Educators' pay draws attention

My two children are teachers. One works in Nassau County and her identical twin in Florida. The Nassau County teacher’s salary is almost double her sister’s.

I do not feel teachers here are overpaid, but I do believe Florida teachers are vastly underpaid ["How much educators make on LI," News, Aug. 8]. A big reason why school taxes here are out of control is the huge disparity in the number of administrators on Long Island compared with Florida. Palm Beach County has the same pay scale for every teacher in its boundaries. It also has only one superintendent. How many superintendents and administrators are in each district here? Talk about inefficiencies and duplication of services.

— Joe Cavallo, Deer Park

Without our dedicated and well-meaning educators, we would cease to have the well-educated population that reads Newsday. When will Newsday investigate real problems in Long Island public education: the continuing support of education through real estate taxes while lawmakers shun the enactment of a wealth tax, and the absurdity of supporting so many individual districts. A fabulously wealthy class refuses to pay its fair share while heads of school districts and boards refuse to consolidate into larger central districts.

— Gregory P. Rizzo, Rockville Centre

The writer retired after teaching for 35 years.

The article highlights the situation’s Catch-22. One educator says that the "cost of living is high. So how would you expect teachers to live here, if they’re not paid?" The article also says, "Overall school district spending accounts for about two-thirds of property taxes in the region." Besides six-figure salaries, there are outrageous severance retirement packages. The justification is "contractual union agreements," and when taxpayers complain, there is a pushback from the unions.

— Bob Ranieri, St. James

Educators are crying all the way to the bank. I have been paying property taxes here for almost 50 years. The high cost of living here is due to public employee unions, primarily teachers’ unions, and school taxes. The need for excessive compensation has been caused by the recipients over years.

Ideally, I think public employee wages should be capped at a multiple of a community’s average income, possibly two or three times for teachers. Law enforcement should have a larger multiple. The future is not sustainable with contract giveaways. Sick leave is for the sick, not for a retirement bonus.

I do not want to appear to denigrate our teachers, administrators and other public employees. These are public servants, and they do wonderful, difficult work. But they make themselves unaffordable.

Finally, public and private pensions should be treated the same way by the New York tax code — no more tax-free pensions for public employees.

— Jim Cain, Flanders

Can we all stop pretending a $100,000 salary makes one rich on Long Island? The cost of living here makes that kind of income decidedly middle class. It’s just about enough to keep you from living paycheck to paycheck but still not enough to make paying for college or retirement any less difficult.

Teachers are highly educated professionals who do an important, difficult job. Their performance is scrutinized and measured. And they must keep taking courses to learn changing curriculum requirements. The problem is that even though New Yorkers already pay incredibly high income taxes, our state government still forces us to fund education mostly through property taxes.

— Jeanne D’Esposito, Malverne

The writer is a member of the Malverne school board.

Newsday again is highlighting teachers’ salaries yet misleading the public by lumping these together with administrators’ salaries, whose pay is far above those who actually work with students. I hope, in the future, Newsday will delineate each group and not inflame the public with these high figures. Let’s be fair to those who work with our children.

— Leslie Salerno, Wading River

The writer is a retired teacher.

If I found anything alarming about what teachers are paid, it is that anyone would find it alarming. Of all the salaries to complain about, parents of schoolchildren, employers and property owners whose home values are greatly affected by the quality of school districts should be championing paying more to potential educators rather than lose them to careers far less vital to our community and our nation’s future.

— John A. Viteritti, Laurel

The article tellingly notes that one teacher "collected" rather than earned $509,312 for teaching his last year. This is because for 40 years, the absurd premise of a civil service union has perverted our economy. The article quotes a union official essentially saying a teacher deserves to collect that because it’s so expensive to live here. Ain’t that rich?

— William Binnie, Lake Grove