"What'chu mean you only have two jobs, you lazy lima bean."
Posted on 11/10/2015 10:11:50 AM PST 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.â€
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.â€
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.
"What'chu mean you only have two jobs, you lazy lima bean."
People gotta complain about how unfair life is - particularly gov’t workers.
I am thankful not to have to live on 80 grand. Couldn’t even imagine it with 4 kids and a wife, catholic school, college next year for the oldest, food, housing, clothes, entertainment. Well hopefully I never have to find out. I feel sorry for those having to live like that.
And the really amazing part of this is that they probably honestly believe it.
Your ends are your problem.
I’m willing to help* ensure 1500 calories a day and a roof over your head.
Beyond that, what you earn is between you and your employer pursuant to “a thing (your services, in this case) is worth exactly what another is willing to pay for it (>$80k/yr for mundane teaching is d@mn good pay).”
(* - as in voluntary charity, not gun-to-the-head fiscal confiscation from those trying to make their own ends meet.)
(* - BTW: methinks a $20 tent and 35 bagels a week suffices that offer. You get ‘em and use ‘em, and I’ll supply ‘em.)
Plus these well paid teachers will get a nice taxpayer funded pension when they retire. A lot of us won’t get any pension at all. Plus most of them in Ca vote in their leftist demoRats. They have zero sympathy from we.
Resin up the bow for the obligatory, mournful sounding violin background music. Pass the tissues please.
Julia Satterthwaite
@jsatterthwaite
English and journalism teacher at Rochester High School, adviser of The Talon and http://rochestertalon.com , teacher leader, life-long learner, wife and mother.
Royal Oak, Mich.
They ought to be able to take the 80k, outsource the actual teaching to an illegal for 30k cash, stay home and watch TV, and still live pretty well.
Whether or not you feel teachers deserve the pay they get or not, it is just a lot more expensive today to make ends meet. If a couple makes a combined income of around $130K a yr. they probably have enough to more than make ends meet. If they have two or more children, two cars and a pet, that will certainly change the equation. They won’t have a lot left over for extras but likely won’t be going behind. Most couples don’t start out making that much money. It’s usually later in their careers that they might and if they send their children to college that can be a huge chunk of change (ask me how I know). I tell people, I could have had three nice houses. Instead, I have three nice kids (and lots of grandkids). I wouldn’t change a thing but we pinched pennies always to make ends meet. Now more than ever in retirement. Where you live is also a big factor in how far your money goes.
It’s my experience that teachers can be the whiniest people on earth. They will stand right in front of someone who works in the private sector for $30,000 and two weeks’ vacation a year, and they will complain that teachers are “underpaid” and that their two months off “went by SO fast” and “wasn’t enough.” They also get every holiday known to man off, winter break, spring break, etc.
What gets me, too, is when they say things like, “Celebrities and athletes make millions and teachers only make peanuts. The salaries should be reversed.” Just how do they propose to switch the salaries of teachers with celebrities and athletes? Do they even understand how these things work?
Seriously??
I never met a teacher who didn’t think they were paid enough. Always bitching. So To make ends meet they all started working the latest greatest get rich MLM plans preying on friends and family and friends of family.
Karen Malsbury
Business Owner at Forever Inspired MI
Greater Detroit AreaEducation Management
Business Teacher
Rochester High School
January 2004 – Present (11 years 11 months)
They only work like 5-6 months out of the year with tons of benefits, health care, sick time, pensions, free ‘work study’ trips...they are OVERPAID! They don’t even put in a solid weeks work of 40 hours....it’s a joke.
My HS Latin teacher used to go to down South for the Summer and do a stint as a DI with the US Marines. But, as one might guess, he wasn't a lazy SOB.
What is BS is the youngsters with 4 years or less experience thinking they need $100K salary.
Same teacher complain that all they do any more is BABYSIT.
Pretty highly paid babysitters.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.