Help! Need info on teacher's salaries in New Jersey

Something reliable and official. Having absurd argument with relative who has fallen for the "evil teachers' union" wants to raise my taxes shtick.

Oh and any info on their supposed $22,000 per year, 100% paid for, health insurance.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/nj_teachers_pay_freeze_salarie.html

The $22,000 is for a family of four. And ask your relative if he/she thinks she will actually see any tax savings if this is taken away from teachers. Not likely. It will be used to give tax breaks to corporations and the ultra wealthy who will not create any jobs. (They haven't in ten years of the Bush tax breaks for the rich.)

Your relative should be asking why he/she doesn't receive the same health care. Or why they keep having their employers make them pay more for health care while receiving no pay raises while productivity has risen dramatically?

but note that public employee pay when compared at equal levels of education

"Using the latest federal data, Keefe said the average total compensation for workers in the private sector with bachelor’s degrees is $89,041 compared with $56,641 for public workers.

"For workers with professional degrees — lawyers, say, or doctors — the gap is more dramatic: $175,141 in the private sector, $79,330 in the public."

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/05/rutgers_studies_public_versus.html

EXACTLY !!!!

I've been seeing some right wing Publican advertising about how much more teachers are paid than others, what they're not telling us is that each and every one of those teachers has at least a bachelors degree, many have masters, and some even have PhD's. When you take that into consideration teachers are underpaid by a large amount.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/nyregion/10christie.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=chris%20christie&st=cse&scp=2

From the article:

"New Jersey’s public-sector unions routinely pressure the State Legislature to give them what they fail to win in contract talks. Most government workers pay nothing for health insurance. Concessions by school employees would have prevented any cuts in school programs last year.

Statements like those are at the core of Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign to cut state spending by getting tougher on unions. They are not, however, accurate.

In fact, on the occasions when the Legislature granted the unions new benefits, it was for pensions, which were not subject to collective bargaining — and it has not happened in eight years. In reality, state employees have paid 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health insurance since 2007, in addition to co-payments and deductibles, and since last spring, many local government workers, including teachers, do as well..."

Diane Ravitch mentioned that old Russian joke the other day.

Raising one's standard of living by subtraction.