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083101Local teachers' salary higher than average
I am writing in response to the Aug. 17 Betty Baye column, "Thank God for teachers."
She writes about what a terrible job it is to be a school teacher. She states that they make less than $40,000 a year on average. This must be a nationwide average. I would like to point out that your paper published a statistic in the Feb. 14 edition that stated "Me median teachers salary in Westchester was $69,282 for the year 98-99." It is now three years later and with a 3.19 percent annual increase, which was also in your paper, that comes to a current figure of $76,125. This is very close to double the amount mentioned in Betty Baye's column and, of course, no mention of a teacher's 185-day work year vs. everyone else's 240day year.
Facts local and nationwide being reported by other news agencies clearly state that over the past 40 years, taxpayers have supplied public schools with steady improvements in funding, teacher pay, teacher credentials and student/teacher ratios with no significant improvement in the quality of education.
Richard Paneta North White Plains
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