67,306 in accounting for their shorter work year, a little over a 44% difference.

In taking benefits into account, the costs of which should be equivalent (since both the teacher and the regular worker get the benefit of the benefits year-round.) Let's say that's $12,000 for our teacher described above: $45,597 + $12,000 = $57,597. Adding that $12,000 to our equivalent full-time year-round worker pay of $67,306 gives us $79,306, just under a 38% difference.

Not a bad premium in pay for a profession with near-absolute job security!

By: Bob Smith

Bob Smith — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:54:40 +0000

Don’t forget that one way public schools try to make private schools fail is by enforcement of zoning and building codes, rules public schools don’t have to obey. Public school administrators (or their sympathizers) are often on planning and zoning boards. What better way to screw private schools by promulgating zoning rules that essentially make a city off limits to private schools, or allow private schools only in the most inconvenient areas, and promulgating building codes that make it prohibitively expensive to build a private school.