Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goalposts Of Life:
"Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life
End over end neither left nor to right
Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights
Drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life."
If the DROP program was costing over $300 million a year ago February 3, 2008,
State: State retiree loophole costs Florida $300M a year, this total cash cow ought to be almost up there with the current federal stimulating bill by now.
I first wrote about this DROP program when I learned that Gods were watching Hillsborough County Schools:
PRO on HCPS: Gods Are Watching HCPS - Who Knew?
What I find interesting is that most of the focus is on the teachers that signed up for this program.
But what about higher ranking school people?
"Browder to retire for 30 days Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 ccepero@news-press.com Lee schools Superintendent James Browder will step down for the month of July and return Aug. 1. Under his pension plan, Browder must terminate employment with the district...
Christina Cepero"
http://search.news-press.com/sp?skin=100&aff=1117&keywords=james%20browder
And from the second link above:
It's legal
Here are some of the officials drawing retirement checks while they continue to earn paychecks from taxpayers:
Official Monthly retirement Fiscal
'06-'07 salary
Eduardo J. Padron
Miami Dade College president $14,631 $328,860
Harry Anstead
Supreme Court justice $7,596 $161,083
Jim Smith
Pinellas Property Appraiser $6,681 $148,335
Jed Pittman
Pasco County Circuit clerk $6,242 $136,576
Ann Hildebrand
Pasco County commissioner $2,778 $78,895
Carlos Alvarez
Miami-Dade mayor $12,955 $228,826
John Phelps
Former House clerk $5,728 $138,138
Castell V. Bryant
Former FAMU president $7,707 $287,356
Source: Florida retirement system
For those of you who don't believe that the DROP Program grew faster than a good ole boy grapevine, how much do you think these numbers grew in five years?
By my finger/toe calculations, it looked to be between 17-18% administrators trough vs the rest being in the teacher pool back in 2004 in the HCPS. Wouldn't it be a really interesting statistic to know what that is now? Just think about the statistical significance that would have to occur if the administrator part of this DROP in the bucket outgrew the teachers.
A savvy person with fortitude could probably get that number.
Page 1 - President's Message.DOC:
"Did You Know? (Quotes from the Tampa Tribune, January 25, 2004)
"As of last week, district records show 137 administrators and 775 teachers in the DROP Program"
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4 comments:
You say administrators account for 17-18% of the drop program. But I'd be interested to learn what percentage of the financial portion they make up.
Perhaps I stated my equation wrong.
I made a direct correlation between numbers of administrators vs. teachers: 137/775=17.68%
I did not make a calculation to determine the percentage of either set compared to the whole. This would have looked like:
137+775=912.
When adding the sets and then dividing by administrators
137/912=15.02%
A little over a 2% difference.
If both groups increased at this 15.02 rate, at the end of x amount of years the ratios would be the same.
But, for the sake of argument, lets say they both increased by 400.
Then when you did the direct comparison it comes to 537/1375=39.05%. Compared to the old number of 17.68%, a significant change.
We are left to ponder if both sides grew at an equal 15.02%, something that some honest statistics and correct statistical work could easily determine.
What I can tell you about this situation is that almost 200 teachers who have retired and returned to service are being terminated at the end of this school year in Hillsborough County. Some are part of the DROP program; some are not. The School District is releasing them because they are required to pay them at their highest pre-retirement pay grade. The teachers union, Hillsborough County Classroom Teachers Association, will not permit its retired members to renegotiate or accept a lower pay grade in order to save their jobs. It's a ridiculous scenario.
My child's school will lose both of its experienced AGP (Gifted) teachers and they will likely be replaced by inexperienced, probably out-of-field, low-pay-grade teachers. My daughter's education will be negatively impacted just because the District and the Union cannot sit down and work out some sort of a compromise. The District claims it's willing, but that the Union won't come to the table. Because I'm an Alafia parent, I've learned to not trust a lot of what Elia's people tell me, but I am aware that the Union is refusing to give up the highest pay grade perk, even if it means there will be no employed teachers left in the whole county to benefit from it.
This is an incredibly frustrating situation -- and one that could so easily be corrected if only everyone would sit down and be reasonable about it all. My child's AGP teacher would happily take a pay cut all the way down to base salary in order to keep her job, but she's not allowed to even discuss it with the District. It's simply ludicrous!
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