Posted by Parent, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 19, 2013 at 1:10 am

They aren't asking for much, it has been 5 years, and the district has the money. Just give it to them.

Posted by Not so bad, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 19, 2013 at 6:49 pm

Some of us haven't had a raise since the recession of 2001!

Posted by Aquamarine, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 19, 2013 at 7:34 pm

This is not the business of the public.

Posted by Not so bad, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 20, 2013 at 2:48 pm

If they need more money, they can get a Su mer job and work year-round like everyone else.

Posted by Joseph Stiglitz, a member of the Gunn High School community, on Mar 20, 2013 at 4:50 pm

"When I grew up in Urbana, Ill., teachers didn't make top dollar, but they could live in the community. Now, the overwhelming majority drive in from out of town," Paley said.

Paley said the only reason he can afford a house is because of his previous work in high technology and his wife's current job in tech.

"There's no way I'd tell a young person to plan on a career in teaching. There's a principle of basic decency I feel is being violated," he said.

Hi Mr. Paley:

Well I know you don't teach geography so first of all I wanted to let you know that this is not Urbana, Illinois. Urbana sure is a nice place to live, with the University of Illinois and all -- Go Illini! But it's not Palo Alto and Illinois is not Stanford. Next time you go home to visit your parents, take a look at all that soybeans and corn and ask yourself, hey, where's facebook? Where's the bright center of the Universe? Where's the engine of economic prosperity? Is it here, hiding under this haystack? Nope. It's not. And where's Mark Zuckerberg's house and Sergey Brin's house? Don't they have hog farms around here somewhere? No, they do not.

And that's why teachers can afford to live in Urbana, and not Palo Alto. There's not really any way that PAUSD can afford to all its teachers a high enough salary to allow them to live in Palo Alto. We already pay Dr. Skelly a ton plus an interest free 2 million dollar mortgage. He's not worth it, by the way. And neither are you. Sorry to be so blunt but that's the bad news. The good news is, it's a silly thing to want and we do let you send your kids here even though other people with similar education and experience to you holding similar occupations who also work in the city like nurses and policemen and firemen can't. And they can't afford to live here either. That's because you decided to be a teacher instead of invent facebook or get a Nobel in physics. If you have a complaint about "a basic principle of decency" related to the compensation structure for the organization of work and occupations in the United States, I am pretty sure that the PAEA is not the bureau to handle that complaint.

It doesn't really take a Nobel in economics to figure this out.

Sincerely,

Joe

Posted by Aquamarine, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 20, 2013 at 6:05 pm

The nasty comments here are not what teachers deserve.

Posted by Mom, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 20, 2013 at 7:19 pm

Work all year, get paid like other professionals.

Posted by about Illini, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 20, 2013 at 8:55 pm

Someone needs to check out Wikipedia - there is a lengthy list of accomplished alumni from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A few examples: Marc Andreesen/Netscape, Jerry Sanders/AMD, Steve Chen/YouTube, Jack Kilby/the IC, Thomas Siebel/Siebel Systems and the professor (or emeritus professor?) who invented the LED and commercialized it....whether there are fields thereabout, there are also many thousands of accomplished persons.

Posted by And then. . ., a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Mar 20, 2013 at 10:06 pm

They graduated and left Urvana Champaign. Often for Silicon Valley where they became fabulously successful. And that is why it costs more to live here than there. Do teachers at our high school really not understand the concept of the market and why a house costs more in Palo Alto than in Urbana? Frankly teacher making this point as a reason we should pay them more is making a self refuting argument. If you dot understand such a basic idea of economics how is it that I should pay you more to teach my child?

Posted by Susan, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 26, 2013 at 6:53 am

First, summers should be spent working. An $85,000 school year salary is equivalent to approximately a $100,000 full year salary. Second, most people do not get pensions in this day and age. Eliminate your pension, and then a serious increase would be fair.