Post by Wantagh Parent on Apr 14, 2008 11:12:01 GMT -5
www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opltr5629913mar30,0,6463887.story
TEACHERS SALARY CONSIDERED THE BIG EXPENSE
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | john.hildebrand@newsday.com
March 24, 2008
Targeting school administrators with $200,000-plus salaries may be a popular pursuit for politicians.
But analysts who have looked at school spending on Long Island conclude that little savings will be achieved unless elected leaders tackle larger and more politically sensitive areas of spending - especially teacher salaries.
"The big elephant in the room are the classroom teachers - that's the big bucks," said Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at Dowling College.
Teachers' pay usually rises 6 to 6.5 percent a year, well over the inflation rate, as school districts strive to keep pace with their neighbors. Typically, teachers' salaries and benefits comprise about 56 percent of school spending.
To break this cycle, Cantor has proposed that the state negotiate and pay salaries for new teachers - an idea endorsed in modified form by Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre), the state Senate's deputy majority leader.
New York State United Teachers opposes that plan but says its locals help curb costs in other ways, such as paying higher percentages of health-insurance premiums.
An idea advanced by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat, would create a county team of attorneys to handle districts' legal work, including contract negotiations with teachers. Currently, districts hire their own lawyers.
That suggestion resonates with analysts who see it as another way of breaking the current cycle. "You'd stop the whipsawing from one district to another," said Lee Koppelman, director for the Center for Regional Policy Studies at Stony Brook University.
TEACHERS SALARY CONSIDERED THE BIG EXPENSE
BY JOHN HILDEBRAND | john.hildebrand@newsday.com
March 24, 2008
Targeting school administrators with $200,000-plus salaries may be a popular pursuit for politicians.
But analysts who have looked at school spending on Long Island conclude that little savings will be achieved unless elected leaders tackle larger and more politically sensitive areas of spending - especially teacher salaries.
"The big elephant in the room are the classroom teachers - that's the big bucks," said Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at Dowling College.
Teachers' pay usually rises 6 to 6.5 percent a year, well over the inflation rate, as school districts strive to keep pace with their neighbors. Typically, teachers' salaries and benefits comprise about 56 percent of school spending.
To break this cycle, Cantor has proposed that the state negotiate and pay salaries for new teachers - an idea endorsed in modified form by Dean Skelos (R- Rockville Centre), the state Senate's deputy majority leader.
New York State United Teachers opposes that plan but says its locals help curb costs in other ways, such as paying higher percentages of health-insurance premiums.
An idea advanced by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat, would create a county team of attorneys to handle districts' legal work, including contract negotiations with teachers. Currently, districts hire their own lawyers.
That suggestion resonates with analysts who see it as another way of breaking the current cycle. "You'd stop the whipsawing from one district to another," said Lee Koppelman, director for the Center for Regional Policy Studies at Stony Brook University.
