Posted on 05/28/2010 6:59:47 AM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had a little dust-up with teacher Rita Wilson. Upset over Christie’s education budget, Wilson complained that she wasn’t paid enough and got sharp rebuke from the governor:
But borough teacher Rita Wilson, a Kearny resident, argued that if she were paid $3 an hour for the 30 children in her class, she’d be earning $83,000, and she makes nothing near that.
“You’re getting more than that if you include the cost of your benefits,” Christie interrupted.
When Wilson, who has a master’s degree, said she was not being compensated for her education and experience, Christie said:
“Well, you know then that you don’t have to do it.” Some in the audience applauded.
Christie said he would not have had to impose cuts to education if the teachers union had agreed to his call for a one-year salary freeze and a 1.5 percent increase in employee benefit contributions.
“Your union said that is the greatest assault on public education in the history of the state,” Christie said. “That’s why the union has no credibility, stupid statements like that.”
According to the Rutherford Board of Education meeting minutes from July 13, 2009, she's a step 16 level 4, and makes $86,389. Here's the relevant screenshot:Surrounded by reporters after she spoke, Wilson said she was shaking from the encounter, and worried she might get in trouble for speaking out.
In an astonishing fall from grace that has taken only months, teachers have gone from respected and beloved members of the community to some of the most reviled. In a blink, they have trashed years of good will.
Once the patient darlings who nurtured our kids, teachers now look like insensitive, out-of-touch, can’t-think-for-themselves union robots who, when forced to face economic realities, clung to an insulting sense of entitlement, heartlessly sacrificed the jobs of colleagues, called the governor naughty names and used students as political pawns.
All while blaming everyone else.
At Saturday’s rally in Trenton, teachers wondered when the Earth started spinning in the other direction.
“It’s like we woke up one morning and the world had changed,” said Linda Mirabelli, a music teacher in Livingston. “We were liked and respected, and now, overnight, people have turned against us.”
How did it happen? That’s easy: One bad decision, one stupid miscalculation: An overwhelming majority of teachers refused to accept a pay freeze. They could have won taxpayers’ eternal gratitude, but instead demanded their negotiated raises and fought against contributing a dime toward budget-breaking health insurance benefits. Teachers could have pitched in, but they dug in.
They thumbed their noses at taxpayers, who have lost their jobs, had their pay cut, gone bankrupt and fallen into foreclosure. As taxpayers made less, teachers demanded more. You do that, you become a villain. Fast. It doesn’t matter how many stars Junior gets on his book report.
It's all they have.
..”and speaking truth to tardness.”
Oh that just rolls off the tongue, love it.
I live in a small town in East Texas and a teacher here makes on the average about 45 to 50 thousand a year. Maybe a little more with a master degree. The state of Texas pays about 35 percent of a teachers salary and the rest is paid for my local property taxes. Teachers make a little more in the richer school districts.
The ‘math’ was beyond her ‘pay grade’.
I wish I were paid that “little”.
“speaking truth to tardness”
I noticed you’re in need of a tagline... :)
I suspect many citizens will have a hard time sympathizing with someone making $86,000 + benefits when many of them are scraping by on odd jobs, part time, or even have lost their jobs... Some people are out of touch with reality. Hope her true colors are broadcast far and wide.
Holy Cripe, that gal has chutzpah.
This is a perfect example of why we are finished as a nation. I know it sounds doom and gloom, but its the cold hard truth.
We are impoverishing ourselves to fund the govt who produces nothing whatsoever.
$86.000 a year and two months vacation every summer.
Where do I sign up?
And how many months per year does she work? She may have as many as two whole months off per year. With that time she can either just relax or earn additional income in another way. In the private sector, most full time employees get no more than 2-3 weeks off per year.
Yeah, and lots and lots of people *with* a full time job here in NJ aren’t bringing home that kind of money.
There’s really been a change here in the electorate. People have lost their jobs, had their salaries cut, and they see it’s tough everywhere. Meanwhile, the schools have the temerity to ask for more and more money in this climate—and they are getting shot down left and right.
The sympathy play that worked so well in good times is not flying now.
When you consider that teachers work only eight months a year, that's a lot of money. Way above the national average.
poor ppl are paying for these overpaid teacher salaries
i just listened to that exchange on youtube. That teacher was pretty obnoxious. She really deserve to be mocked
More than that, I bet. Where I live, school ends in late May and starts in late August. That's three months there. Then there's two weeks off around spring and two weeks off around Christmas. Not to mention the endless "planning days," or whatever they call them, and the thirteen national holidays (most people don't get all thirteen off). That's a lot of time off.
Here in CA, it seems that in addition to all the breaks, teachers also get personal days off. Seems about quarter of the time the teacher in my son’s class is gone.
I should have said on the average with about 20 years of experience, they make a lot less just starting out, of course that is the case with any job except teachers all get the time off whether just starting out or experienced where as in the private sector vacation is mostly determined based on time with the company
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