4.2 percent cut is not really much.
Take a look at what’s happening in the private sector. Most companies are completely dropping 401k matching and other benefits.
Govt jobs from the top down are way out of line as far as compensation.
Where I work there have been no raises since 2007, and very slight ones that year.
You know, it is sad that people in the private sector have been hit as hard as they have. It still does not make teachers losing their pay okay. Teachers that I know spend sooooo much of their own money for students who don’t have supplies, bring their lunch money, and for what they use to teach with. This year especially, my friends who teach have taken on such a burden with all the influx of students from neighboring counties who are behind academically. They are responsible for these students just like they are the ones who have been in DeSoto County for years.
I assure you if you had to deal with what they have to deal with, you would consider their job worth something. People in the “private sector” work hours so long and often leave their children to other people such as daycare providers to do homework, read with, and even more. Often these hard working parents who are working sooooo many hours NEVER work with their children, read to them, or spend any time at all with them. This is the reason teachers have to spend so much time catching children up. So you might want to volunteer some of your time in a school before you decide teachers don’t deserve the pay they get, and before you decide their job is no different than anyone else’s.
FYI. You seem to think that teachers get a lot of “government benefits.” I know several teachers who cannot even go to the doctor when they are sick, because the insurance the state provides has over $1000 for the deductable and even then it rarely pays. My friend had a baby, NO MATERNITY LEAVE. After her 5 sick days ran out, they divided her pay by the number of days she works and took that fraction out EACH DAY. She owed them money for insurance when she returned to work. Teachers get state retirement, and contrary to what the public believes, they do not get paid for staying home in the summer. They get their pay divided by 12 in order to get paid in the summer FOR WORK THEY HAVE ALREADY DONE.
So to the man whose wife “still has her job,” you better make sure you keep yours, because you will not be able to retire on what her retirement will be. Hopefully you will make more than her, because with her pay going down, someone has to support you two.
Hopefully you can get health insurance if you lose your job, because it will cost over $1000 a month for her to add you on to hers! You make sure you have your own retirement or you and your wife will be working way past 65.