Well, I get paid for 7.5 hours a day (I actually work 9), 205 days out of the year of which 185 have students in them, the rest being delegated for “staff development” or the rare teacher workday. We pay for our own insurance, and collect a modest retirement after 30 years. Collective bargaining by public employees was done away with in NC in 1959, so I’d say NJ was behind the times.
That is why NJ businesses, and their employees that can do so, are fleeing the state (often going to yours); there is no doubt that the teachers’ unions are the #1 reason for NJ’s decline.
They have driven up the property taxes so high that even with a good economy it was difficult; our private education system (their competition) was successfully destroyed because people couldn’t pay $7,500 in public school taxes, then another private school tuition on top of it. Rather than close schools/lay off staff to adjust to our falling population (we’ve lost electoral votes as our population sinks), the liberal response has been outreach to illegals to put kids in the seats (while legitimate taxpayers foot the bill, which includes free breakfast & lunch). Our teachers work from 8:30 to 3:00, with at least a half hour for lunch; try to get any extra help for your child after school and you’ll see how determined they are to be heading home by 3:01.
The Asbury Park Press released ALL of their salaries a few years ago (helping Christie win the Governor post by doing so); you would be shocked at how many people in their 40s earned $80K+ for 6 hours per day, 180 days per year.
NJ is behind the times, and paying a steep price for it; soon there will be nobody here but illegal aliens and the permanent multi-generational welfare underclass.