Anonymous wrote:It is weird to me that people are so bitter about teacher salaries when the highest paid county employees (factoring in OT), aside from the council, administrators and managers, are police. What is more puzzling is that qualifications for becoming a police officer only require either an AA degree or prior active duty military that latter only requiring a HS diploma. Plus police have ridiculous pensions.

However, since by and large MCPD seem to be an extremely professional police department, very much unlike their counterparts in Fairfax County and DC, I personally don't mind it too much. But at least people can direct their ire at the right places.

MCPS is part of the county by they have a different pay system than county employees. They get far better health and other benefits. The court system also has their own pay system and is not related to the county.

Anonymous wrote:Nurses
Social Workers
Nursing Home Caregivers
Aides who care for the elderly and people with special needs
Homeless Service Providers
Hospice Care Workers
Legal Aid Attorneys

MOST of these professions do not require a Masters degree, in fact, some you have mentioned (homeless service providers, hospice care) only require a HS diploma.

Teachers are required to have a masters and continue training throughout their career. Most people who work are not required to take nine credits of continuing education courses through out the life of their career.

Do you KNOW what you are talking about? Social Workers, Nurses and Legal Aid Attorney's all have advanced degrees. Social worker mainly in this area have an MSW and credentials that need to be maintained every two years. Social workers need 40 hours of CEU's, not 9. Same with attorney's and nurses.

The teacher is now attacking Hospice nurses, who seem to be angels on this earth helping families when a loved one is transitioning.

I disagree with you PP. Most jobs don't give you nearly that much vacation and many teacher tutor or can do other things during that time. I think the 10 months calculation is really fair.

$90,000 / 12 months is $7,500 per month. We don't get paid when we are not at work for those 8 weeks in the summer. It is yearly furlough. I'm not complaining, but it is silly to inflate your numbers for your argument.

Nurses
Social Workers
Nursing Home Caregivers
Aides who care for the elderly and people with special needs
Homeless Service Providers
Hospice Care Workers
Legal Aid Attorneys

MOST of these professions do not require a Masters degree, in fact, some you have mentioned (homeless service providers, hospice care) only require a HS diploma.

Teachers are required to have a masters and continue training throughout their career. Most people who work are not required to take nine credits of continuing education courses through out the life of their career.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait a min- I thought 8 was a lot and what teachers wanted. Then I read this in the post this am so I guess they are not happy?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unfair-raises-for-montgomery-county-employees/2016/05/01/017004d6-0e27-11e6-bc53-db634ca94a2a_story.html

If I'm reading that correctly, it sounds like the writer is unhappy that the council is proposing to NOT give the 8% raise and mentioning the fact how the council is still giving themselves a big raise. It's kind of a response to the initial article linked in this thread.

Just the latest example of poor journalism by the once-proud Washington Post. The article is so poorly written, DCUM readers can't even agree on what it says.

To be fair that's a letter from a reader to the paper and not an actual article from the paper.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait a min- I thought 8 was a lot and what teachers wanted. Then I read this in the post this am so I guess they are not happy?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unfair-raises-for-montgomery-county-employees/2016/05/01/017004d6-0e27-11e6-bc53-db634ca94a2a_story.html

If I'm reading that correctly, it sounds like the writer is unhappy that the council is proposing to NOT give the 8% raise and mentioning the fact how the council is still giving themselves a big raise. It's kind of a response to the initial article linked in this thread.

Just the latest example of poor journalism by the once-proud Washington Post. The article is so poorly written, DCUM readers can't even agree on what it says.

Anonymous wrote:Wait a min- I thought 8 was a lot and what teachers wanted. Then I read this in the post this am so I guess they are not happy?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unfair-raises-for-montgomery-county-employees/2016/05/01/017004d6-0e27-11e6-bc53-db634ca94a2a_story.html

If I'm reading that correctly, it sounds like the writer is unhappy that the council is proposing to NOT give the 8% raise and mentioning the fact how the council is still giving themselves a big raise. It's kind of a response to the initial article linked in this thread.

Wait a min- I thought 8 was a lot and what teachers wanted. Then I read this in the post this am so I guess they are not happy?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unfair-raises-for-montgomery-county-employees/2016/05/01/017004d6-0e27-11e6-bc53-db634ca94a2a_story.html

Its easy to make a value judgement that everyone should make more money but the issue isn't whether MCPS employees just should make more money. The issue is that whether paying MCPS employees more money is more important than other educational funding.

MCPS loses all credibility for me when they constantly trade class size ratios to give themselves raises. When those raises are beyond the rest of the county AND surrounding areas, it just furthers the point that MCPS can not be trusted as the steward of its own budget. Educational priorities should be addressed BEFORE the employees give themselves another raise. The last 5% raise that MCPS recently gave themselves raised class sizes again. The caps aren't even respected but seen as "guidelines". High performing schools have up to 30 kids in K-5 classes. One teacher, no aide and 30 young kids with the way MCPS approaches instruction is horrible. The kids basically have free time disguised as independent study constantly, very little feedback from their teacher, and are being robbed of a good education. I can hire a sitter to provide custodial oversight for my child while my child reads on their own or does computer instruction. School should be engaging and interactive at this age.

The constant prioritization of employees over student needs to stop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Most cops make way more than 100k

It is amazing how clueless people are about this. I have nothing against police at all, but experienced cops have salaries and pensions that are orders of magnitude higher than typical civil servants, especially if you consider the minimum qualifications. The biggest thing that pads these salaries is OT and they can pull lots of OT doing pretty basic things, like spending a full day sitting at the courthouse waiting to give testimony.

Interesting.

I was getting ready to argue this point but looking into it it looks like this might be true. I don't know enough about it to determine if it's just certain exceptions but it looks like there is a good amount.

I know several people who are police officers in other jurisdictions and when they used to describe their pay, I don't think it ever reached those levels. Although one person did mention how you could get overtime while waiting in court and mentioned $60k. But I'm pretty sure they meant that was total salary at the end and not overtime only.

I still wouldn't touch them on the minimum qualifications part though. As there's no way I'd be willing to do the things that police officers do on a day to day basis. Even if it has minimum qualifications, not everyone can do it or are cut out for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Teaching is hardly cushy.

However, as has been mentioned before, it offers parents the flexibility to BE with their children. No money in the world can ever make up for the time spent with my own children. Don't fool yourselves, "busy" parents; time spent in the car, traveling from one activity to another, is not quality time.

Cushy, however, is a word used by imbecilic and/or jealous folks.

Again, we all make choices. If you really think it's a cushy job, I invite you to join our "club."

Teaching is not cushy. But telling me what is or is not quality time with my own children is kind of imbecilic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is weird to me that people are so bitter about teacher salaries when the highest paid county employees (factoring in OT), aside from the council, administrators and managers, are police. What is more puzzling is that qualifications for becoming a police officer only require either an AA degree or prior active duty military that latter only requiring a HS diploma. Plus police have ridiculous pensions.

However, since by and large MCPD seem to be an extremely professional police department, very much unlike their counterparts in Fairfax County and DC, I personally don't mind it too much. But at least people can direct their ire at the right places.

I have not problem with a police officer making more than a teacher...considering this person is actually risking his or her life. Hardly a cushy job like teaching.

Yes, my cushy teaching job sent me to the hospital on Friday. One of my MS students threw a chair at me. Luckily, I only sprained my wrist. When I return to school tomorrow, no doubt this student will not have been suspended. The same student has done the same thing in other classes. The admin always wants a debrief about what we could've done to talk him down. Well, maybe had I been there hours before when he started smoking pot, that might have helped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is weird to me that people are so bitter about teacher salaries when the highest paid county employees (factoring in OT), aside from the council, administrators and managers, are police. What is more puzzling is that qualifications for becoming a police officer only require either an AA degree or prior active duty military that latter only requiring a HS diploma. Plus police have ridiculous pensions.

However, since by and large MCPD seem to be an extremely professional police department, very much unlike their counterparts in Fairfax County and DC, I personally don't mind it too much. But at least people can direct their ire at the right places.

I have not problem with a police officer making more than a teacher...considering this person is actually risking his or her life. Hardly a cushy job like teaching.

Teaching is hardly cushy.

However, as has been mentioned before, it offers parents the flexibility to BE with their children. No money in the world can ever make up for the time spent with my own children. Don't fool yourselves, "busy" parents; time spent in the car, traveling from one activity to another, is not quality time.

Cushy, however, is a word used by imbecilic and/or jealous folks.

Again, we all make choices. If you really think it's a cushy job, I invite you to join our "club."