School Budget Increases Approved without a Fight

How is it possible that the majority of school budgets with increases of 4% and above were passed when the price of gas, heating oil and food have risen so sharply? How could anyone vote to increase taxes on top of the increases of everything else? Last year school budget increases were resoundingly defeated. Now with the economy on the verge of recession, we don’t put up a fight. The only people who win here are the teachers and administrators. They get their cost of living increases and continued stellar benefits while those in the private sector contend with stagnant wages and eroding benefits. Why are we so helpless when it comes to the school budget? Everyone wants the best teachers and educational experience for their children. But should it come at such a high price?

In Suffolk County the average teacher pay is close to $70,000. I don't know if people do the math but that is for 10 months work and I know I'm being generous about the actual time worked considering the myriad of school vacations. Based on a 12 month scale that amount would be the equivalent of $84,000 a year not to mention the generous benefits and pensions. Years ago teachers were dedicated to the education of our young people and did so for low wages as did most who worked in the public sector. In return for their dedication and the apparent economic sacrifice of giving up a more lucrative private sector job, they received lifetime benefits and pensions. Now the tables are upside down. Not only are they are making much more than the average private sector worker, they are still getting the lifetime benefits and pensions. The teachers union claims that these wages are necessary to attract good teachers. Now we pay so much more in taxes than the rest of the country so our children can supposedly get a better education which is now making the tax burden so high that these same children can’t afford to live here once they graduate. This does not make any sense.

Long Island was a middle class haven where for decades those with decent employment could live and raise their families in a comfortable existence. Now the average middle class family struggles to have a lifestyle they can no longer afford, where they live in homes that they couldn’t afford if they were to purchase them today and where their children graduate from college and return to the family home to take up residence in the basement because they can’t afford any other place to live. In the public sector, there is no incentive to trim costs, check the bottom line or boost productivity when you can just keep raising taxes.