Yup unions. Same here for LI & Westchester NY. A bottom 5 performing district has teachers over $100k median.
http://data.newsday.com/long-island...rict=central islip|o:c=2012_2013_pay;d=true;| (they spelled administrator wrong in the link haha)
Our Kindergarten teachers made $125k/yr. Our school taxes alone are $10k/year. I've said this a handful of times here.
Pay based solely on longevity is flawed because it promotes indifference year to year. Plain and simple. How often do you hear union workers being referred to as lazy? Wonder why that is.
My mountain dew is flat. 🙁
same story abroad.
Pay based on longevity is fairly common in govt jobs. Your pay is based on your grade and the number of years you have been in that bracket. Your actual performance is not really relevant. So it isn't really a Teacher issue, it is more of a Govt job issue. Look at Police Officers, pay is based on time in grade and what level of Police Officer, IE are you a PO I,II Detective etc. Your actually ability to do a good job isn't relevant.
I would happily pay increased taxes to double all teaching salaries as long as teachers were actually rated on performaance and let go when they failed to meet certain standards.
Wife has a masters and I think she gets around 50k/year. She typically works 7-4, later if it's a school activity night, puts in 1-2 hours a night making custom lesson plans for level of student in her class and then grades papers on the weekends. Top that off, we somehow buy school supplies for her room all the time.