The average retiree from San Francisco city government earns an annual pension of $46,272, according to the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. The average retiree who worked at least 30 years in city government earns an annual pension of $76,981.
The average pension for a retiree from the Fire Department is $108,552. From the Police Department? $95,016. And everybody else? $41,136.
The figures show most retirees aren’t getting anywhere near the fat packages that outrage many city residents – like the $264,000 pension paid to former Police Chief Heather Fong last year.
But city retirees are doing pretty well compared with working San Franciscans. Census data show the median family income in the city is $86,546. Per capita income is $44,373.
Recent post-secondary graduates recruited by the federal public service appear to become more disengaged and less ambitious the longer they’re in their jobs.
That’s a key conclusion of a new study that provides an intriguing window into perceptions of government employment by new public service hires and potential recruits. The study, recently posted to a government website, was done for the Public Service Commission by EKOS Research Associates.
It involved online surveys with two groups of people hired through the government’s Post-Secondary Recruitment Program (PSR), as well as recent hires recruited through other methods and “potential recruits” — mostly university graduates under age 35.
As part of the study, EKOS re-interviewed 219 PSR recruits who were surveyed in an earlier phase of the study in 2009. It found some “troubling shifts” in their attitudes.
The importance these recruits attach to “key intrinsic job aspects” has declined over the past year, the study reports. The weight they give to the opportunity to be creative declined by nine percentage points from 2009 to 2010, it says, while the importance they attached to the prestige associated with their jobs fell by 10 points.
There were also smaller declines in the importance ascribed to meaningful work and opportunities for career advancement, while “more extrinsic issues” — such as attractive compensation and a good work-life balance — assumed greater significance.
“These findings suggest that PSR recruits become less ambitious/intrinsically motivated as they spend more time in the federal public service,” the study concludes.
Can people who are disengaged serve the public as well as private sector workers whose compensation and continued employment depends on their being engaged in their work? This is why we need to privatize as much as possible.
New York state’s school systems deserve an F — in financial accountability.
State taxpayers spend substantially more money on education than any other state in the nation but get far less in return on their investment, according to a shocking new federal study released yesterday.
New York schools on average spent $18,126 per student in the 2008-2009 school year — tops in the nation, the Census Bureau reports.
That’s nearly $2,000 more than the $16,271 spent in neighboring New Jersey and 80 percent higher than the national average of $10,499.
But the Empire State’s four-year high-school graduation rate of 73.5 percent ranked a lowly 39th in the nation, two points below the national average, according to a separate analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics.
By comparison, Massachusetts — which spends $4,000 less per student — has an 83 percent graduation rate.
New York has doubled its per-student spending over 10 years. For five consecutive years the state has spent the most per student in the nation.
[…]One main reason for New York’s sky-high spending is it pays its teachers significantly more in salaries and benefits than any other state.
New York spent $12,524 per student to cover instructional salaries and benefits, nearly double the national average of $6,369. Even New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts spent $3,000 less per student than New York did on teacher pay and benefits.
Teacher unions are one of the main Democrat special interest groups. Teacher unions oppose being held accountable by parents. They don’t want to have their pay and benefits be conditional on producing quality educations for children. They just want to be able to collect exorbitant salaries and benefits while they indoctrinate your children with leftist politics and liberal values. They don’t care what parents want, and they don’t care about whether your children learn anything that will allow them to achieve independence and prosperity.
WINTERY KNIGHT 