There’s a lot of other places in school budgets where spending could be cut and the teachers get raises.
There was a situation in one town I know of where the retired district superintendent and his retired wife were bringing in
$100,000 in retirement pay each year for doing NOTHING but being retired, at a time when the average wage was around $50,000 per year.
They earned double for doing nothing, well not nothing, they’d go to FL to their place down there for the winter, that my husband was working for full time to bring home for us to live on.
And that was just one couple. that doesn’t count all their friends that they got cush high paying jobs just before THEIR retirement do they could also live comfortably off taxpayers with nice cush retirement pay.
Correct. Much of that education money is going to people who aren’t teaching. WV is the state of Entitlement.
We are fortunate to get 2% raises every 2-3 years.
People working for government, including public school employees, are compensated based on terms the state and/or school district agreed to. One aspect of our republican form of government is that we elect people to "represent" us. Our representatives are the ones to blame for the excesses of public pensions - not the teachers. The taxpayer's "representatives" on school boards and state houses agreed to this retiree's $100,000 in retirement pay.
Over and over again we elect people who do not keep their promises or we elect people not understanding their positions and convictions. This is a weakness of our form of government. Another weakness is the citizen. The average citizen complains but does little else. Generally, the average citizen is apathetic.
What's the solution? I don't know but I'm afraid we're past the tipping point. Most Americans have lost sight of founding principals which say we and not government are responsible and in charge. Similarly, government has lost sight that the people and not government are in charge.