Mr. LackawannaThat's a big part of it Mr. L. The following is information from NYS
www.seethroughny.net website. It should blow your socks off :
The top 100 people on the BPS payroll
average $ 101K/ yr.
The top 1000 average $ 77 K/yr.
The next 1000 average $ 59 K/year.
The next 1000 (2000-3000) average $ 46 K/yr.
This is for 182.5 school days per year (taken from the BPS website calendar) and this does not even count snow holidays or sick time days. Also the above figures do not include charter schools since that data is separate. Also not included in the above salaries are the cost of health care and retirement.
BTW, James Williams makde $ 227K and Crystal Barton (McKinley HS) made $ 116K in 2008.
A good job in private industry has 10 paid holidays per year and maybe a combined 3 weeks sick and vacation time off. That amounts to 235 working days per year whereas a teacher works 182.5. So a teacher works 78% of the time and gets paid the above salaries.
And we have a 50% graduation rate. These people are robbing the piggy bank and still Rumore complains.
The data is incontovertible and is from the office of the state comptroller for 2008.