Local government isn't free.
That's not the issue - the question was how to pay for it and apparently all you could come up with was tripe. I'm sure your imagination is better than that, so I must conclude you are either being lazy or there is some unpublished agenda of which you are able to veil only most thinly.
Doesn't RPF want a weaker Federal government and a more important state and local government?
What? First of all, there is no "RPF" per se - there is only a site and people who contribute to it. As such, there are only individuals and because human beings are not OSFA, (one size fits all) the implications of your statement become even more nonsensical. But let us cut you some slack and assume you were speaking statistically - in my opinion the answer is still "no" - the people here appear to my eyes to be in favor of FAR less "government" at every level from the feds on down. How you have come to the apparent understanding that folks here was STRONGER government at ANY level brings me right back to the meth question. You're simply not making sense in the face of the evidence. Perhaps it is just your style of writing.
I know plenty, thanks. Before I posted that comment I looked up the local salary schedule for teachers. You start at less than $35k and work up to $45k at about 20 years of service. The max is just over $60k, assuming you work for 20 years and have a masters.
Perhaps in your locale. I still don't see the basis for complaint - if you don't like the salaries, you do not become a teacher.
$50k with 20 years of experience sucks.
Your opinion - and one that seems a bit whiney, I reiterate. No likey? No takey. Do something else. I went and did 7 degrees - that was a LOT of friggin' work. By your apparent standard of thought, I might be justified in complaining about not having become a billionaire by now. None of us are guaranteed anything, nor are we owed anything save our natural claims and anything we have managed to rightfully acquire in the course of our lives. And that brings us back to taxes - the forcible theft, ultimately under the threat of being murdered, of one's rightfully acquired property. If you want to complain about something that sucks, there's your proper subject matter.
Just saying. The median person with a bachelor's degree makes $50k. I would guess that the median person probably doesn't have 20 years of experience, either. People with 20 years of experience in most fields aren't going to be bought for $50,000 per year.
My friend is still in the system in NYC - dunno how he has survived this long, but he has. He's at master's + 30 and is around $90K. He seems good with it and again I would say that for the enormous time off and short work day it's not a bad deal. Some will try to justify complaint saying the work day isn't 6:40. Bullshit - if you're running your day right, your two to three "free" periods per day gives all the time you need to prep for tomorrow. And after about 2 years, if you're smart you have prepped and cataloged all your lessons and don't even have to write new lesson plans. Print them out, hand them out, teach your lesson - especially easy in this age of computers and OSFA curricula and testing where you often don't even have to come up with that much work - it's all been done for you by some jughead 1000 miles away. OSFA education for OSFA children. Isn't that special?
It's not about being owed something, but rather realizing your value and opportunity costs.
I hate to break this to you, but YOU don't assess your value - the market does. Free market economics 001 lesson for the day and you're welcome. And if you are aware of the opportunity cost and it is not acceptable to you, you do something else. See how simple? Everything you have written thus far carries the subtext of entitlement, your protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. Either you are pulling our legs or your writing style stands in need of some work.
Anyone who cares about making decent money would obviously not want to be a teacher.
A couple of things: first, you speak as if "decent money" meant the same thing to all people - that is OSFA thinking and you appear to be suffering from a terrible case of it. I recommend you get cured ASAP because it will rot your mind worse than just about anything else you may care to list. Secondly, were people not forcibly made subject to the taxation you appear to love so deeply, $50K/year even today would be a very livable wage, particularly in the face of all the comparatively inexpensive Chinese merchandise that is available. At that salary, 30% to the feds leaves $35K "take home", only the other 10% taken by the "state" brings you to $31.5K. If you have a property tax of $3K, which is not even high by today's standards, you're down to $28.5K. If you are more realistically taxed, oh say at $8K as would be expected in places like NY/NJ, that's now $23.5K. And of course there could be other local taxes, but let us not bother with those. Your effective tax rate in America is right about 50% and unlike shit holes such as Sweden, you get basically NOTHING in return for your money, save rabies-insane police, wars of foreign aggression, pothole riddled streets, and a good thumping if you say you don't like it. THAT is the world in whose corner you appear to be cheering. Hooboy.
This is especially true when you consider the cost of a bachelors + masters degree. I think relatively low wages keep a lot of otherwise good people out of the field. That's all I'm saying.
That is NOT all you were saying - you wrote that you thought such taxation should be even higher so teachers could be paid more, remember? to wit:
I'd prefer they spend more, if only to attract more talented teachers.
Spend more by necessity = tax more.
One other thing - the talent of teachers is not really questionable, nor is their dedication. I had enough years in to see that and I still see it 30 years later in those of my friends still doing it. And if talent is short in terms of numbers, you can thank the department of education for that because of their idiot regulations. When I first moved to WV I toyed with the notion of returning to the classroom. Sweet Jesus shrieking in agony on the cross - it took all of about 30 seconds in the offices of the local board to realize just what a bad idea that was. Just to become a TPD (sub) I had to take what amounted to about 1 1/2 semesters of methods and other ed. classes that I'd already taken years prior, at MY cost. That, after listening to a whine about how they cannot find good teachers, and this is the ubiquitous story. Boo hooty hoo, we have not enough teachers - please come teach, but leave your balls at the door because that's just the down payment for the privilege of teaching in our schools. These people are MAD, and I mean that very literally - you have to be in order to think as they do. Raving kookoo. In many states they have this "second career" initiative going, seeking veteran workforce professionals to come and teach and the ads go on and on about how valuable you are and what NATURAL teachers you are and all that tripe. I call it tripe because the moment you peel back the lid, you are blasted with the stench of a litany of requirements like a minimum of 24 credits at YOUR expense and you cannot set foot in a classroom until you've done that much and there is then no guarantee you will be hired, and so forth. WHAT THE
FUCK??!! This is planet bizarro stuff, pal - not the functioning of sound minds, yet these are the self-same hands into which tens of millions of people place their children daily. Why not just drown them in the septic tank? It would be far less cruel.
