Posted on 04/11/2012 4:40:47 PM PDT by Kaslin
EAGnews.org is releasing a series of stunning reports to show taxpayers exactly how our dollars are being spent in government schools. We repeatedly hear from the education establishment that school coffers are being raided, requiring teachers to be laid off and programs to be cut. We hear schools are on the brink of bankruptcy and are operating on shoe-string budgets.
But local media outlets have long been derelict in telling citizens how the billions of K-12 dollars are really being spent. How can taxpayers determine if schools actually do need more money if no one is tracking where the dollars are going?
Enter EAGnews.org.
In the first of a series of reports, EAGnews.org examined the teachers’ contract for Milwaukee Public Schools for the 2010-2011 school year and discovered a slew of expensive provisions. The numbers are shocking.
For starters, 5,200 teachers took a whopping 92,691 days off last year, for sick/personal leave, convention leave and “incentive” leave. That level of teacher absenteeism – over 9% of the school year – resulted in $11.9 million being spent on substitute teachers.
“Step” raises – given for a teacher’s years of service, not effectiveness – cost $5.5 million last school year. “Lump sum raises” cost another $10.4 million.
According to data received from the Milwaukee district, teachers do not contribute to their retirement or health care plans. Thus, MPS paid the full freight of those benefits for teachers – spending $56 million on pensions and roughly $128 million for health insurance.
While Gov. Scott Walker’s budget reforms now require school employees to pay a portion of both of these items, MPS extended its contract with teachers’ union members prior to the reforms passing. And that haste is generating millions in waste.
More examples:
MPS spent nearly $2 million to compensate teachers for monitoring the lunch room in elementary schools.
Milwaukee provides for teachers who want to retire early – at 62 – but don’t yet qualify for their full pension, which begins at 65. Thus, taxpayers pay the difference of the pension they will receive at 65 and the one they receive a lower rate for retiring early. MPS spent $15.6 million on that perk.
MPS paid out $709,306 for unused sick days.
Have you detected an expense that directly benefits children? Me either. Yet Milwaukee, like too many other schools, continues throwing money out the door to make adults happy and maintain “labor peace.” With this kind of reckless spending, it’s no wonder Milwaukee Public Schools are facing a financial crisis.
I see your point. Also, after reading Shery’s comment about accumulated days it made me think about teachers who are predominantly females and that it is probably a common occurrence to save up and take weeks off to have a baby. Add that to all the other ways to get sick and a 10% absence rate does not seem so unusual.
you work less than half the year and still get 9% in sick days?....insanity...but the norm for teachers...
I don’t think so....teachers work HALF the year...are you saying that 18 days out of 180 or so is reasonable?....
Well, gee. It's less than four work weeks...out of 36.
Wisconsin teacher sick day ping
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The Substitute Teachers must have loved it. I bet they made good money last year. Probably worked every day.
Remember there is a difference between union and non-union teachers - we (non-union teachers) haven’t had a step raise in 3 years and were furloughed 5 days ($500) last year to save money for our district.
That equates to almost 18 days/year. That’s a lot of sick days.
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For a 9 months school year, that’s 2 days a month. Actually, that’s not too bad considering some probably took off a lot of days for maternity leave, etc. Trust me, for inner city school teachers, 2 days a month is not bad. Federal Civil Service employees get 30 days a year (2.5 days per month.)
With fifteen years service, I have 25 days of “paid time off” (doubles as vacation and sick days), ten holidays, and a floating holiday, each year. In the Army, I got 30 days of paid leave each year (and unlike my current job, unused leave rolled over, up to 90 days!).
A long-serving teacher getting 17 days off during the school year is just not that bad. This is just more inflammatory crap from the Media.
I'm pretty sure the 180 days is the final number of school days. Holidays etc already taken into account. So they averaged 162 work days, after subtracting sick days.
I get 20 vacation days, 2 personal days, 2 floating holidays, 6 paid holidays, and 10 sick days each year. I use maybe 1-2 sick days each year - when I'm ACTUALLY sick. I don't "substitute" them as auxillary vacation days, as my teacher friends openly admit to.
So that is 30 days off each year I am using. The normal number of work days would be 255 days. So I am off 30 days, and therefore work 225 days.
Teachers are scheduled 180 days each year. 45 less than me.
One suggestion I made to management is to allow employees to roll sick days into a "bank" to save for when they have major illnesses or surgery. If HRD wants to put a cap on the total days, that's fine. Say 60 or 90 days max.
Employees can then "cash" those days out to avoid going on short term (or long term) disability. The pay difference is fairly harsh - 70% for STD and 60% for LTD.
If so OK.
It is still a part time job.
The results are there for all to see.
We are turning out poorly educated people.
And nobody is responsible for the quality of the education being given in public schools.
But we can fit a condom on a cucumber and understand that polar bears are dying because we burn coal to make electricity.
We are the truly stoopid ones for accepting the product that public education produces. Stoopid. (Yes, I know it’s stupid).
You bet.
They need to lengthen the year.
They’re doing it here in Chicago, you should hear the teachers crying. LOL!
Workers in private employment who consistently take 18 days a year of sick leave would be fired. Public employees have had been pampered to the point of absurdity. WI Gov. Walker saw the scam was bankrupting our state and got Act 10 passed to curb some of these abuses.
How can this be?????? I thought teachers were underpaid and over worked. How many times I have heard that they were buying “supplies” with their own money and grading papers until 2 am every night? They are virtually slaves to the system, those poor souls.
What a bunch of crap. As a group they are overpaid, coddled osers. Unfortunately, they are allowed to influence children. Maybe if they bothered to work more than 180 days a year others would cxare some about their incessant whining and griping. Maybe.
How can this be?????? I thought teachers were underpaid and over worked. How many times I have heard that they were buying “supplies” with their own money and grading papers until 2 am every night? They are virtually slaves to the system, those poor souls.
What a bunch of crap. As a group they are overpaid, coddled losers. Unfortunately, they are allowed to influence children. Maybe if they bothered to work more than 180 days a year others would cxare some about their incessant whining and griping. Maybe.
How can this be?????? I thought teachers were underpaid and over worked. How many times I have heard that they were buying “supplies” with their own money and grading papers until 2 am every night? They are virtually slaves to the system, those poor souls.
What a bunch of crap. As a group they are overpaid, coddled losers. Unfortunately, they are allowed to influence children. Maybe if they bothered to work more than 180 days a year others would cxare some about their incessant whining and griping. Maybe.
How can this be?????? I thought teachers were underpaid and over worked. How many times I have heard that they were buying “supplies” with their own money and grading papers until 2 am every night? They are virtually slaves to the system, those poor souls.
What a bunch of crap. As a group they are overpaid, coddled losers. Unfortunately, they are allowed to influence children. Maybe if they bothered to work more than 180 days a year others would cxare some about their incessant whining and griping. Maybe.
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