High salaries are the issue

Dear Editor:

I read the article about school funding in the (Massapequa Post's) Oct. 15 issue with a sense of sadness but not surprise. A number of Long Island political figures were asked their views on how to deal with our ever increasing school taxes, and at least seven of the usual ideas were advanced. One favored a tax cap and would also give a tax rebate to certain taxpayers. Another suggested forming a commission to study costs and to propose solutions. Unfunded mandates would be studied by another and there was also a call for greater state aid.

The phrase may be trite and much over-used, but every politician quoted carefully avoided mention of the 800 pound gorilla in the living room: school salaries and benefits. These amount to approximately 80 percent of the entire budget in every school district. And year after year increases in salaries have been the principal factor driving up school costs much faster than the rate of inflation.

Although the politicians avoided mentioning salaries, in the beginning of the article, (The Massapequa Post) quoted the average New York teacher's salary at $57,354 and added that in Nassau County, the average for a teacher with 12 years experience, is $75,254. (This would probably be for a teacher about 35 years old.)

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Law, additional information about teachers' salaries in Massapequa is available. During the last school year, 2007-2008, 38 percent of Massapequa's entire staff of teachers and administrators, 258 people, were paid more than $100,000. And that number was 64 larger than just the year before. This gives us some sense of how quickly salaries are rising. Those crossing the $100,000 mark were up 33 percent in just one year. Pensions and other benefits, on average, cost the taxpayer an additional 26 percent. And one wonders how many will be paid more than $100,000 this year?

Since rising salaries are the heart of the problem, why is it that politicians never propose anything that might slow that increase? Some years ago, this was explained to me by a former superintendent of schools. He pointed out that the re-election campaigns of many legislators in Albany, regularly receive handsome contributions from the all-powerful teachers' union. And the surest way for an incumbent to be defeated in the next election, he added, would be to propose something the union doesn't like. In that event, his opponent would get the money.

Realistically, we'll get little help from Albany. The legislature has been bought and paid for. Hope springs eternal, however. Perhaps at long last, the people of Massapequa will begin to pay attention to school board elections. They might even elect board members who are not retired teachers, not persons married to teachers and not teacher-friendly members of the PTA.

James E. Stubenrauch

Massapequa