D.C. teachers likely to ratify contract (boosts avg salary to $81,000 )

WaPo ^ | 06/01/2010 | Bill Turque

[OldDeckHand]

Voting on the proposed contract between the District and its 4,000 public school teachers concludes Wednesday, and even educators opposed to the pact, which will trigger major changes in how they are managed and paid, expect it to be ratified.

"A lot of people say they like it. They like the money," said Tom O'Rourke, a veteran history teacher and union activist at Roosevelt High School who voted no because, he said, the pact has too many vague, open-ended promises.

The contract offer, which requires the approval of the D.C. Council, would give teachers a 21.6 percent salary increase through 2012. About half the money would come in a single retroactive payment covering the nearly three years they worked without a raise while the pact was negotiated. The package would boost the average salary for a D.C. educator from $67,000 to about $81,000, elevating it to near the top of the pay scale for public school teachers in the Washington region, according to a union survey.

[OldDeckHand]

One of the worst public schools in the country. Unbelievable.

[BubbaJunebug]

Reward failure...punish success

[Lurker]

81 thousand dollars for a 9 month a year job, plus benefits, plus more vacation time than I'll see in my lifetime.

Unflippingbelievable.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“Reward failure...punish success”

If I can’t distinguish myself by my efforts, and if my efforts ultimately don’t matter, what’s the point?

[scory]

And if they can boost the percentage of functional illiterates graduating this year by another 10% they will get raises to an average of $90,000.00.

How happy and satisfied they must be in a job well done.

[truthguy]

One of the worst public schools in the country. Unbelievable.

And somewhere I read that the School District spends about $19K/per pupil/per year. You can send your kid to some of the most exclusive private schools for that amount. Can anyone confirm this? I'd like to throw it in the face of those who always claim the public schools need more money to improve education.

Yes, some schools do need a little more money but by and large that's not the problem with public education in the US. DC could spend $50K/per pupil/ per year and they would have still have terrible schools. They would simply find the way to waste most of that money.

[OldDeckHand]

"1 thousand dollars for a 9 month a year job, plus benefits, plus more vacation time than I'll see in my lifetime."

While you'll not get rich on $81K a year, I imagine that the average DC teacher works well less than 40 hours a week. Also, I'd imagine that most business people making $80-90K/yearly are working well-past 40 hours a week. And, if they don't perform and produce, they face termination, something that rarely happens in a DC city school.

[Snickering Hound]

Even at $81,000 they won’t get enough teachers to risk their lives in D.C. public schools.

[OldDeckHand]

"And somewhere I read that the School District spends about $19K/per pupil/per year"

I don't know if I have ever seen that number in print, but I do remember a story on Nightline from a year or two ago that covered with the new (at that time) DC School Chancellor and her fight to improve the schools, to include her battles with the teacher's union. They quoted a per-pupil number and IIRC, it was in the very high teens, like you suggest.

[Clemenza]

For NINE MONTHS OF WORK!!!

[WOBBLY BOB]

It’s the DC way...

[Graybeard58]

My daughter is a teacher, she makes about half that much. I tell her she's overpaid at that.

[mockingbyrd]

DAYUM! I gotta get me to DC!

[WOBBLY BOB]

Democrats Block GOP Bid to Extend DC Vouchers

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204173/posts

[Chode]

simply obscene...

[Cyman]

“My daughter is a teacher, she makes about half that much. I tell her she’s overpaid at that.”

I’d be careful opening my Father’s Day gift if I were you.

[paul51]

doesn’t matter. It’s money taken from someone else

[skeeter]

Greed unlike the private sector has seen in decades.

[Eepsy]

Many schools have per student costs $12k+, say 250k for a class of 20. However, for every 18 students in that class that a private school would spend four grand on, there’ll be two who are special needs that need the extra $175k. These are the kids the $4000 private school say “no thank you” too, and they kind of skew the public school figures.

My mom’s a special ed teacher, so it always leaps to mind in these discussions.

This doesn’t apply to districts spending a quarter million on “smart boards”, astroturf, or touchy feely math curriculuums.

[truthguy]

However, for every 18 students in that class that a private school would spend four grand on, there’ll be two who are special needs that need the extra $175k

Yes, this is an excellent point and needs to be considered. Many school districts concentrated special needs children in certain schools where their needs could be addressed in a more economical manner. However the political forces put constraints on this and required many of these students to be mainstreamed. This is very inefficient for many of these school districts and adds tremendous costs. This is a complex topic and I cannot address it here but it also needs to be taken into consideration.