I live in New Jersey, and have three children in school. The real story behind education and the teacher’s union in this state is unbelievable.
Teachers in our district make on average $85,000. Many are over $100,000. This is for 180 days of work per year - versus 243 days at about $55,000 for the average private citizen worker. They get free high-end health care, and generous free pension plans.
My children go to school until the end of June (the year starts the day after Labor Day). This is because - in working their 180 days per year - they take off time during the school year for unimaginable reasons. This is due to what the school calls “In-Service Days.”
Now In-Service Days are advertised as “working” days for the teacher, but in reality, they mysteriously surround three-day holidays. For example, my children just had off 5 days in a row for President’s Day. This included Thursday and Friday for In-Service Days, Saturday and Sunday, and the Monday holiday. This is normal, having multiple days off in a row around such days as Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, and so on. Add to that a newly minted mysterious holiday week in November called “Fall Break.” No, this is not Thanksgiving week, but two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, where the school is shut down for the entire week. The kids then return for a week, then get off for the normal Thanksgiving holiday period.
In-Service Days are an outright scam. It is difficult to convince us that the teachers are truly working. If this was so, In-Service Days would be mid-week, as opposed to centered around three-day weekends. The parking lots of the schools are empty during In-Service Days, and from time to time, videos surface of teachers gambling in Atlantic City during these tough out-of-school paid days.
We have to laugh when we hear the teachers complaining about Christie, but our laughter is tempered by our taxes, and the reality of the stranglehold this union has on our pocketbooks.
Even my dentist and his five employees depend on the very generous school dental insurance that comes into his office.
So...What the teachers unions want in our county, they get. They have enormous power to mobilize their voters and to get their message out. Our school board consists of their people. And...To make matters even worse, being elected to the school board is the major stepping stone to higher office in our state.
We have NO private schools in our county. Why would there be? There are so many people sitting in the pews who are sucking a living from the governmen schools, no minister would dare offend them by starting a church school. Who is going to bite the hand putting money in the collection plate?
Our county recently built a $70 million dollar high school. It's for the chiiiildren, of course!. In the meantime the cub scouts that I work with literally can NOT read, add, or subtract, and forget about multiplication and division.
Personally...I feel like a slave to the greedy voting mob.
My husband and I have countered in two ways:
** We retired early. Like “Atlas” we have “Shrugged”.
** We have structured our lives so that the most minimal taxes possible go to the government school cartel.
There is some glimmer of hope. Homeschooling is spreading like a wildfire.