[Vision2020] Wenders' Diatribe

Dale Courtney dale@courtneys.us
Thu, 31 Jul 2003 20:15:20 -0700


Ted writes: 

> It has already been established that the length of this so 
> called "work year," as Dale Courtney and Jack Wenders define 
> it in their obviously biased attempt to make public school 
> teachers appear to be free-loading off the taxpayers, is not 
> as padded with vacation time as they claim, with the demands 
> of course work requiring summer school courses, and other 
> related academic work teachers need to complete during so 
> called "vacation" periods.

They are only required to work 180 days per year. They average $64k per
year. They can do whatever they want to during the Summers (teach, work,
recreate, vegetate). 

Ted, these numbers are not "created" by me or Wenders. I *wish* I could take
credit for stumbling upon this. 

No, these are well documented by groups looking to better education by
"righting" it. 

As I mentioned before, "Education Next" and other research organizations
have done much analysis of these numbers across the spectrum. Economists,
who well understand salaries, compensation, "summers off", and "opportunity
costs" have looked hard at these numbers. See:
http://www.educationnext.org/20033/71.html

Finally, there is this nagging little problem of comparing private school
salaries to government school salaries -- and I'm not talking parochial
schools here (where parents and others are willing to work for pittance). In
the non-parochial, profit-based private schools, the teachers make ~60-65%
of what government school teachers do. And parents are willing to pay out of
pocket to put their kids in these better performing schools with lower paid
teachers. Hmmmmm. 

Best,
Dale Courtney
Moscow, Idaho