Posted on 08/11/2015 9:41:40 AM PDT by MichCapCon
One schoolteacher who gets paid $87,349 annually, and another who gets $80,472, were highlighted in a recent Oakland Press article complaining that teachers had to get second jobs “to make ends meet.”
The article was written by a third teacher, Julia Satterthwaite, who works at the Rochester Community Schools district and is described as a "summer intern” for the newspaper.
The article featured one of the author’s colleagues, Karen Malsbury, who has been teaching for 14 years. Malsbury was quoted as saying, “There is little or no room for professional growth, little opportunity to increase your personal income, no step increases, no bonuses, no inflation pay rises, rising health care costs and more requirements to take college level classes to get up-to-date endorsements.”
Except, that’s not accurate. Rochester Community Schools teachers did experience a freeze in their automatic, seniority-based “step-increase” raises in 2013-14, but the raises continued in 2014-15, with additional step increases scheduled in each of the remaining four years of the current union contract.
While the story didn’t mention how much the teachers who were featured get paid, these figures are a matter of public record. Malsbury was paid $87,349 in 2014-15. Satterthwaite herself collected $65,987 from the school district. Under the district’s union contract these compensation levels were for 184.5 work days.
The Rochester contract has 20 annual “steps” in its pay scale, so teachers have some idea of approximately how much more they will earn for each year they remain on the payroll. Some of these seniority-based raises are as high as 5.5 percent, but in most cases they run between 3 percent and 4 percent. Teachers with more than 20 years on the job received bonuses ranging from $450 to $550.
Rochester Community Schools confirmed in an email that the provisions in the teachers’ contract as posted online were accurate.
Malsbury didn’t respond to questions sent to her work email.
The story also featured another Rochester teacher, Erin Slomka, who was quoted as saying it’s sad that teachers aren’t able to survive on one income. Slomka collected $61,741 in 2014-15.
Hudsonville teacher Lori Humphrey was quoted in the story as saying she knew several teachers selling skin care products on the side to make up for pay freezes.
But according to her district’s union contract, Humphrey didn’t have to endure pay freezes. She was paid $80,472 in 2014-15. The three-year contract specified 183 work days, and also included step raises for each year. An example provided in the contract text spells out how step increases work, so that eligible teachers will get a 7.7 percent salary increase in the 2016-17 school year.
The teachers' salaries reported in this story were provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the state of Michigan, which included a database of public school employees that are a part of the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System (MPSERS). The figures cited here do not include health insurance and retirement benefits also given to school employees.
They got to live within their means.
Such nonsensical things like this is a major reason teachers don’t get any respect and/or sympathy anymore.
This kind of disingenuous whinning reminds me of the Sandra Fluke testimony where she complained of spending $3000.00/year on birth control.
Just looking at her it’s hard to believe any guy would touch her, much less have sex with her at all.
OH, BOO FREAKIN’ HOO...................$80k+............I live well on less than half that!...................
It’s the Obama economy, stupid.
well they have plenty of time for a second job given they only work 2/3 of a year.
Can’t make ends meet? Perhaps their ends are just too big.
I have a kid who’s a teacher. She does not make half of that. She manages to pay all of her bills.
The rare occasion I watch TV I am flabbergasted at the homes “ordinary” Americans apparently live in on commercials or TV dramas. Look at their TV kitchen, its spacious with an island countertop, cherry wood cabinets, stainless appliances. Amazing! $150,000 might be on the low end.
Hell, 30 years back I was working appliance repair/refrigeration making 1/3 of that and lived like a king, wanting for nothing. The only thing more money would have meant would have been more dough in the bank. Better days, then. ;)
Every teacher I know bitches endlessly about money, yet they make more money and have more benefits than any one I know. My brother is a teacher and so is his wife. They make over $80 K a piece and constantly complain about money. They also can both retire at 90% of their pay after 30 years, for life. They also have health insurance including dental and optical for less than $100 premium per month and complain that they use to pay nothing.
They are not alone.
Starve the beast, fire them all. Vouchers for all!
so many teachers are pathetic....I respect few of them.....whiners, self aggrandizing,shallow, with their pretty little “education” degrees....
Cash in-flow is not their problem. It’s the out-flow. Look in their garage, kitchen and closet. There’s where the money went.
Yes, who the hell would want go back to the 80’s as liberals are fond of proclaiming.
Hell, we were all working then.
Doctors often work several jobs.....they never quit...and they don’t retire after 30 yrs....
My friend’s wife is a teacher who doesn’t come close and keeps going.
ThAts good hourly pay. Thanks.
Bear in mind... that Salary is for 36 weeks of student instruction, using the same lesson plan these crybabies used 13 years ago.
Everyone else generally works 50 weeks out of the year, give or take.
I used to work at a public utility company. (power)
The company asked employees to contribute (5) five dollars a week toward their healthcare insurance.
You would have sworn the company was asking them to kill one of their kids.
All the crying from linemen making in excess of $45/hr.
Heh .... you need to hang out with a better class of teachers.
My wife teaches high school. She has BA & MA in subjects relevant to her courses. Near as I can tell, so does EVERY other teacher in the school. Except, of course, the ones with subject relevant PhD. Yes, I’m telling you that, near as I can tell, ZERO of her colleagues have “pretty little ‘education’ degrees”.
But this is a private school ... no ripping off the taxpayer, or paying union dues.
Maybe there’s a lesson here.
Abolish the “public” schools. Educating children is far too important to let the government take over and fsck it up.
The last sentence says it does not include those benefits. The pensions add a lot to the total compensation package.
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