***BIG CHANGES IN THE WORKS***

***BIG CHANGES IN THE WORKS***

Be sure to stay tuned to this blog over the next couple of weeks. There are some fundamental changes in the works for this blog.

March 9, 2011

Why the WI teacher union complaints don't add up... It's in the math.

It seems that every time I travel to my homestead of Buffalo to visit my parents, I must invariably come armed for a debate on current politics and/or labor unions because the conversation inevitably turns down that road. My parents are vigorously pro-union and that is fine if that is what you believe in. Since I have moved out, I have done my own homework and have come to my own conclusions on unions (which are a little less favorable).

It is important to note that though I may have problems with unions, I do not have problems with the individuals who are in them. My parents both work very hard and are very good at what they do. I admire that. I however cannot admire some of the things that labor unions as a whole stand for and advocate.

During my last trip home I performed a thought experiment that I found very provocative. The scenario involves the case of teachers unions that urge cuts to administrator’s salaries as a means of closing budget gaps. Sounds good right? It’s similar to Gov. Cuomo’s recent proposal to cap superintendent salaries (which I actually agree with).

Well, let’s analyze this idea. Just to be fair, I am going to apply this analysis to the Brighton Central School district of which I currently reside in and I will use real numbers where ever possible (referencing and describing assumptions where possible). I am doing this to demonstrate my argument not with political rhetoric but with simple mathematics… a language in which it is far more difficult to lie because we all know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Right?

The Brighton Central School district (as of 2010-11) with a budget of $62 million, teaches 3,512 students in 1 high school (gr. 9-12), 1 middle school (gr. 6-8), 1 grade school (gr. 3-5) and 1 elementary school (gr. K-2). The Brighton District has a reputation for being one of the better schools around the Greater Rochester Region (feel free to look at the stats on the school yourself).

Now let’s say Brighton is facing a budget crisis (which they may very well be… I am not sure if they are) and they need to make some cuts. There are 356 professional staff (which I assume means teachers) making a median salary of $59,871. For simplicity, let’s round that to $60,000 and not include additional compensation like bonuses, retirement, health and vacation benefits. (For additional info on average teacher salaries and benefits in various states.)

Let’s count one superintendent, one assistant superintendent (2 total) and one principal and assistant principal for each of four schools (8 total for the district) for a total of 10 administrators. The average salary for a superintendent in NY is $163,000. Let’s just round that up to $170,000 for simplicity and to capture some of the bonuses and added benefits. And assume both chief and assistant super’s make the same salary. Let’s assume our 8 principals (assistant and chief) make $100,000, which is rounded up slightly from the $93,000 figure I found (again, to incorporate bonuses, benefits, etc). I believe these are all fair assumptions. Feel free to point out where they are not.

Now here’s where it gets a little nasty: the district says “We need to cut teacher compensation by 5% to close our budget gap.” The Teacher Union says, “Screw you! Cut the compensation of those rich S.O.B. administrators instead! They are making all the money.” This inevitably leads to name calling, strikes, picket lines, yelling protests and potentially 15 state Senators hiding from their jobs across state lines in say... Illinois. But we’re smarter than that, so let’s put all that aside and look at the numbers, shall we?

On average, a 5% teacher pay cut looks like this:

Each teacher would loose (on average) $3,000 in pay per year while it would save the district just over a million dollars a year, or about 1.7% of the overall district budget. But teachers are middle class working folk, the administrators are rich snobs and make nearly double what the teachers make! Sock those S.O.B’s!

Here’s what a cut to their salary looks like. And we’re going to wring those rich bastards really good… with a 10% pay cut!

Awesome! We slapped those rich administrators with deep cuts of ten and seventeen thousand dollars saving the district a total of… a measly $114,000 a year (or 0.2% of the budget)!

Taking a closer look at the numbers shows that you would have to completely eliminate the salaries of the 10 administrators all together in order to have the same effect as cutting teacher pay a modest 5%..

Why is this? Well, teacher compensation accounts for a far greater percentage of the budget than administrator compensation.Take home message: In a business hierarchy, the people at the bottom are much more of a budgetary expense than the people at the top because there are far more of them. This same analysis could potentially apply to any corporation or business.

I am not advocating that we excessively cut teacher pay. It is a difficult and important job and if you cut it too much, no one will want to be a teacher. Same goes for working as a school administrator. I think in reality, cuts at all levels are going to have to be realized in order to close budget gaps.

There you have it. I probably pissed off a lot of people by pointing this out… but please let me know how the numbers are lying to us.

By the way, I would like to thank my math teachers for teaching me how to think this way. :-)

March 5, 2011

"Private Life" has gone dark again.

Private Life in a Glass House Blog has gone dark again, but it is never too late to turn the lights back on. For close to three and a half years I have been posting here on and off and I am again returning from a rather long three month hiatus. It is kind of hard to figure out precisely what to write about and what my blog should focus on even though there is a lot going on in my life and my mind is always working a mile a minute. I am always commenting on some recent news story, my recent efforts at running and some personal events in my life but the posts seem to follow the random path of an ADD inflicted Blogger with zero attention span.

One idea that I came across was to use blogging as a means to be more productive at work (#4 on the list). My personal favorite from this list is "#2 - Bring your dog." That sounds pretty awesome... but I think the bosses might frown upon having a dog wandering around the offices and it may be a safety risk.

My bosses would be a bit disappointed if I were to spend time on the clock writing to my personal blog, it may help to try it out at home on my own time a bit. This idea has added accountability to my training and races, so it's worth a shot. To sum up some of the more recent activities going on in my life.
  1. On the job I am focusing on performing and documenting calibration checks for a fleet of 10 instruments located throughout the building. Pretty good considering that just about 2 to 3 years ago, I didn't even know how to operate these particular instruments.
  2. Wedding plans... invitations, bachelor party, order of events, ceremony music. All that stuff has been occupying Emily and my time.
  3. Training for the Flower City Half Marathon. I will be running my first race next weekend. A 5 mile St. Patric's day run.
More details to follow.