I'm not quite myself this morning, so just some linking for now.
Harry B writes about teacher preparation and responds to a great article on the subject in the NYT magazine. I'll do my own post later today.
During a state and local political class at Mercer County Community College, the professor discussed the practice of "double dipping" and pointed to a local sheriff who was collecting a pension of $85,000 and a salary of $129,634 for the same job. As the class was in session, a student texted the sheriff to inform him that he was Exhibit A. The sheriff flew over to the college, marched into the classroom, and hauled the professor into the hallway for a scolding. He made the professor apologize.
That's the way we do things in New Jersey.
Apt. 11d 
That’s the way we do things in New Jersey.
Which may explain why NJ is broke and cutting school funding. But, one of our recent sheriffs went to trial for “macing,” which in this context is forcing your subordinates to contribute to your campaign fund on pain of bad assignements, no promotions, etc.
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Coincidentally, I just ran into this article via Throwing Things.
This is a show I’d definitely watch. Tony was a regular at the diner my grandfather, mom and I worked at in Malverne. I have such a soft spot for him.
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Oh dear. Well, the rest of that comment wasn’t worth it anyway.
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What we need is a randomized experiment to test the effect of former cast members of “Who’s the Boss” on educational attainment.
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Double-dipping isn’t the problem, per se. Why is it necessarily better if the worker takes their pension and retires to Florida? That could be a lot of institutional memory lost, replaced by someone less skilled at the job but commanding the same salary the retired-and-gone worker would have.
The real problem is the ridiculously low “retirement” ages. I can understand law enforcement/public safety exceptions, but there is no reason that a gov’t lawyer or database administrator should be pension-eligible at 50. Up the age to 65, and then anyone who wants to double-dip after that point, well, God bless ’em for having far more work ethic than I do.
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My BIL turned 40 two years ago and retired from the NYPD the following year. My dad retired at age 55, but that was a good thing–he doesn’t have great health. But at least 3, maybe more, colleagues of mine (full-time college faculty!) are former HS teachers who are retired and receiving pensions.
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That Sabrin guy is a little unhinged:
In the hallway chat with Professor Glass Sheriff Larkin could have pulled his revolver and shot Glass claiming self defense. If there were no witnesses in the hallway, the Sheriff could have gotten away with murder.
…
And as far as the student in Professor Glass’ class, Brooke Seidl, who sent a text message to Sheriff Larkin about the professor’s remarks, she should be expelled from Mercer Community College and fired form her County Clerk position.
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Isn’t part of the issue that the pension schemes were negotiated based on years of service, rather than on age?
I think there are bad deals in pensions all over the place, ’cause the local governments negotiated significant future obligations (under someone else’s watch) in order to avoid current costs. When pension funds were riding high, it even seemed like it might actually be a not unreasonable decision, that the future obligations might have been funded at current dollars (well, if everyone was really optimistic, and believed in fairies).
Sabrin had me with him (I even agree that an armed police person pulling you out into the hallway is kind of scary). But, it does not seem like a likely scenario that Larkin could have gotten away with murder. And, it’s definitely unhinged to suggest a student should be expelled (can you be expelled from community college?) and fired because she sent a text mail message to a colleague and friend from class.
(So, is she supposed to have violated the teacher/student confidentiality rule that they teach in la la land?)
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Of course you can be expelled from any college.
I would be tempted to throw her out of class simply for texting someone while in class. That just bugs the crap out of me.
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(well, if everyone was really optimistic, and believed in fairies).
Pittsburgh has 143,739 households and a city pension plan that is $500 million under the needed amount using optimistic assumptions. Some say that when you use realistic assumptions and figure in the school district, the figure is $1 billion. That is, aside from everything else that we have paid in, each household would have to pay an additional $7,000 to bring the thing into balance*. Given that the median household income is $28,588, well over half the households aren’t going to be paying anything.
This is basically why, as pissed as I am at banks, I still want a smaller government.
* The local leaders know they can’t get this money without sending everybody to the suburbs, so they are cutting services and selling assets.
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(can you be expelled from community college?)
I’d bet it is far easier to get expelled from a community college than it is from an Ivy. The new meritocracy is very reluncant to admit it picked poorly. The community colleges have to enforce standards to keep the atmosphere such that learning is likely for those who try.
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I’d have gladly paid $14k just to be done with the thing. But no matter how much we might fork over, we’re still on the hook for any subsequent mismanagement. And that’s one major reason that we’re no long city of Pittsburgh residents.
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Speaking of public pensions:
“March 8 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-08/failed-banks-may-get-pension-fund-backing-as-fdic-seeks-cash.html
Underfunded pension plans plus failed banks. What could possibly go wrong?
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More on public pensions:
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/public-pension-funds-are-adding-risk-to-raise-returns/
“States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers’ retirement.
“Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds, Mary Williams Walsh writes in The New York Times.
“But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk.
““In effect, they’re going to Las Vegas,” said Frederick E. Rowe, a Dallas investor and the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, which oversees public plans in that state. “Double up to catch up.””
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“Underfunded pension plans plus failed banks. What could possibly go wrong?”
I dunno, why don’t we hand out some more tax breaks to millionaires and their heirs? I’m sure they need it most.
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