Every tax is a pay cut.  Every tax cut is a pay raise.
Citizens for Limited Taxation

Framingham School Report 2005
The most interesting fact about Framingham schools is that they consume a full 63% of our tax monies and the students constitute only 13% of the general population. It's no wonder we can't afford to fix roads around here. 

For fiscal 2007, the school committee gave them a 6.8% composite pay raise across the board for all school employees. Is it any wonder that they have a $6 million deficit. If it wasn't so sad, it would be laughable.

Salaries of all school employees When you examine these numbers, remember that the vast majority of employees only work 9 months of the year.  A total of 2,000 full and part time employees with a payroll approximating $58.4 million.  You can display the school employees in different formats. This does not include contract teachers.
True Costs of
Framingham Schools
This itemizes the true costs of Framingham schools in 2004. These costs are deliberately hidden to the average town meeting member, but if you ask enough questions and look at enough state web pages, you discover to your horror that the average per-student cost is over $13,000.  One would think that 306 years of accounting would make matters more transparent but obfuscation prevails over the centuries in this town.
A Peek at the FTA Contracts I've been perusing the last two contracts the Framingham Teachers Association (FTA) has had with our school committee.  Here's a synopsis from my (never been in a union) point of view.  I always enjoyed this musing on teachers unions.  This also gives you the salary tables for the year 2000 and 2007 side by side.
School Positions (long) Last year I received a printed list of school salaries and this is my analysis of the large number of different positions within our school systems. Some of these really make you think about waste.
School Statistics This is merely a ongoing collection of number derived from school budgets over the years. It tracks average salaries, SAT scores, student-teacher ratio, etc.
SPED/Bilingual Students This came from a request to the school system. An insight on bilingual and SPED students. In Framingham, 17% of students are SPED.
SAT Scores I consider the SAT scores of high school seniors to be the best indicator of academic performance of our schools. The SATs have been around for a very long time. I myself took them and got a total score of 1300 (550 verbal, 750 math). The MCAS tests given in the tenth grade indicate the results of a ninth grade education and seem meaningless.
Kindergarten This is becoming ever more popular as cheap daycare for the little ones. See my comments on its financials.
BLOCKS Pre-school This is becoming ever more popular as cheap daycare for the little ones. See my comments on its financials.
Superintendent Contract The bottom line is we pay the superintendent over $190,000 and the contract now expires on July 31, 2010.

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