It seems both sides of the Wisconsin budget debate are being a little loose with the truth. Check the validity of some claims here.
Category: Teacher Salaries
Teachers union, School Board finally make one-year contract official
Posted by – November 24, 2010
Representatives of the Quincy Federation of Teachers and the Quincy School Board on Tuesday signed the one-year contract agreement reached last month with teachers and paraeducators, and released it today. Click here to download the 59-page document. If you’re interested in financial information, skip to page 29. The contract has been advertised as “budget neutral,” reflecting both salary increases and benefit cuts.
Spokesmen for the board and union previously said teachers will receive a step up on the district’s salary schedule averaging out to about $650 per teacher. Paraprofessionals will get a step up, as well, averaging $300 to $350 per employee, plus a one-time stipend of $150. In exchange, health insurance premiums will jump 8 percent and insurance deductibles will increase.
It’s re-run season when it comes to Quincy education saga
Posted by – September 24, 2010
Below is a repeat of a post from March 26. Unfortunately, much hasn’t changed in six months.
The Quincy Federation of Teachers last week voted down a contract proposal from the Quincy School Board, apparently, in part, because the salary and benefits package being offered wasn’t good enough. We say “apparently” because neither side is releasing any details of the proposal for us to judge. Another round of negotiations has been scheduled for Tuesday.
School Board member Bill Daniels outlined the plight of the district’s self-insurance fund in a story in Thursday’s Herald-Whig. Perhaps the report will silence those who like to stand on their anonymous soapbox on local websites and question where the surpluses went. Perhaps it won’t, given that some never let facts stand in the way of a good rant.
One of the biggest problems facing the Quincy School District — even before economy tanked and the state of Illinois quit paying its bills on time — is $1.84. That’s the education fund tax rate here, the lowest allowable by law. That rate is now in its third decade on the books. Quincy voters continue to elect Melvin “No” Niekamp but won’t budge on the education fund tax rate (which may be the only explanation needed for why we are where we are), and it continues to strangle the district financially.
Name something that hasn’t increased in price or value during that time?
Now name something more important than an education?
The post from March 26:
So here we are. The Quincy School Board has been forced to slash another $4 million from its budget because the state of Illinois cannot pay its bills. For those keeping score at home, that’s more than $8 million in reductions the past three years combined because the folks in Springfield can’t balance a checkbook.
And yet, if you read some of the comments posted on whig.com, it’s not enough that more than 100 full- and part-time employees will be losing their jobs. It’s not enough that schools will be closed. It’s not enough that kids who have trouble learning to read won’t be given the necessary one-on-one instruction so they can have a chance in life.
No, a community that has not supported a referendum to raise the education fund tax rate from the lowest allowable by law in more than three decades would like to see more pain. They remember when schools were built and then closed and sold. They remember when former Superintendent Michael Anderson was paid $190,000 to walk away and not say why. They remember when there were insurance and pension perks not available to most people.
The problem is, that was then and this is now. Mistakes no doubt were made in the past, given that we are an imperfect people living in an imperfect world, but there should be a statute of limitations on sins of the fathers, whatever they were. After all, we’re talking about the education of our children, not Enron.
This School Board, and the ones that immediately preceded it, and this administration have worked to be good stewards of taxpayer money. They have identified problems, such as the financially draining self-insurance fund and the state-sanctioned pension padding, and worked with employees to correct them. They have tried to do more with less — a popular corporate slogan that, by the mere definitions of those words, is impossible to accomplish.
So when is enough enough? What is it going to take for us to believe in people to make the best decisions for our school system and trust their judgment? When are we going to put aside grudges and misconceptions and a little paycheck envy, and realize that our future rests on our children and grandchildren being more successful than we are?
It’s time to put aside differences, quit the finger-pointing and start believing in education again.
Future teacher pensions could face steep cuts in Missouri
Posted by – September 9, 2010
In a sign of the economic times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Public School Retirement System of Missouri is considering reducing pensions by 15 to 20 percent for teachers hired after June 30, 2013. The stock market meltdown in 2008 wiped out $5.3 billion in assets held by the system, and even though investments rebounded last year, revenue isn’t growing fast enough to cover liabilities.
Pressure has mounted nationwide to reduce public sector pensions since the stock market nosedived. The Missouri Legislature passed a bill this summer requiring future state employees to contribute to their pensions and work longer to draw them.
Missouri teachers have one of the best benefit packages in the country, Teachers pay 14 percent of their salaries to the system and school districts match the money. But the system estimates it has enough money to fund only about 76 percent of its future liabilities.
Negotiations on new teacher contract continue to drag on
Posted by – September 8, 2010
Representatives of the Quincy Federation of Teachers and the Quincy School Board failed to reach agreement on a new contract despite meeting with a federal mediator for another four hours Tuesday night. The next negotiating session is scheduled for next week as both sides slowly work to replace a four-year deal that expired Aug. 23. (Click here to see a copy of that contract.)
What is taking so long?
School Board Vice President Tom Dickerson earlier noted that talks between the two sides initially began in the spring. At the time, he said, the board expressed a desire to go to the bargaining table early. He said the union was offered the opportunity to extend the current contract for one year until both sides could determine the direction of the economy and how well the state performed in paying its bills. Most bargaining units in Quincy and the surrounding area took the short-term approach in negotiations this year, with most new deals calling for no increases in salary.
Dickerson said last month the union leadership wasn’t interested in that proposal. Michelle Eberlin, president of the teachers union and spokesman for the group, said teachers wanted to reopen talks to discuss “language issues.” She said teachers didn’t want to begin contract negotiations until after school was out last spring because they were already too involved in performing their basic classroom duties.
“At that point, our focus needed to be on the kids,” she said in a story that appeared in The Herald-Whig on Aug. 15.
School resumed Aug. 18.
Shouldn’t the focus be on the kids now?
On campaign promises, contract negotiations and zoning squabbles
Posted by – August 10, 2010
Morning musings …
Have you noticed that every four years gubernatorial candidates in Illinois promise to “root out the corruption in Springfield,” but never do?
Wouldn’t it be nice if Democrat Pat Quinn and Republican Bill Brady would offer specific ways they plan to fix the budget mess in Illinois, rather than repeat rehearsed sound bites over and over that play to crowds but are not realistic solutions? Is it because candidates can’t say what they really think because the truth wouldn’t get them elected?
(UPDATE: Seems like the day after telling his Quincy audience that he would balance the state budget in his first year, the Brady campaign is admitting that it would take two or three years to catch up on unpaid bills, so he really wouldn’t be balancing the budget like he said he would. But the statement probably drew applause.)
Most companies offer some sort of sick time provision that allows employees to still get paid if they get sick and can’t work. Quincy police patrol officers and sergeants already are able to bank 720 hours of sick time — the equivalent of 90 days — and are paid 100 percent of every hour not used. And they are asking for 48 hours more per year in negotiations with the city. Police aren’t the only employees on the local, state or national level with this kind of perk, so is there any wonder why governments are going broke?
I’m all for people making as much money as they can. But in a climate with the highest unemployment in a generation, including an estimated 17,000 teachers this year alone in Illinois, and an economy that cannot seem to stay on solid footing, would the Quincy Federation of Teachers actually think about going on strike for more money or benefits? Do they think that’s a winnable public relations battle? Timing is everything in life, and now’s not the time.
Memo to Quincy Preserves and Dr. Louis Quintero: Let’s quit the childish (but amusing) sniping and work toward a solution. Character of the neighborhood should be the prevailing argument in zoning situations like this, but there have been too many exceptions made over the years in Quincy. (Take a look at the strip mall on the northwest corner of 20th and Maine and see if it enhances the neighborhood. And there are businesses on two other corners at that intersection.) So that means developers can buy property in residential areas cheaper than it would cost for the same thing in areas set aside for businesses. And because there always seems to be an except for every zoning rule if you have the right connections, there’s nothing the city can do about it.
For a quick search of Missouri educator salaries, click here
Posted by – January 15, 2010
Want to know what educators in Missouri were paid during the 2008-09 school year? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has posted a database on its Web site. Figures were provided by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Click here to access the database.
