<p>In the business world, 2-3 weeks is standard --4 if you’re senior. And most business people don’t get winter breaks, spring breaks, and the little holidays like Presidents Day.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I realize it isn’t a part of the $60million stadium discussion, but it’s a sad commentary, nonetheless. My D who is in her 4th year of teaching earns that amount.</p>
<p>In the business world, at least mine, nobody really gets a week off. You can take a week or two or three off and many people do but there’s the expectation that you will be available to answer emails within a day or two and handle critical problems if a colleague can’t take care of them.</p>
<p>In general, everyone brings enough equipment to work on their vacations which these days means as little as a MacBook Air. Most people get work email on their smartphones too which means that asking a question at 11:00 PM can get you responses at 1:00 AM, at least from the people working in India.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Texas still has underfunded school districts:</p>
<p>[Texas</a> schools sue state over funding | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal](<a href=“Texas schools sue state over funding”>Texas schools sue state over funding)</p>
<p>– And 3 of the poorest districts in the country.</p>
<p>Wealthy districts with plenty of property tax revenue obviously don’t feel the pain.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom, what’s the cost of living where she works?</p>
<p>My sister and BIL just retired from teaching in a West Coast city lots more expensive than the far suburbs of Dallas and were making about $75000 each after 30 years.<br>
I’ll bet that many, many young people 4 years out of college would find $60000 quite a nice salary indeed.</p>
<p>“Wealthy districts with plenty of property tax revenue obviously don’t feel the pain.”</p>
<p>Yes, they do. Probably more than in many states without laws pulling money from rich districts to poorer ones.
Texas school funding is complicated and frustrating.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We live in Toronto. Here, schools are funded equally across the province. COL doesn’t come into the equation, and neither does the economic demographic of the town you live in. There is no issue of “wealthy districts with plenty of property tax revenue”. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I never said it wasn’t a nice salary. :)</p>
<p>Well then why is her salary a commentary on a US salary?</p>
<p>And how does her take-home pay compare to $60000/year in a no-state-income-tax state?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It was a simple comment about a teacher’s salary after 33 years of service. Have I broken some rule by daring to mention something outside the realm of the U.S.?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agreed completely; I was just responding to hops-scout’s question – as if one could possibly equate the “regular” vacation schedules in the business world to summers off, 1-2 weeks of winter break and a spring break. I’m sure many teachers still keep up and do work at home during those times, to be sure, but it’s kind of hard not to argue that teachers don’t have substantially more vacation than most business people. </p>
<p>As for the “I bring work home to grade, do lesson plans at home, etc. and that takes up hours, I don’t just work 8 - 3 like people think” - every working professional I know brings work home at night as well, so it’s not all that different IMO.</p>
<p>And just for the record, I think $60 million for that stadium up there is crazy.
Irresponsible
Bad example of what’s important to the kids in our state
Whatever </p>
<p>But it is separate from teacher pay, textbooks (which the state chooses and supplies), or other day to day costs. The Allen district didn’t choose football over AP classes, better teachers, or new books.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s true, but only a handful of kids are actually playing / learning those lessons on the football team. This is largely a spectator event which may bring camaraderie, school spirit, fond memories, etc. - but has nothing to do with either increasing physical activity or teaching life lessons about perseverence, sportsmanship and the like. If you want to justify it on the grounds of fun-fun-fun, then do so - but don’t justify it on the basis that it’s teaching valuable life lessons when the majority of the attendees are sitting in the stands.</p>
<p>Have I broken some rule by daring to mention something outside the realm of the U.S.?</p>
<p>Not at all, but it’s apples to oranges.<br>
I have family members in Canada and know what kind of taxes they pay. Others may not. When my niece from Toronto visited a few years ago she was speechless over the low prices in the grocery store, drugstore, and especially what a downtown condo in the city could be had for.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Canada taxes at 15% up to $42,707 and 22% above that to $85,414. Provincial taxes for Ontario are 5.05% up to $39,020 and 9.15% to $78,043. Canadians also pay the GST and HST for rates from 10% to 15% except for Alberta which pays 5% (nothing like oil and gas revenues to offset taxes). Ontario residents pay 13% on sales. Those sales taxes explains tourists coming down from Montreal to our state to buy stuff without paying sales taxes.</p>
<p>"At the time the report was released, Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, said cross-border shopping may be costing the Canadian economy as much as $20 billion a year, and he predicted that the new duty-free limits would make the problem worse.</p>
<p>“Statistics Canada’s first cross border travel report since the changes show that both overnight and same-day trips are up since June 1. In fact, Canadian residents took nearly 2.8 million overnight trips abroad in June, the highest monthly figure since record keeping began in 1972.”</p>
<p>The Retail Council of Canada expressed concerns around four key factors - tariffs, supply-managed products, harmonizing regulations and country pricing - that they say keep prices higher in Canada.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href=“Home | Vancouver Sun”>Home | Vancouver Sun;
<p>This came after the cross-border controversy made its debut on You Tube: A short video was posted showing a three-tiered stack of milk — about 150 gallons in all — being snapped up by apparent Canadian shoppers in less than a minute.</p>
<p>As we mentioned here last week, a local dairy near Bellingham has set up a pair of border-hugging milk convenience stores, selling milk at U.S. prices — about $2.50 a gallon. Shoppers from Vancouver, about 40 miles north of the border, pay twice that at Canadian supermarkets. Canadian dairy farmers don’t receive government subsidies like their American counterparts.</p>
<p><a href=“http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-23/commentary/33323515_1_canadian-shoppers-canadian-dairy-farmers-border-town[/url]”>http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-23/commentary/33323515_1_canadian-shoppers-canadian-dairy-farmers-border-town</a></p>
<p>Not only are we buying all their milk, we’re also booking all their hotel rooms in what some are calling “shopping tourism.”</p>
<p>According to Larry MacDonald, manager of Bellingham’s Best Western Lakeway Inn, the hotel experienced a 75 per cent spike in walk-in bookings this summer compared to the same season last year.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href=“Home | The Province Home Page | The Province”>Home | The Province Home Page | The Province;
<p>Major factors for the endless invasion: The stronger Canadian currency, trading Friday at 98 cents (U.S.); lower prices at the gas pump here and a wide range of grocery products, especially milk these days. Delays at the international bridges increased again, starting June 1, when the duty-free limits for Canadian shoppers in the U.S. were raised from to $200 from $50 for a 24-hour stay and $800 for visits exceeding 48 hours.</p>
<p>The soaring amount of sales taxes collected undoubtedly reflects the impact from Canadian shoppers. Niagara County Treasurer Kyle R. Andrews notes the total sales tax for 2011 was $108,918,705, up $8,386,025 from 2010. In the first six months of this year, the sales tax totaled $53,433,105, compared with $51,783,242 for the same period in 2011. Andrews stressed those numbers are prior to any distribution to the municipalities in the county.</p>
<p><a href=“GLYNN: Cross-border shopping invasion spans U.S. | Columns | niagara-gazette.com”>GLYNN: Cross-border shopping invasion spans U.S. | Columns | niagara-gazette.com;
<p>BTW, Simon Property Group opened a huge new mall in our town a few months ago to take advantage of Canadians traveling here to shop.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course it is. That was my point. The funding formula is different and one, in my opinion, that should be emulated. Neither the quality of a student’s education, nor the salary of a teacher should be dependent on the demographic of the neighborhood/town in which their school lies. </p>
<p>BCEagle, you’re right, our taxes are higher, but so are the benefits that those higher taxes allow. </p>
<p>Sorry, my point was not to derail the thread. Please resume the discussion of how ridiculous it is to spend $60 million on a high school football stadium.</p>
<p>Are we saying education should be federally funded?</p>
<p>“The funding formula is different and one, in my opinion, that should be emulated.”</p>
<p>And therein lies the difference. </p>
<p>Vive la diference</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This makes no sense unless you have a big sugar daddy like a province
that generates tons of energy revenues. Would it make sense to spend
the same amount in San Francisco where real estate and all kinds of
services are expensive compared to Claremont, NH where costs are low?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>And that’s why millions of Canadians are legally or illegally avoiding
sales taxes with cross-border shopping?</p>
<p><<…but only a handful of kids are actually playing / learning those lessons on the football team.>></p>
<p>I disagree. While there may only be a relatively small percentage on the actual football team - the supporting population is huge. </p>
<p>I won’t speak for all TX high school teams - but in addition to the football players, every football game at our school had…
- the JV/freshman team on the sidelines
- numerous student trainers
- student photograpers/videographers
- cheerleaders and mascots
- JV cheerleaders
- the dance team
- the band (in our case - almost 300 students strong)
- the flag men</p>
<p>All of the above put in countless hours preparing for their own activities (JV/freshmen football and JV cheerleaders) or preparing to perform/support the varsity team - AND keeping up with their school work because grades were checked every 3 weeks and ineligible students were put on the sidelines. No exceptions. </p>
<p>So it’s not just the actual football team learning these lessons. All students involved learn valuable lessons. And the kids involved probably accounted for almost 25% of our student body.</p>
<p>Now, count in the number of students (regular students, other student athletes, boys friends/girlfriends, siblings, etc) who attend games - and you have at least 50% of the student body. I am not sure of the exact percentages involved, but I know that whenever our school had a Thursday night game - teachers were not allowed to give tests the next day (Friday) because it was understood that a large majorit of the student body would be involved or attending the games.</p>