From the NY Post:In the city's funny math, you get only one teacher for the price of two.
The Department of Education pays about 1,500 teachers for time they spend on union activities -- and pays other teachers to replace them in the classroom.
It's a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung -- at full pay -- to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers.
With Mayor Bloomberg calling for thousands of teacher layoffs to balance the 2012 budget, critics say it's time to halt the extravagant benefit.
"In these tight fiscal times, it defies common sense to pay two different people to do one job," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government watchdog. "It's a waste of money."
That $9 million would cover the salaries of 198 new teachers at the current annual $45,530 starting pay
The DOE lets 40 experienced teachers collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day.
Under a contract agreement since 2003, the DOE excuses these veterans to work for the UFT -- currently 38 as district representatives and two as union vice presidents. The UFT pays them another salary, plus expenses.
From the Daily News:
As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, the Daily News has learned.
Free-spending United Federation of Teachers brass last year spent nearly $1.4 million for the UFT's 50th anniversary gala at the Hilton - complete with a movie, a book and a paperweight.
Records show they:
* Ponied up $514,000 to 16 separate caterers.
* Dropped $278,417 on the annual Teachers Union Day ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.
* Bought $6,100 in gift baskets from a lower East Side candy store - and plowed $179,000 into training retreats at a Connecticut resort boasting golf, scuba diving and aqua aerobics.
In one amazing feat of spending, they shelled out $114,870 for annual "coffee supplies" at their five offices across the city - paying the Coffee Distributing Corp. on Long Island $324,000 over three years, records show.
And while most New Yorkers spend hours trying to find a parking space, the UFT rents 25 slots in Brooklyn's Renaissance Plaza Garage for members at an average annual cost of $75,000 over three years.
27 comments:
I'm pro-union but that's offensive!
Organized Crime - another name for the UFT.
if the total number of days worked by a n.y.c. public school teacher is 180. is that not a semi -annual salary of $45,000.00 .?
what is the semi-annual total income received by a teacher ,including sick days,benefits and salary ?.
public sector unions have become UNSUSTAINABLE.
Question: how do you get a college-educated, middle-class kid to spend 7 hours a day caged in with the little monsters and having the skills to give them the the chance to graduate with a Regents diploma?
Answer: Not by dangling a $35,000 salary with no benefits in front of them. Other jobs pay more with less angst.
Lost in this conversation are the simple economic arguments. You make the job unappealing, and you'll end up with no choice but to lower hiring standards and hire real dregs.
Hey, maybe we can hire as teachers these college-educated illegals that the DREAM Act would have given amnesty to. They'll work for $100 bucks a day and a sandwich! No benefits, no unions! They even already speak Spanish! Win-win!
The Koch brothers would love that.
Free markets forever!
"Hey, maybe we can hire as teachers these college-educated illegals that the DREAM Act would have given amnesty to. They'll work for $100 bucks a day and a sandwich! No benefits, no unions! They even already speak Spanish! Win-win!"
what a puke you are. Someone who screams about all the illegals in this country and how they're ruining everything but really wants them in this country so they can treat them like slaves - it should happen to your mother.
so now all these people will be on unemployment or disability SS - and they will send in "Superteacher" I guess to educate neanderthals and just push them through school so these new "Superteachers" won't get fired -
moral of the story - DON'T become a teacher. Shame.
NYC elementary school teachers and their classes seem to spend every nice day at the Central Park Zoo. I see them traipsing by from my spot on the bench (lunch break). A babysitter would be cheaper. I wish I had half the benefits they have (BTW, I'm also college-educated).
Ok Big man Bloomberg - why are we signing teacher contracts that allow this procatice? It seems to me that the city skip over this and signed - so I guess the teachers are smarter after all, but now the time to change this - let see you roll up your sleeves and go after these type frills that are costing us big time. What else is the City allowing that soaking us?
"Anonymous said...
if the total number of days worked by a n.y.c. public school teacher is 180. is that not a semi -annual salary of $45,000.00 .?"
God, this old fool is either dumb as a doorknob, or a deceptive creep.
Teachers work from late August through the end of June.
When you worked..did you do-so seven days a week?
Probably not. Most likely you had weekends, major holidays off. Right there you were not working some 120+ days/year..not counting your vacation.
Reality is that you, and most others work approx 225 days/yr..not counting sick and personal days.
So, go right ahead..shoot your ignorant mouth off about teachers...but remember this: The fact that you and your offspring are not slaves to a "boss' is due to unions and yes, "Socialists".
At least be grateful not to be eating catfood as many old people had to years ago.
"UFT is living large"
But not as large as me. I think I'll "retire" to the North Flushing Senior Center and grab a bite. Anything but attend a State Senate committee meeting on education and the budget. I got mine. Do you REALLY think I care where you get yours?
Don't expect any changes soon, as the UFT controls every Dem. Assembly members. And now, with Avella replacing Padavan, the UFT has one more stoolie in the Senate.
And now, with Avella replacing Padavan, the UFT has one more stoolie in the Senate.
------------------------------------------------------
Who are you to call me a stoolie?
"(BTW, I'm also college-educated)."
BTW - it doesn't show . . .
The UFT works all summer for Stavisky and Ackerman while collecting unemployment. In Nassau you pay the bosses for your job, but if you are a teacher, you are an indentured campaign summer servant.
Someone needs to cut out all waste and inefficiency in the UFT organization. If you are a teacher, you should be in a classroom teaching. How many teachers get paid to sit in a rubber room or do clerical work in an office? Our public schools are crammed with illegal aliens who don't speak English. Dump the English as a Second Language program and immerse these kids in English. It would save tons of money. Many immigrants who can't speak English are assigned their own paraprofessional to help them (another waste). The taxpayers can't continue to coddle these illegals anymore. If you come to this country legally or illegally, you need to assimilate and play by our rules. The taxpayers are fed up and we need relief. If teachers don't want to work more than 180 days a year and spend that time in the classroom, they need to pick another profession.
Actually, special ed is a ridiculously expensive joke. Some mentally deficient students can advance and learn skills, but then there are quite a few who are basically vegetables. What the hell is the point of sending them to school?
Wouldn't extremely handicapped children fall under a health insurance/ healthcare budget as opposed to a Dept of Education budget? Maybe our governor can create new guidelines as to what constitutes a requirement to have your child in a special ed class.
the d.o.e.website states that 99.5% of the special eduction pupils do not score in the proficient category(1). the cost of one year" schooling" for one "pupil" is $40,000 to $65,000.
the question is , is this simply a high cost daycare operation that is UNSUSTAINABLE in 2011?
Perhaps a home health aide would be more cost effective for a handicapped child, however, the child wouldn't be able to interact with other children and be isolated. I feel for the children and for the parents, but the cost of these programs has skyrocketed and the taxpayers can't sustain these programs anymore.
The most unable kids get homebound instruction. I hope some of you commenters never have a special needs kid, because you are cruel. Everyone deserves some kind of education; if they can't be educated in the usual way, maybe they can at least socialize. Sometimes, making eye contact is a big deal. To the person who said they're "college educated": that does not make you any less of a mean person. Oh, and WTF are you doing trolling around the Central Park Zoo anyway? Oh you're a Manhattanite, are you? Well, this is Queens Crap, not Manhattan Crap. Don't go to the park if you don't like those damn elementary school teachers with their creepy outer borough kids.
Cite one example of cruelty against special needs children posted here. Questioning the cost and effectiveness of special ed isn't cruel. Hypersensitive parents are part of the problem.
"Some mentally deficient students can advance and learn skills, but then there are quite a few who are basically vegetables. What the hell is the point of sending them to school?"
That's the very objectionable statement....and I'm not a "hypersensitive parent". I'm just a special educator my entire career, and have taught all levels and all ages. Special education has not been run correctly in the city for more than one generation. It's a waste if you tell these kids that they're "going to college". That's the shame and the waste. When there were more vocational opportunities and different types of diplomas, I bet the graduation rate was a heck of a lot higher and there were JOBS available. I bet there wasn't as much of a need for special ed, and there wouldn't be now if class sizes were smaller in general. The waste is telling kids there's only one path to take: college. The truth is, Crapper, that there are no jobs out there so it's another way to keep those kids out of the work force a little longer. I'm a career special educator, and maybe that's why I think these people are mean spirited; who would be next on a list to not receive some kind of social services. You also notice how people are at one another's throats lately and focusing on education and all the crimes committed therein.
Ok let me clarify since I am the one who made the original statement. I see kids who can't move or communicate and drool all the time being loaded onto buses every morning to be taken to school. I do not understand the purpose of this. They are not being prepared to take a role in the workforce. They basically are vegetables. I had a friend who was a special ed teacher who said the kids can't even go to the bathroom themselves. The teachers have to double as nurses and how or what does one teach a child in this condition? What is considered progress? I am not trying to be cruel. I seriously just don't understand why we are spending ridiculous amounts of money on children who won't ever be able to function.
Many of those kids have a teacher come to their homes once a day and the teacher does whatever kind of activities and stimulation that may promote eye contact or a reaction of some kind. It's a matter of dignity. There is far more waste in the no bid contracts the mayor keeps awarding his friends. There is tremendous fraud and waste at the DOE, which is far more expensive than providing a school day and dignity for a child whose life will never be what my child's life will be. Going after the least able is the easy way out. It's on a par with cutting out senior citizens' centers and meals. The powerless are not the perpetrators of these problems.
This was fought for by teachers unions in order to provide jobs and by parents living in denial about their child's abilities.
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