Equity Project Charter School's $125,000 Teacher Paychecks Featured On '60 Minutes'

At The Equity Project Charter School in New York City, teachers are taking home incredible $125,000 salaries, CBS reports.

The number is shocking in a nation where public school teachers make as little as $35,000 a year in some states.

Katie Couric interviewed Equity Project founder Zeke Vanderhoek for an upcoming episode of "60 Minutes."

The full episode will air Sunday, March 13 on CBS.

WATCH:

Comments

[Oakland]

02:07 PM on 03/16/2011

MI can get two for that amount of money. As long as it's private sector getting rich on the tax payers money, life is good. Heaven help the taxpayer who dares to benefit from their dime.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:10 AM on 03/16/2011

So first, they ripped off the name. The Equity Project: http://www.indiana.edu/~equity/about.php
Second, their board of trustees includes Peter Cove, the guy who devised Bill Clinton's infamous Welfare to Work - you know, the one where the private sector employs all the people on welfare? How's that workin' for you, Pete? And Peter Cove gave $2000 to Michael Steele and other GOP candidates, as does his wife Lee Bowes and probably all the rest of the lot. I'd wonder what is the ulterior motive besides $$$$.
Read the info:
http://www.workforce21.net/10-8-2001%20wsj%20welfare%20article.htm

This is the mentality of the people starting this "school".
See page 12:
http://www.arc.org/pdf/296bpdf.pdf

[bbbbmer]

01:40 PM on 03/15/2011

This '60 minutes' piece by Katie Couric has ALREADY been THOROUGHLY discredited, not only with regard to Couric's abysmal reporting, not even worthy of a high school student, but also for claims made by the piece's subject and his charter school, whose claims apparently aren't all that true, yet so typical of the 'reform' movement's lies.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/03/failures-of-katie-couric-as-reporter-on.html

Shame on them, and shame on CBS for hiring Couric, and paying her so much money...

[plaidsportcoat]

05:14 AM on 03/16/2011

You get it! It's the rich shilling for the rich! Read more about the people involved in this school. They are people who make money by interceding between the poor - and corporations who need cheap labor. They are slime who claim to want to "help" poor, prisoners, etc, but ONLY if they can make big bucks themselves while doing it. Biz as usual?
I don't want my kid indoctrinated to be a wage slave.

[GustavoRejivik]

06:26 AM on 03/15/2011

I don't understand Katie Couric's criticism here ... isn't she in favor of extraordinarily high Teacher Salaries??

Did "Collective Bargaining" get this $120k??

If I were a Union Teacher right now .. I'd feel ripped off ... by Collective Bargaining!!

[ha1ha2]

10:30 AM on 03/15/2011

This has nothing to do with collective bargaining. It has to do with the way the school is set up. I believe that these teachers don't even have a Union. Did you watch the video?

[plaidsportcoat]

05:21 AM on 03/16/2011

dude, the guy is being sarkasmo, saying the unions should get teachers as good of a deal. don't be irony-challenged! But I disagree with him, because even though it might be a good idea for teachers to run the school if they were paid that much - they don't. A bunch of GOP corporate shills run it. Maybe 125K looks like a lot - but the fact of the matter is that they have to pay for all their own benefits out of that, unlike the union workers who are in a very large union which is able to negotiate for lower costs. These poor suckahs are in a tiny group, have to pay their own benefits, and don't get a good bargain. Also,they don't get any pension, like the unionized teachers. If they are lucky, they might save a couple pennies after paying rent in NY. And they'll never be able to buy a place in NYC. remember, 125K is the new 30K with all the inflation and lack of insurance and bennies.

[wendy scott]

03:32 AM on 03/15/2011

Ridiculous sensational hook of money to get people to watch 60 Minutes and sell charter schools. 60 Minutes used to be a great program with hard news and investigative journalism. Don Hewitt would have never put this fluff on the air. They are obviously pushing a right wing agenda. The interview on Boehner was embarrassing to say the least. No journalism No hard hitting questions anymore on 60 Minutes. Another one bites the dust. Our MSM is a sell out joke.

[GustavoRejivik]

06:28 AM on 03/15/2011

True enough .. and I haven't heard Obama answer a tough question since the BO interview BEFORE the Election ... what happened?? Where are the 'journalists' ??

[arlandbaee]

11:27 PM on 03/14/2011

I don't want my tax money going to a for profit company. Any for profit company.

[cjaco]

10:46 PM on 03/14/2011

And yet they still perform worse than the other area regular public schools. Plus, they exploit their teachers with 80 to 90 hour weeks.

[montecore]

10:30 AM on 03/14/2011

$125k in NYC isn't THAT much! It's middle class for a family of four living in New York.

How much does Katie make? She probably made $125k in the 30 secs of that clip.

Outlaw profits. Society would be a better place if it were all non profit. We don't need the vulgarities of the super rich.

[cathyjs]

11:18 AM on 03/14/2011

Outlaw profit? Really? You must not make any. I'm sure if you look hard enough at some other countries you will find one that suits you as apparently ours does not.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:28 AM on 03/16/2011

You are the one who should move away to improve the USA.

[BrianMB9]

12:11 PM on 03/14/2011

I am pretty sure "outlawing profits" has been tried before. You can probably google it - the results were not pretty. It is not like there is a big pile of wealth out there just waiting to be distributed by a wise person. There actually has to be a profit motive for wealth to exist in the first place. It is sad the education system has failed you so completely that you obviously do not have a clue how the economy works.

[AllYourReligionRSilly2us]

02:07 PM on 03/14/2011

"outlawing profits" is the mirror political image of "privatize everything".

Both are foolish approaches.

[politicscorner]

08:44 AM on 03/14/2011

It is obvious that MORE THAN public money has funded this charter school. Generally speaking, the only charter schools that outperform traditional public schools are those that have a heavy input of cash and resources from their corporate sponsors or parents whose kids attend.

NO to corporate funded "public" schools.

And a bigger NO to charter school and private school Vouchers.

"

[TFT]

07:42 PM on 03/14/2011

This charter school did worse than the traditional public schools in the district.

It's not about teachers. It's about poverty.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:35 AM on 03/16/2011

Actually, they may or may not receive outside funds. I haven't found that out yet, but I'm working on it. But the simple fact is that even pay8ing the teachers what sounds like a lot - it is NOT a lot, because they have to pay all their insurance and pension saving out of that in ADDITION to living in NYC. So they will be lower middle class at the end of paying out all that. They will probably make about as much as a unionized public school teacher after that, maybe they are hoping teachers are as ignorant about financial matters as the rest of the US population. That's how it was at my kid's public charter school that had no private money at all, just public funding at a lower level than the traditional schools (in California - each school has its own charter laws) combined with parent giving. It started out with some richy parents but now, since it's entry by lottery, it has less and less money. So it might not survive the recession in the same form it originally was. But it still has good outcomes, and is not a ritzy place at all. Much different than this place. These are ambitious people trying to show that the GOP/Obama world is the way to go.

[maninal2]

08:25 AM on 03/14/2011

So CBS perpetuates charter school lies and uses Joel I. Klein, who stepped down to work for Rupert Murdoch, to support them.

[GustavoRejivik]

06:32 AM on 03/15/2011

If I could extrapolate "CBS Lies" from your statement, you'd be correct. The rest is a load of trash.

[been2there]

02:05 AM on 03/14/2011

I can really see that innovation spreading to public schools--NOT.

[maninal2]

08:20 AM on 03/14/2011

It's not innovation...its propaganda

[changing]

12:19 AM on 03/14/2011

Truly the silly season if you are so obsessed with evaluating and doling out money to teachers on some sort of ranking and oh so wonderful standards. There is no way to evaluate teachers for pay based on a bunch of subjective hooha and test scores. Schools are different; kids are different from year to year. Hello, all the good high paying teachers would be in the rich districts. Who in the world would teach in the poor disticts? I am sick of teachers having to evaluated to death for a decent wage. No other profession is micromanaged in such an insane manner. And no I do not know one teacher who makes $1250000.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:43 AM on 03/16/2011

Frankly, I disagree there is no way to evaluate teachers. Kids are the best evaluators. At my kid's public-funded charter with no corporate money, the kids always helped evaluate teacher prospects by attending a class taught by the candidate and writing an evaluation. It usually worked quite well to get the better teachers. kids are in school every day for 12 years, so of course they are the best judges in a lot of ways. Also, sorry, but Many very good public school teachers Do search out richer districts, because good teaching is way underpaid, so at least they can make a living in a better paying district. But almost all non-charter public schools are unionized, so even if they work in a poorer district, at least they have medical and pension benefits - or used to! My kid's charter school put almost all it's disposable cash into teacher salaries to try to be somewhat competitive with the local traditional public school salaries.Since charter schools in Cali recieve less money per pupil than traditional schools, that is putting your money where your mouth is and suffering lower quality facilities, etc. And the school took special ed students as well --as it should, being publicly funded.

[exaltedroots]

10:33 PM on 03/13/2011

So they fire everyone except for the teachers, require them to work as much as 80 to 90 hours per week and then tout that they pay the teachers 125k. This is wild and not sustainable. Moreoever, the principal gives himself four years reach the desired level of success but the teachers can be fired on the spot. While this seems to be successful, it is simply another Neo-Liberal system used to make people buy into corporatization and the "free" market.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:47 AM on 03/16/2011

125K is probably just about comparable to a union salary, give or take, in other words, barely livable in NYC. They have to pay all their own bennies out of it and they don't have a bargaining unit for price reductions in insurance, and they have a smaller pool of investors for a pension fund- they aren't union at charters. Yet. And of course, the trend is not to be.

[phonetutor]

10:19 PM on 03/13/2011

I think that $125,00 should not be the motivation for teaching or for attracting the best teachers. Also, highly qualified teachers are not necessarily the best teachers. I am sure that those teachers feel very insecure, knowing that there jobs can be pulled from them any minute. Quite frankly, I will not work under those conditions, nor will I recommend the school for a student. I am the parent of a child there and have had a terrible experience there. All I will say is, one has to be extremely careful with the staff in that school, particularly the 5th grade Guidance Counsellor. It seems to me that they do whatever to protect their jobs, even to the unwarranted detriment of the parent, for they have no job security. They cannot truly work in comfort; they have be always thinking of protecting themselves.

[maninal2]

08:04 AM on 03/14/2011

It's obvious why you have 0 fans

[fozzi58]

09:29 AM on 03/14/2011

Good points. Its good to hear the perspective from someone with a child in a charter school. They are not all that great. These philanthropists could put half the resources into existing public schools and would end up with better schools.

Oh and I'll be your first fan...

[doug clarke]

08:11 PM on 03/13/2011

Pay teachers twice as much and get more motivated teachers? Now way - that's just nuts.

And why bring up tenure and unions - I work in a right to work state with weak unions and no tenure and guess what - we haven't solved the education puzzle. That is not the panacea you seek.

Those classes looked prettty big..hee hee. Double class size, double salaries..interesting trade-off. Some will survive and pull that off, some will not. Buuuut - surviving a class size of 40+ isn't necessarily the criteria of a "good" educator, just a good crowd manager. Here's a thought - pay teachers what they are worth AND give them a realistic class size and see what happens.

I am all in favor of dropping some of the "administrator" weight, but in my current school, a lot of teaching innovation is driven by reading teacher ( and math) specialist folk and the collaborative spirit they bring so I am not sure they can all be lost to get these high salaries.

[plaidsportcoat]

05:54 AM on 03/16/2011

Though,actually,they are not really being paid TWICE as much! They have to pay very high medical costs--because the health care reform didn't fix that oops, plus they have to figure out their own investment for pension. That takes a ton of their money, plus rents are the highest in the world! But you can be sure the corpos who run the school are running behind the teachers waving their rich pals' insurance plans and investment vehicles at the teachers. Any way for the Corporate Overlords to get more TAXPAYER MONEY funneled UPWARDS