highwaystarz – stock.adobe.com
New York is the best state to be a public-school teacher, reports the financial-services-consumer site WalletHub; we believe it — but too bad it’s not so great for the students.
The state offers educators iron-clad employment protections; teachers here earn the nation’s highest average pay (with reliably generous and regular salary increases), while the pupil-teacher ratio ranks among the lowest.
But the highest per-student spending in the nation doesn’t produce the best graduates in America.
The latest test scores show that less than half of all kids statewide in grades 3-8 are proficient or above in English, and barely more than half in math.
New York still has many great teachers, but its public-education system is growing ever-worse even as it costs ever-more.
Teaching in the Empire State has become a cushy, well-paid sinecure because the teacher unions wield enormous political power, both in Albany and in most school districts.
Enrollment is plummeting as families flee the public schools (and even the state), but legislators ensure districts are “held harmless” from what should be corresponding cuts in state aid; they even imposed a class-size law on New York City (only) to force it to hire more teachers even though enrollment is down by more than 100,000 students (roughly 10%) from the pre-COVID level.
And don’t get us started on the retirement benefits, far in excess of what most New York private-sector workers enjoy.
Or the way the unions’ pawns dictate ever-more relaxed academic standards, lest the failure to teach grow more obvious.
Heck, the unions ally with progressives who also water down school discipline — directly harming all students and leaving teachers less safe, too.
But the WalletHub folks forgot to ask about that.