Average Teacher Compensation in MPS Tops $100k
For the first time in history, the average annual compensation for a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system will exceed $100,000.
That staggering figure was revealed last night at a meeting of the MPS School Board.
The average salary for an MPS teacher is $56,500. When fringe benefits are factored in, the annual compensation will be $100,005 in 2011.
Average salary is low, IMO.
What this truly reveals is the increasing cost of benefits. I’m guessing the largest component is health insurance?
But there’s no need to try to fix that system, right folks?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1802 hrs
George, you have really lost your mind. Since teachers only work 9 months, that ends up as an annualized salary of over $75,000, not including bennies.
By the way, private sector benefits are only about 30-50% of salary. There is zero justification for this kind of pay for teachers.
Posted by Steve on March 03, 2010 at 1849 hrs
LOL - low. For a 9 month job, plus vacation at Christmas and Easter and all those teacher “in service” days…
Yeah - they are SOOOOO underpaid. </sarcasm>
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1943 hrs
They still have a way to go to catch up to Madison, WI bus drivers.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1952 hrs
The blind (and insulting) ignorance of these statements is stunning, and sad. Like any of you would take $50K to go teach in MPS. Christ almighty.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2157 hrs
I would. (Especially, if you throw in the ability not to get fired AND retirement benefits that almost equal what I was paid when I was working.)
Posted by elliot on March 03, 2010 at 2237 hrs
If you’re going to talk teacher compensation, the real elephant in the room with MPS is its accrued liabilities to former employees. By 2016, MPS will spend 20% of its budget on health care for retirees. Its unfunded pension liability will be nearly $5 billion. MPS is nothing more than a public-sector GM, fiddling while Rome burns and waiting for some kind of magic fairy to come along and bail it out.
I don’t begrudge what current teachers make - at least they’re working for it. But when you’re paying retirees $1900 a month for their family health insurance in addition to cutting them a pension check that you haven’t really paid for, you can’t expect sympathy from taxpayers.
There’s going to come a time when the union is going to have to decide between representing the interest of present and future members and the interests of the retired coots who were made a bunch of promises about as realistic as offering them a gilded unicorn with wings covered in fairy dust. And sadly, we know whose interests the union usually puts first.
Posted by Recess Supervisor on March 03, 2010 at 2359 hrs
Steve, I want to work whereever you do. I’ve been in finance at quite a few large organizations (fortune 500) with above average benefit backages. And benefit rates typcially run between 18 and 25 percent. I’d say an average of about 20 percent.
Figure 8 percent in taxes, 10 percent for health, and a few percent in 401K / profit sharing. The highest I have ever seen is 27 percent, and that was with a 6% full profit sharing match. Government benefit packages are at least twice the private sector and trending up.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0116 hrs
The blind (and insulting) ignorance of these statements is stunning, and sad. Like any of you would take $50K to go teach in MPS. Christ almighty.
One might say the same about everything you post here, George.
I am paying myself $30k a year with NO HEALTH INSURANCE, right now to get my store through the recession. My wife is not working, as she goes back to school. Luckily we were smart enough to save money during the fat times, but the point is…. I’d be happy to teach in MPS for $50k/yr + bennies. Let’s see, good salary, great pension, great insurance, job security, no accountability, and no requirement that my students actually learn anything….... Sounds like mashed potatoes and gravy to me.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0730 hrs
Oh, I forgot, two and a half months off every summer to pursue my amateur motocross ambitions…. Mashed potatoes, gravy, and cake…. Lets eat!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0732 hrs
The whole premise of this article/story is misleading. MPS is doing current teachers a disservice by “publishing” compensation figures that include COSTS on a per employee basis that do not benefit the current teachers; that is not annual compensation. Healthcare, disability insurance, retirement benefit contributions, etc; yes, those are parts of an employees DEFERRED compensation. But any payments for retired teachers are past liabilities. They should be stated as such. RS hit the nail on the head.
@ Steve: Using your example of a $75,000 annualized salary, maybe you should think of it instead as a $75,000 annual salary and then that teacher is furloughed every year for four months. No longer as attractive, is it? My point is that most teachers work extremely hard and spend their off time raising their families, not pursuing hobbies…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0822 hrs
It has been my experience that here in my part of the state teacher salaries make the news once in a great while. Benefits go unnoticed. Teachers negotiate their contracts and often will ask for benefits over salary increases. The press has a “phew no teacher pay increase” article and no once knows the difference.
I have always been of the opinion that a teaching job is 12 months not the -9. So when the STUDENTS are on vacation over the summer is the time for teachers to go back to school, do all those inservices, improve their curriculum, etc.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0905 hrs
have always been of the opinion that a teaching job is 12 months not the -9. So when the STUDENTS are on vacation over the summer is the time for teachers to go back to school, do all those inservices, improve their curriculum, etc.
That’s where I have a problem. I work in a profession that requires continuing education, certifications, etc. Yet we manage to get it done. I bristle a bit when teachers whine about having to keep their skills updated as if it is somehow unique. It isn’t. Yet most private sector employees in that circumstance manage to do it while working the full 12 months.
Posted by Owen on March 04, 2010 at 0926 hrs
Owen, unless a teacher has reeived a “lifetime certification” (vary rarely issued in today’s world) then they must take continuing education as well as go through a re-certification process. Of course, this varies by district and state.
I don’t hear good, professional educators whine. However, they will bristle and become very defensive (trust me I know; my wife’s a teacher) when their job is catergorized as 8:00 am - 3:00 pm, weekends and summers off. She (and countless others) work exremely hard at what they do. Unfortunately, just as in the private sector, some don’t.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1106 hrs
Laker, lots of jobs have continuing ed requirements.
Teachers are the only ones that complain about it.
Posted by Fred on March 04, 2010 at 1114 hrs
Sorry Fred, but I have to throw the bullshit flag on that one. My point was NOT that teachers are the only profession with continuing education requirements; I think we can safely agree on that point. But, to say that teachers the only ones who complain about continuing education requirements is patently false. Get real…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1138 hrs
I think the point is that teachers like to argue that they “work” 12 months a year because they do continuing education. Many other professionals actually do work 12 months and still do continuing education. Cry me a river.
Posted by Owen on March 04, 2010 at 1143 hrs
Owen, I can only speak from my own experience and knowledge. I don’t think your point is the argument of teachers at all. I think they get tired of hearing that they are paid for ONLY nine months of work; that’s a totally different spin. Given the long hours they put in outside of actual classroom instruction, meetings, conferences, grading of papers, yada yada yada, they put in a lot of time. The MAJORITY of teachers work very hard.
I’m all for more accountability for teachers. The District of Columbia hired a new school superintendent (Chancellor) two years ago and she has done just that. She has pissed off the union, pissed off parents, fired teachers and administrators, closed underperforming schools BUT student performance is IMPROVING.
Ask any teacher worth their weight in salt, and they will tell you the thing that is most important to them is classroom size. It’s not that they’re afraid to work hard, they just want their hard work to produce results.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1203 hrs
Sorry Laker, but in my experience teachers are the only one I hear that complain about it.
If you’ll excuse me I have to go into a continuing ed session.
Posted by Fred on March 04, 2010 at 1253 hrs
Wow, a very small world you live in. You should really step outside of your head every once in a while. Good luck with that class. Come back and let the board know when you finally pass…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1316 hrs
@Curt…UAW Shop. ‘nuff said?
@Laker: You’re killin’ me here. Furloughed? Please, When one is furloughed, it’s generally with the expectation you might not come back. And most of the teachers I’ve known (don’t forget, my mom was one) “enjoy the summer”. Further, the rest of us have to maintain certifications and go get continuing ed. And while it’s on work time, not “vacation” time, our work is still waiting when we return.
I don’t think anyone here begrudges teachers….Just quit whining. It’s not all about you.
Posted by Steve on March 04, 2010 at 1852 hrs
Bingo Steve
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1919 hrs
Ask any teacher worth their weight in salt, and they will tell you the thing that is most important to them is classroom size. It’s not that they’re afraid to work hard, they just want their hard work to produce results.
I had college lectures with 400+ students in the room… The professors weren’t complaining.
The only place where class size matters is in elementary education (due to the unruly nature of young children), and even then it is not the end all be all. Teaching is a noble trade, and deserving of recognition… but the few whiners out there need to stop, teachers are well paid, in both salary and benefits. With a pay scale that starts at ~$30k/yr and tops out at over $70k/yr and the opportunity to become a principal with the potential to earn six figures, its a career path that many private sector workers envy.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 05, 2010 at 0732 hrs
@ djmamayek: Actually I was talking about elementary school teachers as my wife is a reading specialist/1st grade class room teacher; I try to only speak about my level of knowledge or experience, not portray myself as an expert like so many others on this board. I’m also glad you pointed out there it’s just a FEW whiners. I get the whole concept of “bad apples spoiling the whole bunch”, but the outrage expressed on this board about the teaching profession is alarming.
Most of us have jobs or professions and are able to express our opinions on this blog because we received a quality education. Yet to categorize teachers as “leeches” (as Owen did on another thread) for not voting a certain way is callous and irresponsible. (I’m sure his children’s teachers LOVED reading that comment! I’d love to be a fly on the wall at his next parent/teacher conference.) My feeling is that if people feel so strongly about the quality versus the cost of the education their kids are receiving, then home school them!
Otherwise, they should stop the whining they’re accusing teachers of doing. (Off soap box now…)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 05, 2010 at 0837 hrs
My feeling is that if people feel so strongly about the quality versus the cost of the education their kids are receiving, then home school them!
If only when you made the choice to home school you could stop paying for public education costs.
Posted by Fred on March 05, 2010 at 1238 hrs
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