Chris Chrstie is wrong on teacher salaries and benefits

Welcome to my blog on why Chris Christie is dead wrong on just about everything!

My first post explores Chris Christie's feelings towards NJ teachers.

Let me start by saying I am not a NJ teacher.  I am not related to any NJ teachers.  I am not even a NJ parent.  I did vote for Chris Christie and I do think Chris Christie is dead wrong in his blaming teachers for the budget problems in NJ.  I can think of many better ways to fix the NJ budget crisis (I'll list them here in the next few days). 

Chris Christie seems to think NJ Teachers are overpaid. He has said this repeatedly. From his March 16th speech to the legislature:

“Political muscle fueled by intimidation tactics, political bullying and smears of public officials who dare to disagree. This conduct has set up an unfair system. Is it fair to have any public employees getting 4-5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero %, paid for by citizens struggling to survive? It is fair to have New Jersey taxpayers foot the bill for 100% of the health insurance costs of teachers and their families from the day they are hired until the day they die? Is it fair that teachers have a better, richer health plan than even state workers and pay absolutely nothing for it? “

But is Chris Christie correct? Of Course not!

Let’s look at some of the data. http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/ lists salary data by state and is a great place to look for this info.

First, let’s look at raw salaries – Only 5 states have higher Teacher Salaries than NJ – MI, CT, DC, CA, MD. On the raw salary point it seems at first glance Chris Christie is correct. But, further analysis shows a different story. On this blog we’ll explore some of the numbers.

Second,  look at average teacher salary compared to median housing prices. Only 4 states (NY, AZ, CA, HI) pay their teachers worse than NJ when salary is compared to median housing prices. NJ teachers can’t afford to purchase houses in the state where they work! Does that sound like they are over-paid?

Next, compare NJ teacher salaries to median income of the state. Guess what, NJ is dead last in this category. From this statistic it sounds like everyone else in NJ might be overpaid, but I certainly can’t conclude teachers are overpaid.

Final comparison stat for today is cost of benefits. Chris Christie seems to thing teacher benefits are out of line. NJ ranks about middle of the road in this category. About half the states pay more for teacher benefits and half pay less. Don’t worry though, Chris Christie will fix this and make sure NJ ranks at the bottom.

So, if NJ teachers salaries are low compared to median housing prices and median income of the state and benefits are in line with every other state why is the per pupil spending in NJ only topped by NY and DC? We’ll explore this topic in the next post.

For now, let’s just think about how wrong Chris Christie is for thinking teachers are the problem in NJ.