14 aging Toronto public schools would cost more to repair than rebuild | Elementary School Teacher make the least with an average annual salary of C$67,497 – February 4, 2020,
So, I want to briefly explain why particular public services are where they are in Toronto and you can decide for yourself. Now, on the lowest end of the payscale, Elementary School Teachers make the least with an average annual salary of C$67,497. That’s an average by the way and it doesn’t include other the other financial benefits public school teachers get namely, 2 months of vacation.
Toronto District School Board pays its employees an average of C$77,745 a year. Salaries at Toronto District School Board range from an average of C$46,045 to C$107,007 a year. Toronto District School Board employees with the job title High School Teacher make the most with an average annual salary of C$72,857, while employees with the title Elementary School Teacher make the least with an average annual salary of C$67,497.
Average Toronto District School Board Salary in Canada C$78k | payscale.com
Now, there are around 31,000 full-time teachers in TDSB, 31,000 x C$67,497 = C$2,092,407,000 So that’s $2 billion dollars on the low end I also intentionally didn’t include the 8,000 temporary staff and also the energy costs and other related expenses that go into Toronto Public Schools, now, because public schools don’t function on any market demand when Toronto experiences an economic downturn, all the public servants, teachers include don’t have to worry about being fired, however, their union does whatever it can to guarantee these teachers get a pay raise, this inevitably causes the numbers to stop working.
Because in a market economy, if a company isn’t profitable systematic changes have to be made in order to avoid bankruptcy, either employee have to take a pay cut, work fewer hours or the company goes bankrupt, in the public sector there doesn’t exist a concept of a public school going bankrupt, what exists is a demand of the public eductors that the government does more. Being that public school teachers pay scales are dependent on tax collection, if the government is forced to go into debt to pay public sector salaries, what ends up happening is eventually the cost to service the debt exceeds the amount the government collects in taxes to pay the public servants.
This obviously leads to particular projects never getting done, while at the same time unionized teachers demand more money. So this dynamic proves disastrous and eventually austerity measures either gets done or don’t get done. In Canada, we have equalization payments, but even that function has it’s limits and in the event, all of Canada falls into recession, I’m not entirely sure how this will all play itself out.
If the public sector had to compete with the private sector via a voucher system or some other competitive function, public schools and other public sector services related to public sector schools may operate differently, however, I have to be honest and say I’m not so sure, because Canadians, namely a large portion of Ontarians re ignorant to the economics of our public sectors.
So, truth be told, what’s an inevitability in my mind is default and then either hyper-inflation of the Canadian dollar or austerity measures, a lot more austerity than what Doug Ford has attempted to do so far. Union are bad for the Private Sector but they’re even worse in the Public Sector, obviously unionized public sector workers don’t see themselves as Greedy, and to be honest, I doubt a large portion of the voting public see public sector unionized workers as greedy, but they are and eventually, society will reach a point where servicing the public debt and servicing the loans is no longer economically viable and it’s at this point that the greater society will either have to change or dissolve.
In Italy, Argentina and in Greece the society has simply accepted that protectionism and socialism are preferred over Capitalism, these places are still good places to live in comparison to 3rd world nations, but there’s little hope in these nations for a better future. In Toronto, aging schools are clear signs that maybe Ontarians should reconsider union culture, is thereafter all ever a time when unions aren’t necessary? Nobody is forcing these teachers to work? With that said, builders, plumbers, construction workers, and maintenance people also need to be paid and many of the peoples in these trades are also unionized which is why to build or to repair schools get delayed.
Now, a Condo is being built frequently, because there’s a market component to building a condo. Where there’s no incentive to build things, people won’t build it’s really that simple, I would donate to public schools, but the unionized teachers will ask for a pay increase. Meaning that the money I donate can’t go to the children, it will go to the teachers and this, in the end, is the dilemma and why I don’t believe in public sector unions. If you want to form a union do it the private sector.
14 aging Toronto public schools would cost more to repair than rebuild | CBC
Interesting times ahead