State Rep. Tommy Benton said this week that while he gets a lot of calls to cut state spending, few people will give him specific suggestions on where to cut.
We have a suggestion: Everywhere.
EDITORIAL: A few state cutback ideas
Just like a lot of local governments, the state government became bloated during the housing bubble. Money flowed into the state budget and was quickly spent on a huge variety of programs.
Most government spending involves personnel, and that’s where the state should focus its cuts. Over the last two decades, the growth in state government pay and benefits has risen beyond what is offered by many of the state’s businesses, especially small businesses which are the backbone of job creation.
A few suggestions:
---Cut state paid holidays from the current 12 down to 5. There’s no reason to give state employees 12 paid holidays in addition to a battery of vacation time.
--Cut back on the generous health benefits offered most state employees. Have state employees share more of the cost, just as most private businesses are doing.
--Cut the number of employees in the state’s university system. Offices of academia are notorious for being overstaffed and under worked. The work ethic on most college campuses pales compared to the private sector.
--Cut the pay for bureaucrats and others who make far more than the average salary for Georgia citizens. Here’s just one example: The Jackson County School System has nine people making over $100,000 per year, another 16 making over $90,000 per year and a total of 165 are making over $60,000 per year. The average pay in Jackson County is between $22,000 - $34,000. Do the math, then get salaries back in line.
--Cancel most non-emergency state travel. State employees are always going to a variety of mostly useless meetings and seminars. Continuing education junkets are a big business. Cut them out.
--Cut all state consultants, especially in education. In fact, cut the bureaucrats in the state department of education by half.
--Cut mandates to local governments, including school systems. Many state mandates are just job creation programs for bureaucrats to justify their positions.
These are just a few areas where the state could make a dent in its expenses.
This economic downturn is affecting everyone. Government employees are not — and should not — be exempt from what is already happening in the private sector.
Most government spending involves personnel, and that’s where the state should focus its cuts. Over the last two decades, the growth in state government pay and benefits has risen beyond what is offered by many of the state’s businesses, especially small businesses which are the backbone of job creation.
A few suggestions:
---Cut state paid holidays from the current 12 down to 5. There’s no reason to give state employees 12 paid holidays in addition to a battery of vacation time.
--Cut back on the generous health benefits offered most state employees. Have state employees share more of the cost, just as most private businesses are doing.
--Cut the number of employees in the state’s university system. Offices of academia are notorious for being overstaffed and under worked. The work ethic on most college campuses pales compared to the private sector.
--Cut the pay for bureaucrats and others who make far more than the average salary for Georgia citizens. Here’s just one example: The Jackson County School System has nine people making over $100,000 per year, another 16 making over $90,000 per year and a total of 165 are making over $60,000 per year. The average pay in Jackson County is between $22,000 - $34,000. Do the math, then get salaries back in line.
--Cancel most non-emergency state travel. State employees are always going to a variety of mostly useless meetings and seminars. Continuing education junkets are a big business. Cut them out.
--Cut all state consultants, especially in education. In fact, cut the bureaucrats in the state department of education by half.
--Cut mandates to local governments, including school systems. Many state mandates are just job creation programs for bureaucrats to justify their positions.
These are just a few areas where the state could make a dent in its expenses.
This economic downturn is affecting everyone. Government employees are not — and should not — be exempt from what is already happening in the private sector.
Defined tags for this entry: mike
Federal spending on education has doubled during the Bush administration and it seems to have all gone to administration, rather than education.
One other major area for govt. employees cuts. Retirement: The retirement benefits for govt. employees is not even in the same magnitude as private retirees.
I'm not going to hold my breath for any of these changes to occur though.
Referendums should decide govt. employee pay.
start cutting County school employees benefits and pay so they too can be like lots of other citizens and lose all they have
worked for. Lord knows we can't have people that actually
took the next steps in furthering their education through
college actually being rewarded for their hard work. Have
you looked in to what the city schools are paying their
employees too? Their salaries come from taxpayers in the
county as well. Take a look at your own salary Mr. Buffington
and see how far from the average Jackson County salary
it is and think to yourself how it would sit with you to
have your hard work rewarded with a reduction in your
pay. You can't fix the economy by taking away peoples money.
one from paying taxes? Wouldn't one think that perhaps a
large number of these school employees live in Jackson
County and contribute to the same tax system in the county
as you and I do? If we start cutting salaries form 50-75%,
to the county average, how can the private sector stay
in buisness when these $100,000, $90,000, and $60,000
citizens are forced to spend less? I am sure that
Mr. Benton could look hard and find ways to
decrease spending. I am positive that not every dollar
that is paid in taxes goes to salaries.
As usual, you speak out of ignorance (wonder who your teacher was...). The educators who make $60K and above are largely those individuals who have put more into you and I and the children of this community than your one-sided opinion and paper ever will. They are people who have taught for years because this is how they give back and work at something they believe in; making people like you smarter.
By the way, Mike, I wonder if people are aware that you make more than 90% of us? Would they think what YOU do is worth it? I certainly do not.
Be a REAL journalist, be some one whose report is unbiased, who does thier due diligence on an issue and not just someone who bores people with their opinion...
I realize this article was trying to focus on economic issues, but I refused to let this comment slamming teachers just go without saying something about it. I've said this to people who like to bring up all the "perks" teachers get: if you so envy the benefits of a teacher's life, then start working to become a teacher yourself. You chose your career just as I chose mine.
When I compare my career as a researcher to my career as a teacher the only real differences are ---> the degree of satisfaction and feeling of being a meaningful part of society (much greater as a teacher!) and my paycheck (MUCH MUCH less as a teacher!).
Please think before you "speak" as I find your post to be ignorant and insulting. I hope that you don't have children, as you clearly don't feel that a good education is important.
The proof is always in the pudding.
~Proudly "underpaid" (you can check my salary in the paper) teacher.
It appears to me that these comments have been completely removed from what Mike is saying. He is by no means insinuating there is a need to reduce the average teachers pay or that it would be ok to increase the average teachers already burdensome workload. His argument is that we should consider where the money budgeted for education is being spent. When money is budgeted for education is it directly improving our educational system or is it being used to support frills which have no direct impact on educational quality. Sure, he attacked excessive salaries and some are construing that to say that Mr. Buffington thinks teachers are overpaid. Clearly he stated that some, not all, members of the education system are overpaid. He is simply urging us to examine rather or not these people he mentioned as overpaid are contributing enough to the quality of education in the Jackson County school system to justify their high levels of income.
Now that is a topic for debate and the true subject of Mike's article.
Do your homework before you write things that are off base. This the problem with the article.
It was one mans opinion but unfortunatly it did not give all of the facts. Should have been in the editorial section. Some people might take it as the complete truth. Half truths are more hurtful and dangerous than flat out lies.
Let opinions be where they should in the back ground let the truth be printed on front pages.
Where is the backbone of the written pen?
"didn't mean to step on toes, but just calling it like it is. teachers are usually the bottom of the barrel from college. because they couldn't do higher education jobs. and why do the school system think that they are above everyone. if we hire a teacher. then that person need to teach. It will show threw the children of jackson county. do i need to said more. "
Now "one small voice", it is my turn to call it like it is. I just finished grading 105 student essays and your grammar is the worst I have seen today. By the way, I teach 6th graders and I can't wait to see my hard work pay off "threw" my students. In conclusion, let me add that proofreading is a vital step of the writing process.
I'm also attending graduate school, that I paid for out of my pocket.
Those three months I get off in the summer are spent taking classes to help further my abilities as a teacher, plus the fact that I also teach summer school.
Before anyone starts saying I am the bottom of the education barrel or someone who has it easy need to spend a week doing what I do. Not every child is perfect and easy, so imagine having 25 of them under your care at all times.
By the way, a cell phone cannot be a taxpayer.
Oh and by the way, some teacher at one point in your life taught you how to read and write so that one day you could post nonsense such as this on a website.
In addition, many of you are attacking teachers as individuals. Yet, you are completely unaware of our intellectual background or what we do on daily basis in our classrooms. I think any teacher would invite you into their classroom so that you can see how we must juggle students who come to school without adequate sleep, food, or shelter with meeting rigorous state standards, federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind, along with our passion to instill the love of learning with children. Only when you have taken the time to educate yourself about what goes on in a school on a daily basis can you make informed complaints about the educational system today.
Why don't you have your salary and all of the ones at your newspaper posted.
Why are you trying to stir up all this mess.
Say Mr. Buffington how much do you make a year? What is your educational level? If the Jackson County superintendent makes 120K/year, has a Ph.D., and has been in teaching/administration for 25+ years you think that salary is not justified? In "fairness" how about you do this. Post your salary, your educational level and let the citizens of Jackson county determine if YOU make to much money based on your education and experience.
Okay, the bell just rang on my break, you folks can get back to it.
(By the way, I am not interested....)
Mission accomplished – you have successfully incited the local systems of education. Do you feel accomplished? I want you to consider the amount of time teachers have personally spent helping your own children. Was such help unwarranted and overpaid?
Your goal of last week’s opinion page was to “educate” the public on YOUR opinion of possible ways State Representative Benton could reduce the state budget. Unfortunately, you have taken the wrong approach by attacking the salaries of teachers. You are trying to create a class war by suggesting teacher salaries “get back in line…of $22, 000 to $34, 000.
A better approach would have been to print ALL expenditures of the local school budgets and then allow the people to judge the quality of spending. Instead, you choose to print salaries alone as to suggest educated professionals are not worthy of compensation for their education, years of experience and the job(s) they perform. I invite you personally, Mr. Buffington, to do my job along with the bloggers who suggest those who can’t, teach. My classroom door is open at all times as are my college transcripts. I am well versed in my content of science and mathematics and rightly EARN my $52, 000 annual salary. My position is not one of wasteful spending. I worked to earn higher degrees of education to better my abilities to perform my job. What were the people who make $22, 000 - $34, 000 doing when I was studying and practicing physics, chemistry, calculus…?
Maybe they should have listened to a teacher and realized the importance of a higher education.
It is people such as you, Mr. Buffington, who slant the impressionable and continue to use your biased media source to create a world of haves and have not’s. I would like to encourage you to print the full picture of the local school budgets and allow the people who pay taxes to form their OWN opinion by considering ALL expenditures.
I know a registered nurse with 30 years experience doesn't make that.
I know a respiratory therapist with 30 years experience doesn't make that.
I know a radiological technologist with 30 years experience doesn't make that.
And we're complaining about health care costs?
My God!
PS If I don't like Mike Buffington's profit I can cancel the paper. I've just decided to renew.
Common sense, more efficient school administration is called for based on the salaries I read in the newspaper.
We are in the biggest financial panic we've seen since the 1930's. The tax revenue isn't going to be there for bloated salaries. The government is going to have to slim down and that is not just the education area.
Mike Buffington has done an excellent job in reporting the news. He, like all of us, are entitled to our opinions.
And one more thing. Teachers are unionized. The state does not set their salaries. Their salaries are negotiated with the unions, unless I don't understand collective bargaining.
A couple of places in your article, you cloud the discussion by switching between state and local cuts. Cutting University staff is irrelevant to Jackson County gov't. What does Tommy Benton have to do with Jackson County salaries?
In bullet point #2 and #4, I feel you are a little off. Mike, do you really see the 165 people in our county's education system that make more than $60k as unnecessary bureaucrats? As stated in an earlier comment, you continue to ignore the fact that these folks have advanced degrees and have been in the system for a great number of years. Why is it so difficult for you to acknowledge that? You and Kathy have only commented back to the dumb people who do not understand the difference between public and private entities.
Mike: Do you really believe that Government employees are given an exemption from this economic downturn? Do you believe that local governments have not had or already plan to have layoffs? You do not know what you are talking about. Check your facts. The state health plan is not as generous as you make it out to be. I would agree with what you say a lot more if this county's education system was run by teacher's unions. You don't seem to realize how great we have it in this county (coming from a former Clayton Co. resident).
As for you people leaving comments attacking the teachers, what gives? Are you all really so ignorant to believe that teachers chose their profession because they were not capable of anything else? Teachers do not choose their profession because of the money they will earn. They teach because of the nobility that comes with helping children grow and learn, and that nobility should be respected and appreciated. I have never met a teacher that thinks they are above everyone else. That is just ridiculous. Who came up with the idea that teachers have taxpayer provided cell phones? That is complete nonsense.
The kids in Jackson County are so screwed up because of the lack of parenting, not the teachers! The teachers are not supposed to raise your child, you are!
To be fair, Mike did not attack the teachers, the people leaving these comments did. Why do some of you think that how much money Mike makes is relevant? What Mike did was perfectly legal. It was maybe a little distasteful, but not unfair or illegal. It would have shown a little class to leave out the last names of the government employees. How about just using the first name and last initial next time?
Mike, I'm not mad at you. I will continue to read and buy your paper. I appreciate different opinions than mine.
For those of you that say you are canceling your subscriptions, and that you aren't going to read his papers anymore, do you really think he gives a darn? If you really wanted to make a difference, you would call the owners of the businesses that advertise in this paper, and let them know why you will boycott their businesses if they don't pull their ads out of the Herald.
Disclosure #1: I am a libertarian (the one with the lower case L). I believe we should all have the freedom that comes with school choice. Government (especially Federal) should not have anything to do with education. The whole idea of government education is a part of Karl Marx's perfect society (see plank #10).
Disclosure #2: My wife is a Jackson Co. teacher.
The state is attempting to make some deep budget cuts and "Education" at all levels makes up over half of the state budget. Yet it is politically incorrect to have any public discussion or debate about the finance of education in this state.... as many of these comments show, you don't dare discuss that topic without a frenzied backlash. Yet the fact is that wages — salaries and benefits — make up the vast majority of the state's education costs and there can be no real discussion of financing education without discussing that cost. Some inside the education community simply do not want to have that discussion, period.
Second, this economic downturn has not affected public sector employment to the same degree it has the private sector. Not a single person in education in Jackson County has been laid off or had their salary or benefits cut because of the downturn (although that may change in the FY2010 budget.) Try to explain that to the hundreds of people who are either unemployed or underemployed in the county. Government institutions, including education, cannot simply exempt themselves from the economic realities of our times.
Finally, providing salary information about public education employees is not an attack on teachers. I have a lot of friends who are teachers (maybe former friends?) and I have a lot of respect for the jobs they do. But that does not mean public education in Georgia is being funded correctly or fairly or that some upper level education positions haven't gotten out of line in compensation.
This state needs a debate on some of these issues, but no debate is worthwhile without information. We published the data; I think taxpayers are capable of deciding for themselves if the state's funding of public education needs changing.
Mike Buffington
Editor
No one would have minded a journalist posting the suggestion to trim state employee salaries. Even printing salary averages for state/local positions would have been acceptable. That's what you call "a conversation." Printing page after page of personal salaries is not. It only accomplishes bad feelings in the community--something we really don't need in difficult times. Apologies to all our hardworking educators.
Mike Buffington
I never complained about the teachers. It is the bloated administration salaries that reach out and grab my attention. Education dollars should be spent on education, i.e. teachers with as little overhead as feasible. I don't see any teacher salaries out of line with what one would expect to make with a college education. But administrators making more than 100k? That's ridiculous. You could have two teachers for every top administrator. What a waste of hard-earned tax dollars. (Yours too)
PS My son is getting a world-class education at Jefferson High.
I am employed in the "private sector" in one of the few manufacturing jobs left in the area as a factory worker. My income level is not by any means out of line with the level of a teacher in Jackson County when the time they spent in college to obtain their degrees, the ongoing required educator training and the time and dedication they each put into their profession. My family is under my health benefit plan due simply to the fact that my employer provided plan is substantially cheaper.
I am also in the "private sector" because even though I went to college to be a teacher those that teach in Jackson County are able to accomplish something on a daily basis I simply and honestly could not. That is tolerate the mass of ill behaved hoodlums unsupportive parents dump at the doorstep and expect their teachers to not only teach the basics but the added demands of turning them into responsible citizens.
So my hat is off to our Teachers, Para-Professionals, Administrators and everyone else who has as much influence in our childrens lives and do so with humility and integrity.
All Board meetings are open to the public.
Also, so are classrooms. You are more than welcome to go to your child's classroom at anytime, in fact I bet the help would be welcomed!
As a teacher in one of the local systems, I can assure all that teaching is not easy work. But having worked in the construction industry prior to becoming an educator, I also know that contracting is no picnic either.
The point is, no job is easy if one gives their all to it. In both my prior profession and my current one, I spend many hours each night and on weekends on work-related issues - it comes with the territory. In both professions, I earned my pay and worked a lot of hours off the clock.
Like one of the posts above, I also studied physics, chemistry, etc. in college and put that degree to work. I understand the importance of a higher education and have used it in both private industry and now in the local public school. My average pay in the past few years teaching is roughly the same as it was while I was building - maybe a bit more. The only difference is now my paycheck is regular and fairly secure whereas it certainly wasn't as a builder.
It's tough seeing friends of mine who have been let go and out of work for months trying to make ends meet. They have families, houses and financial obligations same as me. I'm not so sure that simply because I'm in a public job, I shouldn't have to help share the burden of this nightmare economy. On that issue, Mike is right. No, I don't want a pay cut but I'd rather face one now than see wholesale public school layoffs and huge classroom numbers in a year. Who benefits from that? Certainly not the teachers and, more importantly, not the students.
While I disagree with the newspaper on the manner in which this issue was brought up (printing names for heaven's sake - what were you thinking?), I have to agree that it's one that needs to be looked at now before things get drastic. Something has to give, folks because the state well is drying up.
This needs to be reviewed thoughtfully and most importantly, realistically. And because of that, I'm glad Mike had the guts to broach the subject, even in this tactless manner.
In the meantime, I'd like to see my coworkers get a little thicker skin and those radicals that think we're just babysitters get a life.
It is sad to see so many teachers (I'm supposing) try to defend how much they make, mostly because you are doing a horrendous job of it!
If you are a babysitter making $100 per week to care for a child, you're only making that much because you're only caring for 1 child. That was a ridiculous comparison made in response to an equally ridiculous comment!
If you are making $6,000 a month, I don't want to hear that you have problems. You have enough money on which to live very comfortably. (By the way, we all have to pay taxes, etc.) Perhaps you have been spending too much time on lesson plans and not enough absorbing what the rest of us might be going through.
The argument that I should have to pay you back for going to college is absurd! Or we could look at it this way; Mike is a journalist. He went to college and earned degrees to help him be talented and successful in his career. You are reading what he writes. Maybe you better start coughing up some of HIS payback for going to college and contributing to you and your children's lives, huh?
So how about this? If you are satisfied that you truly earn your salary, and you sleep well at night, then let Mike say whatever he wants! It's just his take on this, and the fact is that he didn't stir the pot, someone in the Jackson County School system did, so Mike responded. That's what you get for not being able to read an opinion piece and accept it for what it is.
So since I know it is going to make you feel so much better, please go ahead and get out your red pens and tell me everything I've done incorrectly in this post. I can take it.
To that other "kathy", please use another name so I don't have to take the credit for your posts. Thanks.
If you want to see the chart I mentioned, go to
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/fbo_budget.aspx
and it has salaries for the last few years and for 2009. If you look at the 2008 and 2009 charts you will see a 3% raise between them. It must be must be nice knowing you are getting a raise in this economy. The company I work for gave out 0% raises this your to every employ and laid off 15% to 20% of the employees.
When you are guaranteed certain pay and not in fear of losing your job, what is the incentive to work harder than you have too. I know some teachers do work very hard at their jobs but some of the things my children tell me about some of the teachers they have makes it hard for me to have too much sympathy for them. And before someone gets on their high horse, my mom taught and I have other family members that currently teach, so I have seen some that work hard and some that do not.
When I was coming through the educational system the USA was at the top of the list for education in the world but now we behind many other countries.
Georgia ranks as the 17th highest for teachers pay in the US (according to their own union website), to bad we do not rank 17th in education.
The Teachers Union basically holds the state at gun point and says that unless you give us all we want, “We’ll Strike”. I say let them strike and see just how many of them do strike. Probably not many teachers would give up that paycheck and then we could get back to merit based pay system for them and let the local BOE have more control rather than the unions and state BOE. When you are paid based on only what you do, there is more incentive to do a good job.
People seem to think that a pay cut for the teachers is going to all of a sudden make the educational system worse. If the company told me that they had to cut my pay in order to stay in business it would not stop working as hard as I do. It is not like the people are asking the teachers to take a 30% pay cut and Mike is just pointing out that there may be some jobs that could be eliminated which happens all the time in the private sector during economic hard times.
If they are not a union then they are a very close to one.
Here is what their website said are their Legislative Victories in Salary.
1995 6% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
1996 6% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
1997 6% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
1998 6% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
1999 4% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
2000 3% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
2001 4.5% salary increase applied to state salary schedule
2001 Pay for beginning teachers at the end of the first month of work
2002 3.25% salary increase applied to the state salary schedule
2004 2% salary increase applied to state salary schedule (delayed until January 2005)
2004 Step added to top of salary scale
2005 2% salary increase applied to state salary schedule (Higher Ed salary raise delayed until January 2006)
2006 4% salary increase applied to state salary schedule (Higher Ed salary raise delayed until January 2007)
2006 Local boards required to have a second public hearing (one required previously) before the local teacher salary supplement can be lowered. New measures also require notifying teachers of hearings and holding hearings after school hours
2007 3% salary increase applied to state salary schedule (Higher Ed salary raise delayed until January 1, 2008)
2008 2.5% salary increase applied to state salary schedule (Higher Ed salary raise delayed until January 1, 2009)
I guess you are right, no one is negotiating for you. I guess the state just gave you all the raises out of the goodness of the heart.
First: Those of us in the education field have known for years that all this information is available to anybody and everybody at open.georgia.gov. From Sonny's pay down to the lowest janitor at Podunk Jr. High, it's all been there for a while. We nosey types have been checking out our cohorts and bosses for a long time. It ain't no secret to us, why should it be to the public?
Second, somebody above used that politically-incorrect-heard-on-the-radio term "government schools." Guess what... we ARE government schools, funded by our generous taxpayers. Not all of my comrades understand that. But know what, I’m a taxpayer too. I want to know what my mayor and councilman’s salary is just like I want to know what my child’s PUBLIC teacher’s salary is. It’s my right, dammit!
Third: We educators often take ourselves way too seriously. Color me guilty of that in the past. I passed age 30 and I got over it.
By the way, I love this anonymous posting business (catch me if you can, Dr. Superintendent!) Personally, I think the lunchroom ladies are terribly underpaid for the crap they put up with from both students and us teachers. Thanks, Mike!
The best post to this forum is "could someone please pass the popcorn." Classic. Makes us all look like we're more concerned with our public appearance than educating our pupils. Seriously, that’s not the case with those of us who really are dedicated to our profession despite this recent BS.
On a lighter note, who says education can't be entertaining. Puts this exercise in nonsense in perspective, does it not?
Just like corporate America, the top paid folks are the problem, not the other salaries.
If teachers are upset about these #s being public record, than you can always contact the state about this?
I wish a year by year increase was shown. Why are some % jumps happening, when all staff did not have the same % increase?
I think an even more interesting public record would be the schools check book register!
Forsyth schools do this (online), I am told.
Look at legal fees alone. Did you know your $ is spent on that?
Is the amount spent with atty's Harbin Hartley reasonable?
Could these expenditure be avoided by changing some policies and protocols?
A look at all the expenditures would make a great news article.
What about the programs our schools join and get funding for. Granted the funding stopped on many of these but the public should know that other $ is coming in and how is it effecting our schools.
I even wonder about small expenditures.
For example, we wear uniforms here, what happens to the families who can't afford our dress code?
Does the school fund these uniforms?
I once needed to cancel a field trip and was not allowed a refund. My $ was dontated to a local childs college scholarship?
It's high time the checkbook registers are shown.