News-Record.com

Not true, Art. Teachers make a choice to be paid in a 10 month or a 12 month cycle - the annual amount is the same.

They also work 185 days. i work a nominal 250 days .. and typically these are 12 hour days (door to door, including lunch).

My business was down about 12% in '08 vs '07 and my wife lost her job, further trimming the family income. I guess I should write a lte and whine about it.

"Governor Perdue ordered the pay cuts by half a percent of their annual salary --for someone making $30,000 a year, that's $150 or $75 taken out of their May and June monthly paychecks."

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6784337

No offense to you teachers, I know most of you you work hard, as I see it with my kids teachers. But the state has to take some drastic measures as it is $3 billion in the hole. Three BILLION. That's a lot of money, except on the federal level it's chump change.

As mentioned all state workers are taking a cut. A salary cut is better than no job at all. Anyone making $30K can survive on $150 less per year.

Maybe teachers will vote using their brains instead of who the NEA tells them to vote for in the next election.

"As mentioned all state workers are taking a cut."

Great point Dan.

Funny how it's the teachers who whine the most.

JDR also makes a great point. These folks decide how they wish to be paid. I hear this "we don't get paid in the summers" repeated ad nauseum.

The other one I hear is that our teachers are paid less than the national average. No mention EVER of the fact that our cost of living is less here.

You'd think teachers had the worst jobs in the world.

Most of us would love to have two months off during the summer to spend with our kids, be able to leave work before 4 pm each day, and only work 5 days a week.

Add to that the fact that teachers are the most politically protected class of employees in the country with very little chance of being down-sized, you've got a pretty fair shake.

Having said all that,

I think the governor was completely wrong in taking a 1/2 percent "annualized" retroactive paycut on work that had already been performed.

If you quit your job with the state today, you would not be subject to that paycut. You'd get paid in full for the previous 10 months.

Financially, it would make no difference, but the governor should have been more transparent and just stated that state employees would take a 6% paycut of their June check.

JDR: you're not looking at how teachers are really paid.

If a teacher is paid over twelve months, the monthly salary goes down significantly.

For example, low end salary for a community college instructor is about $34,000/year. Over 10 months that's 3400/mo. Over 12 months, that's 2833.33. Both are BEFORE taxes. That's a heavy hit for folks with the same bills to pay as the rest of us.

Teachers don't work 180 days a month. They work MORE. They work on those days during the year the students have off. They report to work before the semester starts, and stay after it ends. It's the STUDENTS who attend public school for 180 days.

Plus, with the massive amounts of paperwork required, we often work long into the evenings, and on the weekends to get it all done--all on our own dime. We buy our own supplies for the classroom. At least public school teachers get a deduction for it. As a community college instructor, I don't. I just eat it.

I routinely work 12 hour days, Monday through Friday. I'm not getting paid for the extra hours. I even work from home when I am sick.

truth: I've lived in some of the highest cost of living states in this country before moving here. When you compare real wages with the cost of living, it's not so much cheaper as you would have others believe.

All that being said, I understand the Governor has to make cuts. But the state is throwing good money after bad after getting screwed by BCBS--state messed up, but employees and taxpayers eat it. They should have looked at another insurance provider when they realized they'd been had by BCBS.

County's no better. They're tripling the budget of the legal department because they keep firing the lawyers, they're giving money to programs who didn't ask for any money, and they're cutting money from school maintainence at a time they're STILL finding mold in the elementary schools.

We've gotten bent over, and we have a right to complain about it, just like everyone else getting bent over in this economy has the right to complain about that.

"If a teacher is paid over twelve months, the monthly salary goes down significantly."

I don't see how that is different than anyone else who works, really.

If I got paid my yearly salary in 10 paychecks, of course they'd look better.

Personally, I'd rather have a year-long pay plan that I can better budget throughout the year.

I don't get that choice, however.

Teachers (K-12 or community college instructors) are in the same boat as all of us. We get paid what we get paid and most people would like to get paid more. And I guess most complain about it to some extent. However, most don't get the press or the sympathy that teachers seem to get. I chose my profession for reasons other than money and I'm guessing you did too. Still, a little extra would help.

It's all relative, though.

I agree with your comments about BCBS and the inefficiency of government. The state's health plan will die a slow death due to mismanagement and mistakes such as agreeing to premiums nearly double what most folks can get in the private market.

Hopefully the economy will turn around soon. For teachers and all the rest of us.

The problem here is that people like Hugh, Truth, Dan and probably 95 percent of people who post here have never done any real work in thier lives. I would love to get you guys out to a real job lifting and loading all day. Your fluff jobs are a joke.

By the way, teachers do no more whining than any of the rest of you idiots that post here EVERYDAY. Pot calling the kettle black.

Sorry Pancea .. $34,000/year is $34,000/year regardless is whether it's once a year or over 10 or 12 months.

Sorry again Pancea ... yes "Teachers don't work 180 days a month" but they may choose - or may not as you choose - git a lot of time off. Both my parents were public school teachers so I know where from I speak.

"The problem here is that people like Hugh, Truth, Dan and probably 95 percent of people who post here have never done any real work in thier lives."

The problem here is a petulant individual such as jran who makes ASSumptions about people he/she doesn't know. That's twice today, care to make it a triple? There is nothing more entertaining on this blog than watching someone make a total blithering fool of his/herself. Congrats jran, keep it up.

"There is nothing more entertaining on this blog than watching someone make a total blithering fool of his/herself."

That's why we love you, Dan. :-)

(By the way, I think you meant "him/herself," although just "himself" would be correct grammatically.)