So How Much Do the Teachers Crying Poor Mouth in Wisconsin Make?…
This much:
(Daily Caller) — With Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plans up in the air, teachers and the unions that represent them are telling whoever will listen that his proposed budget cuts would devastate them.
The Daily Caller started reporting the salaries and benefits of teachers who went public with their complaints on Monday, and this story will contain more of them.
Politico reported that Michael Mulvey, a high school algebra teacher in Wauwatosa, Walker’s hometown, held a sign that read: “Scott, I taught your son algebra. My son just turned 5. Does he deserve a good education?”
Mulvey makes $46,687 in base salary and $25,481 in “fringe benefits,” which include health insurance, life insurance and retirement pay.
Politico also reported that a high school math teacher from Green Bay, Karen Hill, traveled to Madison on a bus full of fellow teachers to protests, and held a sign that read, “negotiate not dictate.”
Hill makes $59,695 in base salary with an additional $28,398 in benefits.
Martha Vasquez, an art teacher in Madison, told Politico that she was irked more at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin chiming into the debate than she was at Walker.
“I was really surprised when Sarah Palin weighted in,” Vasquez said. “This bill is ripping apart the of what it means to be a Wisconsinite. We value education.”
Vasquez makes $50,018 in base salary and $11,188 in benefits.
Kevin Yeske, the assistant principal of Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids, allowed students 20 minutes of one of their school days to protest Walker’s budget, and provided two school staffers to supervise the protest.
“I was really impressed with our students,” Yeske told the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune. “They wanted to make a statement, but we want to make sure we don’t do any damage or consequences (to the school day); it was very well done.”
Yeske makes $94,262 in base salary with an additional $35,076 in benefits.
Posted by ZIP on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, at 12:49 pm | 
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UPDATED – Protesting Teachers Could Reap $9 Million from Taxpayers to Attend Rallies
Absent educators may be paid to abandon students and march on the Capitol
http://maciverinstitute.com/2011/02/teacher-sick-outs-to-cost-taxpayers-more-than-6-million/
I would like to know how many people with NO INCOME now would like to take over these jobs to feed their families and allow a better teacher force to boot. These people in place now aren’t the only ones available to teach our children.
GOOD MOVE. Publishing the incomes…and it SHOULD be a matter of Public Knowledge. These people are looking more and more like the incompetents and CROOKS that they ARE.
“I was really surprised when Sarah Palin weighted in,” Vasquez said. “This bill is ripping apart the of what it means to be a Wisconsinite. We value education.”
But she has no problem with non-Wisconsonites from the other side weighing in……good grief.
This is an air traffic controller moment – or should be – if the teachers stay out – give ‘em a deadline and then fire the ones who don’t show up for work. I hope that is a course of action the State can take if necessary.
As Maggie says:
“UPDATED – Protesting Teachers Could Reap $9 Million from Taxpayers to Attend Rallies”
That doesn’t count the direct cost to the Taxpayers if they have to pay a sitter, daycare provider or end up using one of their sick/personal days to care for their children while the teachers have a “sick in”. As a single working mom, I can tell you that every day my child did not go to school because of a teacher work-day or snow storm cost me extra money.
“This bill is ripping apart the of what it means to be a Wisconsinite.”
It sure is comforting to know that these people are educating the children! (NOT!)
Calling all WI WZers:
“By leaving the state and abandoning their office, we believe these senators should be recalled. Join our effort and sign the petition today!”
http://recalltheawol.com/
(h/t Big Government)
Yep, they are hanging on to their “Superior Rights”.
The Air Traffic Controllers had grievances with management, not money. The only common thread is govorment employment.
As a private ATC I made double my govorment pay. As the Rose Report states “…the wrong people were fired.”
As to Recall, the WI Constitution states an elected official shall be in office 1 years before a recall.
And none of the 14 have been in office one year? They’re senators.
Anyone besides me getting a creepie feeling about the “worker’s of the world uniting” on every continent, all within weeks of each other? Politically influenced or funded by unknowns? Cannot be spontaneous.
Gov. Walker needs to start those pink slips before Friday, the word will get out. He’ll end up looking the fool if he caves to these morons.
Our little local (not for profit) paper publishes salaries of all government workers every year.
There is one simple retort to their complaining.
To paraphrase Governor Christie: If you don’t think you’re fairly compensated or treated you can find another job.
Once again, Walker supporters have it all wrong. Protesters have AGREED to pay more for their health care premiums and pensions. This is not about what they earn; it’s about maintaining the ability to collectively bargain. Stop drinking the tea and get your head out of the clouds.
@jessica, hey maybe our military can collectively bargain too wouldn’t that be a sweet deal. How bout you getting your head out of your ass.
@ jessica
There is a principle here. Private sector unions have to work with management to be able to compete in the marketplace.
Public unions and governments have NO COMPETITION.
The great liberal icon FDR realized this in the 1930s…
“… Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the government. All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations … The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for … officials … to bind the employer … The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives …”
Meanwhile, these over paid teachers aren’t exactly doing a bang up job when they DO show up.
(CNSNews.com) – Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/two-thirds-wisconsin-public-school-8th-g
“Anyone besides me getting a creepie feeling about the “worker’s of the world uniting” on every continent, all within weeks of each other?”
Just said the same thing to my husband!
24Klady is on to it, we are witnessing the culmination of decades of socialists/communists influence, the choice will be between the new world order or re-education camps in our lifetime. Multiple countries with protests, multiple states with protests, it’s all been orchestrated, if anything, it may be spiraling faster than the manipulators thought.
Now ,Now my WZ friends– Jessica just has a different point of view– unfortunately, none of us can get our heads that far up our *ss to see it.
@GeorgeMasonIV: I’m really not here to insult anyone. When did “competition” become a buzz word for democracy? It baffles me that democracy, or a person’s right to have a voice and contribute to society, has been relegated to free-market participation. A society driven by free-market ideology is inherently ANTI-social: profits over people.
“11:52 a.m. – Bert Zipperer, a Madison middle school guidance counselor, said Walker is “power drunk” and that he and fellow teachers are going to “sober him up.”
Zipperer makes $62, 062 in base salary with an additional $26,847 in benefits.”
Any relation?
Why is everyone here so angry? As I said earlier, protesters have agreed to pay more into their health care and pensions. Teachers are not complaining about base pay. Why is Walker framing this as a budgetary issue if it’s really about union-busting?
actually I love communism
@DohBiden: Because I’m an American and I pay taxes just like you. I have the right to my opinion.
Jessica, I once asked a friend why he was so perpetually angry. He said he needed the bile to keep his blood moving.
Those salaries don’t seem inordinately high. I made more than those teachers before I got laid off.
Stupid commie thinks paying taxes makes her an American.
Oh, and I am not a communist. Someone thought it would be funny to post that comment in my name. I am a social democrat however.
@gmanedit: The salaries don’t seem high enough to me. I guess it comes down to determining what we value. Do we value education and the people who teach our children? Or do we value hedge-fund managers and corporate CEO’s who make billions on the backs of under-payed workers? Walker apparently supports the latter.
per Jessica:
“It baffles me that democracy, or a person’s right to have a voice and contribute to society, has been relegated to free-market participation.”
Jessica– It would be nice if the WI teachers did contribute
See:
“Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.”
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/02/22/fact-2-in-3-wisconsin-public-school-8th-graders-can%e2%80%99t-read-proficiently%e2%80%94despite-highest-per-pupil-spending-in-midwest/
@Nerkbuckeye: You’re subscribing to the T.I.N.A. (There Is No Alternative) argument for neoliberal education reform (charter schools, privatization, vouchers, etc.). Recent studies of charter school performance (and other private-public partnerships) “show that more than half, nationwide, have results that are no different than public school options, and over a third, 37%, deliver learning results that are significantly worse than their student would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools” (credo.stanford.edu). Why students aren’t reading at grade level IS a problem. But vilifying teachers and their unions is not the solution to the problem. Most teachers DO contribute, but they’re not magicians, and it’s time we look to problems outside of the school that are impediments to learning.
I think I’ve said enough. Let’s be kind. Good bye!
“protesters have agreed to pay more into their health care and pensions”
And then, down the not too long and winding road, they ‘collective bargin’ themselves back up and out of those ‘gracious and generous sacrifices’, and somehow, even ahead of where they are and what they have right now.
Amazing how liberals think.Here we have jessica get schooled by most everyone and she leaves thinking she won the debate.
@ jessica
If you are still here, you might learn something.
You stated: “When did “competition” become a buzz word for democracy? It baffles me that democracy, or a person’s right to have a voice and contribute to society, has been relegated to free-market participation. ”
Contrary to your limited understanding of government, we do not live in a democracy.
The US is a republic.
Get it right, because it matters.
You probably didn’t read my comment about the Egyptians threatening Israel in Tahrir square, but I will repeat it here– since it is certainly appropriate– for your enlightenment:
=====================================
Actually (referring to the mobs in Tahrir square), this is “democracy in action”– i.e. mob rule.
That is why our Founding Fathers used the term as an epithet, and why they established a republic with enumerated powers and rights reserved to the people.
“No good government but what is republican… the very definition of a republic is ‘an empire of laws, and not of men.’ ” — John Adams
“Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.”– Aristotle
“Democracy is indispensable to socialism.”–Lenin
@Maggie: Why isn’t anyone complaining about the state police and firefighters unions maintaining their collective bargaining rights? Are buildings burning to the ground because they have the right to determine their pay and working conditions?
@George: I am fully aware that America is a republic…or a representative democracy. My point is that we should not conflate (or replace) representative democracy with an economic system.
“I was really surprised when Sarah Palin weighted in,” Vasquez said.
Adding: “And me teach really good English too.”
Weighted? Cripes, well worth $61k a year.
“Are buildings burning to the ground because they have the right to determine their pay and working conditions?”
Always off the side of the road with you socialist union slaves.
“It’s for the children”
“People dying in the streets with no healthcare”
“Old people eating dog food”
“Poor, poor women in back alleys with coat hangers”
“Bringing back slavery”
‘determine their pay and working conditions’??
Sounds more like private contractors and not public servents.
@Maggie: I’m not spewing platitudes here. I asked a valid question.
@George: I suppose I would argue that the Bill of Rights and constitutional amendments make the US more of a democratic republic.
I find it laughable that these figures are being used as examples of “highly paid” teachers – when INCLUDING benefits, most of these people don’t make over $100k per year and are in charge of educating the future. Get a clue people! If you cut the legs out from your educational workforce, you’ll be left with teachers who don’t know how to teach – then who are you going to blame for the short-comings of America? Yourselves? Seriously, posting this article WEAKENS your argument against the Wisconsin issue — it merely shows that teachers are underpaid.
And if it’s so easy to be a teacher – quit your job, go back to school for several years, take a drastic pay cut, and join our ranks and MAYBE you’ll understand that we me make nothing compared to the hours of time and commitment we put into your children.
http://www.marconews.com/blogs/he-is-that-guy/2011/feb/21/scott/
“A life-long lesson my Economics and American Government teacher taught me some thirteen years ago was that you get what you pay for, and you pay for what you get.”
@mike r. – Your comment would have been more effective if was written in grammatically-correct, PROPER English. Maybe if your teachers had been better paid, you would have learned something!
And finally, I’ve worked in the private sector of education and let me tell you, it’s DISGUSTING! When education is run as a business, EVERY child gets left behind. Villanizing the teachers and the unions that protect us is pretty counterproductive – especially considering that we’re not going anywhere. Keep whining, but do it with proper spelling
“Are buildings burning to the ground because they have the right to determine their pay and working conditions?”
You’re right. I stand corrected.
It’s blackmail and extortion.
If you unions believe so much in this then forfeit your pay and benefits during the time you are, and have been, off the jobs and making a spectacle of yourselves in the streets in front of the hurting and sacrificing taxpayers who pay for your paychecks and benefits without being able to have a voice in your ‘pay and work conditions’ determinations, outside raising our property taxes.
Look in the mirror and answer your own question. And don’t YOU dare demand a damn thing from me. YOU work for me. The unions have assumed politician status in this country, and BOTH are sorely mistaken in your belief that you are somehow above the rest of us.
Tara an Jessica,
Tara an Jessica, In your mind what is a teacher really worth? 100k 150k let us know?
Why do public employees need collective bargaining rights to begin with? Who can we trust to be a fair employer if not the government itself, which makes and (hopefully) upholds fair labor laws?
There’s only one reason for public unions to exist: kickbacks to politicians in the form of campaign funds, typically democrat politicians, who in turn vote to raise their salaries and increase their benefits. 40 or so years of this went on and now we find ourselves in this mess. They’ve got a nice little racket going on don’t they?
How embarrassing that white middle class Americans are behaving this way.
Is that a racist statement? I really don’t know.
@UnrepentantInfidel says:
They’ve got a nice little racket going on don’t they?
RICO Act
@Maggie: I am a non-union public university employee in a neighboring state; I work for my state government as a civil servant, not for you. And yes, unions do typically support democrats, but a few select unions (in what I presume is your state) supported Scott Walker. The Citizens United decision also allows for corporate personhood, and your party has gained from this ruling substantially.
I don’t know why middle-class folks in the private sector feel so threatened by union members standing up for their rights. Perhaps you’re bitter because you haven’t been able to organize? I don’t know.
@UnrepentantInfidel: Due to the dwindling public sector (at the hands of rogue Tea Party politicians) we need unions and collective bargaining more than ever.
1.) “I work for my state government as a civil servant”
And the money to pay you comes from where? You just don’t get it.
2.) “Perhaps you’re bitter because you haven’t been able to organize? I don’t know.”
And then you move away from that by taking a jab at our organizing:
“Due to the dwindling public sector (at the hands of rogue Tea Party politicians) we need unions and collective bargaining more than ever.”
3.) You keep repeating “I don’t know”. To me that indicates you really are out of touch with we “middle-class folks” that appear to be a thorn in you backside right now because we’re no longer just shutting up and sitting down for all of this riding rough shot over us.
And for the record, I am in a state where the democrats and the unions have had a stranglehold for decades and decades, and it shows as you drive through our cities and towns.
I DO get it. It comes from the taxpayers. I pay taxes too, you know. Public employees in my state (as well as yours) make significantly less than those in the private sector. I could argue the same for your cush private sector job. According to Walker, corporations are able to hire people due to his tax-breaks (at least that’s how he defends it). Essentially, the burden of the taxpayers is not only to uphold workers in the public realm, but to ALLOW corporations to maintain a workforce as well. You pay more in taxes because corporations don’t have to , not because public sector workers are milking everything you have. Don’t be silly.
Don’t condescend to me.
Detroit has been told to close half its public schools, raising classroom student body size to upwards of 60. For years we have been told 30 students in a classroom was too high.
Detroit is and has been a democrat and union city for generations.
The unions drove out the industry and businesses. Detroit is one of this nation’s biggest and saddest dumps.
“cush private sector jobs”?
Just about everyone I know has two, some even three, jobs. “cush”?? My father spent his adult life working for a company that is a subsidiary of GM. He started out as union, then became salary. Every time GM decides it has to cut back on their retirees HE takes a huge hit compared to the union retirees.
“You pay more in taxes because corporations don’t have to …”
Wrong. Most of the factories, corporations and big businesses that were in my area when I was growing up are gone. Taxes were lower then. Everyone that wanted to be employed was employed and building their own American dream.
“According to Walker, corporations are able to hire people due to his tax-breaks (at least that’s how he defends it).”
Are you in the liberal arts department in your “public university employee” job?
This isn’t a competition. Clearly, the middle-class is suffering. As I see it, the upper echelons are using divide and conquer tactics to make us fight to the death. The middle-class (us) is dwindling, and believe me, this in not due to unions. I make 40k and haven’t had a wage increase in 5 years. Believe me, I know what it’s like to work and not be adequately compensated. But this is beside the point. This whole argument is not about wages, but about the right to collectively bargain. This is about ugly politics, a power battle between democrats and republicans, and corporations are reaping the benefits.
We need to increase taxes for corporations and the top 5 % of wage earners. These are the people who got us into the most recent financial crisis–these are the people responsible for footing the bill and digging us out of it.
It’s about the reality of the situation. States such as Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, and most others are on the verge of bankruptcy. A state will NOT survive without being appealing for businesses and industry to come in and set up. No jobs equals no taxes paid to the government to run things and to pay the public sector. States cannot print their own money when they are out of it, unlike the Fed. Many industries and businesses left this country for other countries where the unions weren’t in total power over them. I really have a problem with people constantly beating down business and industry. Should we all just work for ourselves? How does that work out?
It’s about ‘elections have consequences’. Gov. Scott Walker campaigned on Wisconsin’s economic dire situation, and told the voters exactly what he intended to do in order to address the crisis (unlike Obama who in 2008 never defined exactly what he intended to do, and fooled a lot of people who voted for him that now wished they hadn’t). The voters of Wisconsin agreed with Walker or they would not have voted him, and republicans, into office(s) in their state. What is going on in Wisconsin is a government shutdown by the losing political party, and abuse of power by the unions abandoning the duties and responsibilities of their jobs to be paid for bullying in the streets of Madison. It’s something the rest of us don’t have the luxury to do. We would be fired. We, the private sector, do not have the current administration in the Oval Office on our side, as the unions do.
ppl who work for the government don’t actually pay taxes. They simply get less income coming from the private sector. Its like you giving someone $50k, then taking back $10k. You really only lost $40k
Don’t most teachers only work 9 months a year?
Typical liberal POS you are, Tara.You come on here and make two comments complaining about grammer and spelling.Are you effing kidding me?That’s the best you have to offer?What is it you people don’t understand?We the taxpayer,who have been paying your A$$ have had enough.I can’t even pay for my retirement but yet I’ve got to pay for yours?I don’t think so.Eliminating collective bargaining means that all of you who actually get raises(our tax money)for doing NOTHING other than living another year would have to EARN your pay raises.In the real world where I work there is no automatic raises or pensions or collective bargaining.I pay 100% towards my retirement and almost 50% of my healthcare.You guys are going to lose big time on this debate.The overwhelming majority of Americans have had it with public sector unions and their outrageous benefits.Welcome to the recession.Your time has come and gone.Go Gov. Walker.And one more thing Tara,I went to school in N.J.(one of the states with the highest taxes if not the highest)and I’m sure my teachers were highly compensated so if my grammer or spelling doesn’t meet your approval,TOUGH NUTS.
@Maggie: You say, “it’s about the reality of the situation”, but your reality is skewed by the political mumbo jumbo. Yes, the budget must be balanced, but not on the backs of the middle-class. Trickle down economics does not work! The current crisis was caused by a drastic decrease in corporate taxes, predatory lending, and the greedy fat cats of Wall Street. The protesters in Madison are not bullies; they’re defending themselves against big business and the politicians who cater to corporations over the working people.
@4rc: So the 5% in state income taxes that is deducted from my paycheck goes where, exactly?
@DetJohn: STUDENTS are in school nine months of the year. Teachers usually spend an extra month in the summer for lesson planning, so we could say they work ten months of the year. BUT WAIT…you’re also disregarding a teachers 50-60 hour work week during the school year. A teacher’s work is not finished when they leave the classroom. Factor that in and it becomes evident that teachers work just as much (if not more) than those in the private sector. And it’s a very challenging job to boot.
**Of course, I meant TRICKLE-UP economics does not work! I’m sure I won’t be able to live that down on this site.
@jessica, jessica jessica
You are victim of the class warfare propaganda that is being fed to you by the Dems…
@fubar: And you’re being duped by the Republicans, Neoliberals, Neoconservatives, and Tea-Party fear-mongers. This conversation won’t get us anywhere…
@Jessica
Glad to see you are making good use of your time while on the tax payers dime. And then you wonder why folks get angry.
@soxfan4life: I don’t work today, bozo.
So you don’t work today, apparently you didn’t work yesterday either. Tell us again how hard teachers have it. Can’t quite feel your pain. And being so inferior intellectually I will lay off the personal insults, as they only add weight to the argument. Time for me to go be productive. Bye.
I’m not a teacher. I am working this weekend so I have two days off during the week. Bye-bye!
@Jessica
Just a suggestion, but if you want to be treated with respect, and to get your point across, it might help to not resort to the immature name calling and hostile attitude.
@fubar: You’re absolutely right. I regret calling people names or offending them personally throughout this thread. I suppose both sides get pretty worked up and defensive when discussing things they really care about. I shouldn’t have called that person a bozo, but he or she implied that I’m a lazy public servant and I don’t take that lightly.