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<p>I read it as a politician/administrator bashing thready myself. Teacher takes the job that makes sense. “They’re going to give me this amazing pension? Sure, I’ll take that.” It’s the state that messed up.</p>
<p>It was always my understanding that black people say “Illa-noise” and white people say “Illa-noy” but I don’t know if that’s really how it works.</p>
<p>Oh please vladenschutte…do you really think most folks enter the field of education because of the amazing pension potential? Most folks now leave the profession within five years…and therefore would not be even vested in any retirement program.</p>
<p>Carry on.</p>
<p>I was amazed that someone from Illinois would complain about taxes since I figured it couldn’t be anywhere near as bad as it is in NJ. I just looked at the link emilybee posted (first link) and it shows NJ at the top of the list of worst states for property taxes. Sigh. </p>
<p>I told my kids to feel free to move out of NJ and that we eventually follow them out of the state, but so far, the two married ones have homes in NJ. So, I think we are staying and I’ll just have to continue to grumble about our property taxes. Sigh. </p>
<p>Illinois, it could be a lot worse for you!</p>
<p>Well, I do think that people become teachers because they want to teach, despite low to very low starting salaries. (Salaries vary a LOT from rich to poor districts; some rich districts pay well to start). I would like to see us pay a fair wage right away in all districts, and make the pay scale far more level, so people would not complain about high terminal salaries. The teachers are the ones who agreed to valuable pension promises in lieu of upfront pay, and they are the ones who stand to loose if the state fails to keep its promises.</p>
<p>“higher paid people have much more capacity to fund more of their retirement” - not if they make a poor salary for over half of their careers. Sis is a fifty-something teacher, and I have seen her finances in action these decades. Lots of crummy cars and deferred home maintenance due to low pay.</p>
<p>Here is a link to the pension. It would be nice if people understood the terms, rules and recent changes prior to saying who is at fault for the problem.</p>
<p><a href=“http://trs.illinois.gov/”>http://trs.illinois.gov/</a></p>
<p>Here’s some other info.</p>
<p><a href=“http://trs.illinois.gov/pubs/cafr/FY2013/fy13.pdf”>http://trs.illinois.gov/pubs/cafr/FY2013/fy13.pdf</a></p>
<p>The plans assets are currently about 40% of the value of the benefits. Serious problem. </p>
<p>Teacher pay in Illinois is actually pretty good compared to a lot of places in the country. Six figures in a lot of places. </p>
<p>Teacher pay in my new state is a nightmare and embarrassment and people ought to be ashamed of themselves! </p>
<p>When they say “educators” they are not only referring to teacher pensions they are referring to administrative, coaching, etc…, It’s not the teachers driving the cost so high. It’s the administrators gaming the system. </p>
<p>Well bookreader when a gym teacher makes 85k in NJ of course the property taxes will be exorbitant. Not to bash gym teachers, but teachers salaries in NJ are quite generous compared to other places. (I grew up in NJ and my family still lives there) I think it’s unrealistic to expect to be able to continue that corrupt style government over the long term.</p>
<p>The average teacher’s salary in NJ is $65,000. I know many make more but that is the average. Teachers pay 7% of their pay for the pension. They also contribute to social security. In Illinois they contribute 9.4% but the benefit formula is better. Someone posted that Illinois teachers do not contribute to ss.</p>
<p>I should mention that in these threads a teacher making $65k on average in NJ is excessive but $200,000 of income in NJ is barely middle class when discussing paying for college.</p>
<p>“more than 50% have indicated they want to leave the state.”</p>
<p>?? What’s trapping them there? Most people who want to leave a state leave that state. If everybody wanted to leave, our property values wouldn’t be so high. Chicago’s doing great in terms of attracting educated young people. If you just mean that a lot of us plan to retire someplace warmer someday, well, that’s true of every cold location and has nothing to do with taxes.</p>
<p>Bookreader, DH and I have lived in nj our entire lives. We love it here but the taxes are outrageous.
We also encouraged our son to consider elsewhere but he ignored us and is happily teaching in a great district.
Hope we can retire here near him but it is questionable.</p>
<p>musicmom some people think NJ taxes are outrageous because your son makes too much. I think those people are misguided or misinformed but there are some politicians that use this as an issue.</p>
<p>Well it seems to me that other states do a better job of managing property taxes and there are plenty of people willing to work in the public school system in these states, so I think that there must be a better solution for NJ. Property taxes of 5 digits (over 10,000) make it mighty difficult to balance the household budget. </p>
<p>Musicmom, we’ve lived in NJ for most of our lives. All our family is here, so leaving is difficult to contemplate esp as our parents are getting elderly. </p>
<p>Speaking as someone who lives in another high-tax state (WI), I think it’s important to keep in mind that there’s more than public schools that are driving property taxes up. It’s also community colleges. And when the state cuts funding for CCs, as ours has done (30%…), that burden is shifted to property owners as well.</p>
<p>NJ is an expensive place no one would deny that. We also fund public education mainly through property taxes. I would change that is I was in power but they only play games around the edges with rebate programs etc.
We also are expensive because we want a lot of government we have more school districts than we have municipalities. We have police and paid fire departments in these little towns in Bergen County where you might have 10 police chiefs in a 10 mile radius. </p>
<p>bookreader what income is middle class in NJ and should a teacher be able to live a middle class lifestyle or should we do what NC does and pay teachers poverty wages?</p>
<p>Tom1944- yes, his own father being one of them! (Only half joking)</p>
<p>DS has an undergrad and master’s. We’re happy he can support himself, renting with roommates. He is not and won’t probably ever be wealthy. Nor does he expect to be.
He would “like” to buy a small single family house. He will need to save lots and lots to afford that in nj and also pay the property taxes and eat.</p>
<p><a href=“http://php.app.com/edstaff/results2.php?county=MONMOUTH&district=MIDDLETOWN+TOWNSHIP+PUBLIC+SCHOOLS&school=Middletown+High+School+South&lname=&fname=&job1=%25&Submit=Submit”>http://php.app.com/edstaff/results2.php?county=MONMOUTH&district=MIDDLETOWN+TOWNSHIP+PUBLIC+SCHOOLS&school=Middletown+High+School+South&lname=&fname=&job1=%25&Submit=Submit</a></p>
<p>Here’s some teachers salaries in NJ. I think 108,000 for a math teacher is a lot of money to make. </p>
<p>For a teacher with 30 years experience? Even modest increases year over year would get you pretty close to that in most jobs, wouldn’t it? (Sorry, no coffee yet…can’t do math.)</p>
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<p>My family lives downstate (well northern IL, but not Chicago or the suburbs). The property values are low there, but the property taxes are high. A family member with a house valued much less than mine (DC suburbs) pays more in property taxes. And that is in an area that is formerly middle class, but now very lower middle class. Some people stay because they have few options. But that’s another thread.</p>