The teachers have a right to compare their salaries to what other towns pay. We need to make sure that we are paying what the market is, so that we can keep our hardworking teachers. However, part of compensation is the valuable health benefits that the town offers to all employees. That money comes from a different pot, but we all pay for it. The public and the school committee needs to compare apples with apples. Compensation is salary plus all benefits.

The recall election in Wisconsin now opens up the door for cities and towns to take another look at the unions and the cost factor.
I will suspect as the economy takes a bigger hit the teachers, police, Fire etc etc.....will be in the front line to better negotiations as the towns will not be able to carry the burden. There will be a time when just having a job will be a big thing....and the benefits if any will be the added benefit. Towns and cities are going bankrupt...as they can't keep up with the pensions, health care cost etc....
I'm not against teachers, fire, police and all the unions that come with them, but there will come a time when a choice will have to be made to who will win out.
Wisconsin made theirs will other States and towns follow?
Jim@ccfiile.com

Hit the nail on the head again, Jim.

But Caroline isn't that part of the problem - the town can't do that because health benefits have to be separate from compensation - unless we have finally been able to get out from under that terrible decision that was made years ago.

The issue is the union is asking for things like COLAs when many of the regular private sector people are taking pay cuts, working more hours (for no extra money), paying a heck of a lot more in benefits, receiving less vacation, and typically doing the job of more than one person. Its simple math - if the private sector people don't have the extra money - there is no extra money to give to the public sector.

The threat of losing the 'good' teachers is a bluff. Tell me where are all these good teachers going to jump ship to? Right now the employers are in the drivers seat - yup it stinks but that is the way it is. Some day (hopefully) things will switch back to the employees being in the drivers seat.

I also seem to remember someone telling me (and someone correct me if I am wrong) that we tried to budget for teachers to have more supplies - so we wouldn't have to keep hearing how they were paying for them out of their own pockets - but supposedly the union nixed it.

@Jim - I just read an interesting article about New York State signing pension reform for state workers into law about two months ago. It mentioned that state workers will have increased personal contributions to the tune of 3-6%. I've been private sector my whole career, and right now, I make exactly what I did five years ago (company restructuring five years ago led me to have to find new employment - which I did before the layoff was actually effective). Anyway, know how much I contribute to my 401k? Percentage-wise, I am contributing 4 times more of my pay than these folks. And I can tell you that I'm paying more in health insurance premiums and deductibles as well. Of course schools are important, and good teachers are important, but we have to get realistic.

I heard that over 200 people applied for an open position at Brophy. It is obviously a tough market to find a new teaching job.

On another note, roughly half teachers will be getting significant raises via steps and lanes, significant ones, even with no COLA. Most step increases for teachers are about 5%, but step increases for municipal employees are around 3%. In addition, those who received half of their step increase last year will get the remainder this year.

If the union can figure out a way for Framingham to provide salary increases without having to cut other town services and avoid tax increases I'm all for it.

Greg - we all seem to hear this same excuse of not being able to compare things apples to apples especially for the school system. We try to consolidate duplicate positions on the school side and the municipal side and all we ever hear is that we can't because the school side is just so different from everything else.

In terms of a financial analysis - I just don't see it being that tough. How much you contribute to health care (deductibles, copays, percentage of plan) is pretty basic math. Private does get social security but private has to pay into it as well as the employer. Believe me if I had the option years ago of paying into social security and getting the future benefit, or not paying in and investing it myself (and who knows maybe my employer even gives me a raise using some of the money it had to kick in) - I would have definitely opted out of the system.

In terms of pensions, I think we could find some number cruncher who could come up with a figure of what a private sector person would have to contribute to get the same guaranteed return a public sector would get (noting that private sector with their 401Ks might not be able to choose from the riskier stock market to guarantee the return.)

You also have to put a value on vacation time since these nowadays time is also a very important commodity especially with people working more and more. And the list goes on. ..

Not entirely the same but not to hard to do a reasonable analysis.

Derek,
I don't disagree with anything you said - and even after having been involved in these processes, I still feel like it's a complicated issue.

In terms of the retirement piece - I think if people in the private sector with similar educational degrees (Masters and Doctorates) and similar paying jobs - hopefully higher with larger earning possiblities, were forced to put away 10-12% per year into some sort of 401K (with or without any company matching program), they would do quite well at retirement age with SS as a nice supplement. I guess a lot of it has to do with how long you live after you retire as well.