I'll quote what I want!
And Ron Paul is right: everybody loots everybody.
Who do you think is picking up the tab?
"I'm double dipping and I'm happy to be doing it," said Ralph Olsen, 62, who is finishing up his second year as principal of Durfee High School in Fall River and plans to return next school year. Olsen, who retired as Framingham High School principal in 2004, earns $87,311 a year in pension income and makes $140,000 a year in his new position."
Not exactly crying poverty, are you, bub?
While the people in this state suffer (I'm one of them)!
"Eugene Thayer... earns $192,000 a year as superintendent of Framingham schools.... His pension is worth an additional $85,000 a year."
This while schools are crumbling or being shut down.
Of course, it is o.k. to toss money at rich Hollywood folk, corporate and lottery favorites, Wall Street, and then depend on casinos to fund this looting of the taxpayers!
"School system retirees 'double dip' with waiver; Collect full salaries plus their pensions" by Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | June 28, 2008
Nearly 100 retired educators in the Commonwealth were allowed to earn their full salaries while collecting full pensions in the past school year, a growing practice critics call state-sanctioned "double dipping."
I was wondering what that playing around was around my butthole was!
The retirees collectively made more than $5 million on the job while taking home $5.5 million in pension payments, according to information obtained by the Globe.
The Globe review found that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education routinely approved these special arrangements and frequently ignored its own guidelines that require school districts to provide proof that they advertised for the position and were unable to find other qualified candidates.
Critics say the practice, which was designed to make it easier for districts to fill hard-to-staff positions, leaves the door open for abuse, enticing a pool of well-connected retirees to move from one job to the next or stay indefinitely in a position that should have been filled by a nonretiree. In some cases, school districts have been allowed to continue rehiring the same retiree rather than readvertising for the position each year and providing fresh proof that they could find no one else to fill the spot, another state requirement.
The use of the exemption has tripled over the past eight years, growing to the point that it has prompted the governor's new education secretary and legislators to call for closer scrutiny of the practice. Some lawmakers suggested that the state should place a cap on how much these retirees can earn and how long they can serve.
"You don't want to be paying them twice what they otherwise would be entitled to," said state Senator Robert Antonioni, cochairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Education. "That's not good public policy."
Many of the working retirees defend their pay, saying they are fulfilling important roles nobody else wants, positions taxpayers would otherwise pay less-qualified personnel to perform.
"I'm double dipping and I'm happy to be doing it," said Ralph Olsen, 62, who is finishing up his second year as principal of Durfee High School in Fall River and plans to return next school year. Olsen, who retired as Framingham High School principal in 2004, earns $87,311 a year in pension income and makes $140,000 a year in his new position.
The income boost sets him up for his real retirement down the road, providing extra "security in my waning years," he said. "I'd like to think the benefits are mutual."
The town out top skin this guy alive!!!!
Maybe that will send a message to the rest of the state looters!
State law strictly limits how much public retirees can earn if they return to a government job, barring them from earning more, pension and salary combined, than they would receive if they had not retired. But in 2000, the Legislature created an exemption for certain educators, because of concerns that an early-retirement incentive program would send hundreds of teachers into retirement and create widespread shortages - an exodus that never came to pass.
Why would they have been trying to create teacher shortages?
Save money? Then WTF?
And it DIDN'T HAPPEN? You're kidding?!
Government was WRONG again?
Under the law, school districts can request these "critical need" waivers for educators filling hard-to-staff positions, such as math, science, and special education jobs, and for those willing to be superintendent or principal - positions that have become more difficult to fill nationwide with the increased focus on accountability.
It's as if the regulations and the laws have just made EVERYTHING more EXPENSIVE, haven't they?
While our kids get dummer and dummer! :-)
"The notion that somebody could be collecting a full salary and full retirement benefits really is an abuse and is very troubling," said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "In effect, it is double dipping. It's this kind of practice that undercuts the public trust in government."
Undercuts trust?
It has DESTROYED IT for me because THAT is ALL GOVERNMENT DOES -- LOOT the AVERAGE GUY and GIVE IT AWAY to the WELL-CONNECTED and WELL-HEELED who have the ACCESS!!!
Eugene Thayer, the highest paid of the working retirees, said taxpayers are getting their money's worth. He earns $192,000 a year as superintendent of Framingham schools, the latest in a string of short-term superintendent posts over the past eight years. His pension is worth an additional $85,000 a year.
The 72-year-old just signed on for a second year leading Framingham schools.
But go into teaching they told me!
"It would be a shame to waste the experience I've gained over the years," he said.
And a shame to get off that looting government teet, too, huh?
Paul Reville, who will become state education secretary Tuesday, said the department must reexamine how these positions are approved, but acknowledges that the need for the waivers will continue, in light of continued teacher shortages.
It said above that NEVER CAME to PASS! WTF?!
They are LAYING OFF TEACHERS where I AM!
William Guenther, president of Mass Insight Education, suggested changing the retirement structure to allow educators filling critical need subjects to go into partial retirement and collect only a portion of their pension as they continue to work and earn a full salary.
"We need to go about it in a way that's attractive to the employee but also fair to the taxpayers," Guenther said, "so we're not charging taxpayers twice.
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I guess I SHOULD have become a teacher, 'eh, readers?
How come taxpayers always come last?
