Think it’s more of this than anything else.
And I always add the 4th “R” to the discussion too…running. Meaning exercise or some real physical activity/education.
Especially at the elementary level.
OT: Property tax relief coming for those over 65
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And I always add the 4th “R” to the discussion too…running. Meaning exercise or some real physical activity/education.
Especially at the elementary level.
No the NJ pension invested in a range of investments and had a very good long-term return. Actually, last I checked the average return was slightly higher than the percentage the actuaries used in the formula.
It's funny you mentioned this. I recently drove past my old elementary school (first time in a long time) and we had a big playground. It's now covered by portable classrooms & locked up. No way they can hold a field day there now. Such a shame since a good part of our summer was playing baseball there and hitting tennis balls against the outside gym wall. We really need to get the kids back to real gym classes again.
Parents and sports are a much different topic. Actually getting parents involved in their children education should be a good thing (or it used to be). Maybe it would stop all the crap going on and make the teachers jobs easier (and not be the glorified daycare).
"those folks" don't self-identify in most cases. Investing is great until you do something bone headed.
Already addressed this. Limit options and make the most aggressive option the S&P 500 index. Problem solved.
In addition to the suggestion of an S&P 500 fund, there are target date funds that can make it super simple. It's the same concept as the default investment in 401k plans. I am older now but 20 years ago wanted the individual accounts.
Those folks can also choose to opt into whatever "standard" retirement investment packages managed by a third party there could be as part of the program. Just like Retirement age targets many retirement investment 401ks have now.
I'm not sure what you mean by a "pay as you go" program. Today's employees are paying for today's retirees. That's the way program was set up. After all, retirees in the 1930s started receiving benefits right away even though they had put nothing in the system. The same is true today. The hope is that tomorrow's employees will be able to pay for tomorrow's retirees -- that is, today's employees.
IMHO, it makes no sense to make Social Security a 401(k) type program. Social Security is supposed to be a safety net. It is most important as a countercyclical program -- that is, as a way of helping people whose investments have gone sour or weren't able to invest enough for their retirement. Having Social Security benefits depend on how the stock market does (essentially what a 401(k) does) means the program will not be there to help people if the market goes down.
Not true. Average gains over time would dwarf any temporary downturn. There was an analysis conducted a while back and it showed if 50% of SS money was invested in the S&P 500 index since the start of the program, the surplus would be so massive that benefits could be triple today and there would still be a bulletproof surplus.
Stupid gov'ment.
Brokers and mutual funds have a disclaimer: "Past performance does not guarantee future results." (That's why many investors don't put all their money in the stock market.) It makes sense to have a benefits program that does not depend on what the stock market does.
Yes, that’s what is meant by pay-as-you-go. I agree with everything you wrote.
You can think whatever you like man, again I’m not interested in the politics of it all. I’m simply saying out loud what a lot of parents and grandparents need to hear, ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. Parents on BOTH SIDES of the political extremes have taken over school boards and school board meetings constantly trying to outdue one another and teachers are tired of it. Teachers are now nearly scrutinized as much as police officers which coincidentally are also facing a hiring crisis.
Here’s the reality man, you can take as much pride as you like in what parents are doing at school board meetings today, the result is a lack of teachers and real lack of people interested in joining the profession.
Actions have consequences man, if screaming at school board meetings about this and that is worth kids attending school in classes with a 30:1 student/teacher ratio then keep doing it!
Again it’s a reality many don’t want to hear, but ask ANY teacher in the public school system and they will confirm what I’m saying… ******* PARENTS are why there is a teacher shortage, point blank. I PROMISE you its not the kids or pension why they are leaving
But it wasn't. And what do you do for current recipients or those near retirees? I can point out screwups going back 70 years. Most of the propagators of those mistakes have been dead for decades. Reagan & O'Neill bought us a generation. But both parties did nothing about it.
Broad indexes go up over time. If they don't, we all have bigger problems than retirement.
Years ago when my boys were younger (one out of graduate school and the other a college junior) the “superintendent” (don’t get me started on that one
) of their one school K-8 district would have get togethers. Usually some parents, him and a teacher or two.I went to one once and during the Q&A I brought up that 4th “R” idea. He said it didn’t fit with what he wanted to do…make the upper grades more of middle school thing to prepare them for their “HS career.” I mentioned how many of us picked this particular town and it’s school because the K-8 set up. I then asked the teachers, some who were from the upper grades, how the kids behaved after being outside or gym class. They all said the learning environment was much better for all…teacher and student.
To paraphrase Gordon Gekko…the 4th “R” is good. It works for the kid and the teacher.
The issue is, in ANY field, the best have to be left to flourish. They cannot be micromanaged. Sure there’s requirements of every class that need to be met, 100%. However the insanity of parents constantly attacking teachers is becoming too much.
True story, one of my best friends has a duel masters degree in education and chemistry, went to Delaware for undergrad followed by Pitt for her masters, she went into teaching as a HS chemistry teacher and was SUPER in demand.
She made it 5 years. Once a few parents started attacking her for allowing some of her students who happened to be gay to eat lunch in her classroom because they were bullied too bad at lunch, and a couple of parents who WERE NOT EVEN THE PARENTS OF THOSE KIDS found out that she knew those kids were gay, they accused her of indoctrinating kids with her ‘Gay Lunches’ and started yelling at school board meetings about it. That was enough for her. Keep in mind this girl is married to a man and they have a child together.
She now owns a Dog training business that is doing extremely well, in her words ‘Dogs are much nicer than parents’
Meanwhile teachers are left in an impossible position where they can’t call out the real issue, the parents! So here we go, round and round while the adults are arguing and the kids get screwed…. Go figure
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Are you seriously doing the ‘Boys are too cooped up all day’ excuse? That’s nothing more than the old ‘Boys will be boys’ saying which is complete and total horseshit. Holy Christ, didn’t realize we were still living in 1957Years ago when my boys were younger (one out of graduate school and the other a college junior) the “superintendent” (don’t get me started on that one
I went to one once and during the Q&A I brought up that 4th “R” idea. He said it didn’t fit with what he wanted to do…make the upper grades more of middle school thing to prepare them for their “HS career.” I mentioned how many of us picked this particular town and it’s school because the K-8 set up. I then asked the teachers, some who were from the upper grades, how the kids behaved after being outside or gym class. They all said the learning environment was much better for all…teacher and student.
To paraphrase Gordon Gekko…the 4th “R” is good. It works for the kid and the teacher.
She needs to move down to Cape May county. My daughter who just started working on her masters is in her 2nd year of teaching and making that amount teaching kindergarten. Property taxes are a lot lower here too
Yea that’s a nice excuse to feel justified in what’s happening at school board meetings while completely ignoring the reality that the result is a teacher shortage. This requires some critical thinking skills which I understand is difficult for some, but there’s this thing called cause and effect.
I don’t want to make this political but you are leaving me no choice. 75% of Gen Z’s who graduate college are liberal. 75%. Now of the 25% remaining conservative minded how many do you think are going into teaching? They aren’t! You have to know your talent pool, you have to adapt with your workers, that’s how all rhe best companies flourish! Meanwhile every school board meeting has become a Fox News talking point battleground where parents are not concerned about ‘Writing and Arithmatic’ they are concerned about something called CRT that they keep hearing Hannity tell them how evil it is and banning pride flags in school. That’s what this is, let’s stop dancing around what is INCREDIBLY obvious.
So look man, if all of that is worth 30:1 student/faculty ratio then so be it! What’s happening though is parents are driving teachers away from the profession. That’s really where the story ends. Ask ANY public school teachers who can anonymously answer without fear of repercussions if anything about what I’m saying is untrue.
Sorry you lack critical thinking skills and can’t put 2 and 2 together.
Here I’ll explain it nice and slow for you,
******* Parents=Teacher Shortage
Any questions?
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LOL...your post is like listening to a rambling drunk. You imply but don't explain why the parents are that way. There have always been pain in the *** parents. When my kids were in school I always found the best teachers were the young ones just out of college. They actually taught what they learned and were not tainted. It was the older tenured teachers than the kids didn't like/didn't teach. Sure there are many good tenured teachers but plenty of bad as well. At my company we have a lot of former teachers. They are there because they can make so much more in corporate America. That is why they are leaving. Not dealing with kids and parents is the bonus.
given what we see teaching these days I'm ok with it
there have always been ******* parents but the difference is that the schools are catering to it now
Absurd takes in athletics and life. Truly embarrassing! Summed it up in first sentence.
How do they work half the year? Teachers work 9 1/2 months during the year and the days are long. My daughter gets to the school at 7:30 and generally leaves around 6:00-6:30. There is a lot more than teaching in the classroom, including planning for the next day, staff meeting and responding to parents (which is out of control)
Unfortunately schools can’t afford to weed out the mediocre. There is a shortage of teachers, and the shortage is growing.
She is an outlier. Especially at the elementary level. I had a bussing issue this year due to home renovation, so I drove the kids to school. I would get to the school fifteen minutes early to drop the kids off. The same 20+ teachers were getting to the school every day rushing to beat the kids into the school. Those same teachers were also first to leave at end of day when I would be in line to pick them up ( and I love my children’s teachers and district).
But the work hours you post above are very similar to what most private sector employees that are interested in advancement put in. In financial world (especially the early years) I would be at my desk no later than 7:00-7:15 and work until no earlier than 5:30 most of the time 7:00, then entertain 2-3 days a week. It’s expected.
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Most teachers work very hard. The ******* teacher who taught my son in his highschool junior math class milked the system by taking all her earned sick and vacation days during the year, and then retiring. My son had an endless stream of substitute teachers "teaching math". Her selfishness set my son's education back a year. The school board was not happy but she had a contractual right to screw her students that year.
Which is what I was talking about earlier, the 4th R…
“readin, ‘ritin, ‘rithmetic and runnin”
Sorry if this post meanders a bit.
1. I teach math. I totally agree that more physical activity is needed. Just last night, I heard about an NJ district that completely cut art and music. Like, no more arts at all. No more instruments, no more chorus. I believe in a well rounded student. This is not what we're getting.
2. There are absolutely good and bad teachers. I think the good, hard working ones outweigh the lazy, milk the system teachers by about a 10 to 1 ratio. But those bad teachers are the ones you remember as a parent and as a taxpayer.
3. Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I agree with 95. The districts are now allowing parents to run the schools. Awful parents are becoming more emboldened because districts fear them, and the vicious cycle goes on and on.
4. I am not an anomaly. I am the norm. I care immensely about my students and their well being. I care about their future success. I care about their development as good people with strong work ethics and a strong sense of responsibility and accountability. My favorite phrase when I'm frustrated is "Why do I care about your grades more than you care about your grades?" Again, I am not an anomaly. The lazy teachers referenced in this thread do exist. I work with a few. But 90+% of us are in that classroom because we care.
1. I teach math. I totally agree that more physical activity is needed. Just last night, I heard about an NJ district that completely cut art and music. Like, no more arts at all. No more instruments, no more chorus. I believe in a well rounded student. This is not what we're getting.
2. There are absolutely good and bad teachers. I think the good, hard working ones outweigh the lazy, milk the system teachers by about a 10 to 1 ratio. But those bad teachers are the ones you remember as a parent and as a taxpayer.
3. Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I agree with 95. The districts are now allowing parents to run the schools. Awful parents are becoming more emboldened because districts fear them, and the vicious cycle goes on and on.
4. I am not an anomaly. I am the norm. I care immensely about my students and their well being. I care about their future success. I care about their development as good people with strong work ethics and a strong sense of responsibility and accountability. My favorite phrase when I'm frustrated is "Why do I care about your grades more than you care about your grades?" Again, I am not an anomaly. The lazy teachers referenced in this thread do exist. I work with a few. But 90+% of us are in that classroom because we care.
So here's the FACTUAL MATH using my actual SS benefit and actual contributions made over my 32 years by me and my employer.
My current gross monthly SS benefit is $3049 and will generate a 20 year benefit (65-85) of $657,000.
Over those 32 years me and my employer contributed pre-tax $309,700 which is $9,758 per year and $806 per month. (right on your SS statement)
You can use any financial calculator online that will show a total end value making monthly contribution and compounding over 32 years using different interest rates.
When I put in a 6% annualized return it shows my account would have been worth $937,700 ! I could take out straight line $3907 for 20 years! That's 28% more.
And guess what? Since the equity in the account would continue to grow over those 20 years there would even be a decent amount of cash in it to fund future years of life or on death to pass on as inheritance or even given back to fund general SS obligations.
The break even interest rate required is 4.25%.
Over the past 20 years (2002 to 2022), the average annualized return on the S&P 500 is 8.19%. (9.8% since its inception in 1928)
I agree with most of what you say in this post. I appreciate your perspective and appreciate you for having pride in your career choice. You are exactly what is needed in your profession.
Point 4 is what I see in my district. One of the reasons we sought out the location. Teachers care , teachers go out of their way to interact not only with students but parents. One thing about our district specifically the elementary, middle school level is the parents are extremely involved and their input is respected.
Getting rid of those lazy teachers would go a long way with changing perceptions of taxpayers and parents. It would generate a lot of goodwill to public school districts.
Also, cutting art and music is f'ing moronic.
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