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To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

nytimes.com

31–40 of 75 posts

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#31
post #29
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teachers in major metro school systems already have quite a good deal. Rural schoolteachers really do have the deal everyone heard about in 1990s politics, but urban schoolteachers are generally economically privileged. (That doesn't mean they aren't impacted by housing scarcity in ways that disrupt the administration of school systems; they are. But the problem isn't compensation, the problem is corrupt regulation w…

I genuinely need to see what data you're citing with this statement. Until recently, I worked in education and often worked with urban schools. Starting salaries of 55-60k/year living in a major metropolitan area is not what I would call economically privileged.

The average CPS salary is somewhere around $75k, with 10+ weeks of vacation, but that undercounts it dramatically because CPS teachers get defined-benefit pension plans and often earn tens of thousands in additional cash comp for extracurricular work, and that's before what happens when you get a masters.

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#32
post #18
post #3

Could just, you know, pay more…

Teachers in major metro school systems already have quite a good deal. Rural schoolteachers really do have the deal everyone heard about in 1990s politics, but urban schoolteachers are generally economically privileged. (That doesn't mean they aren't impacted by housing scarcity in ways that disrupt the administration of school systems; they are. But the problem isn't compensation, the problem is corrupt regulation w…

[deleted]

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#33
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An LVT addresses the incentives underling zoning. The LVT imagined by Georgists would very probably result in radically altered zoning rules. Zoning, after all, exists primarily to prop up the finances of homeowners.

An LVT results in new McMansions getting built on quarter acre lots and being taxed at the same rate as SFHs and trailers on quarter acre lots. It's the perfect way to allow rich people to buy out poor people and pay the same tax as poor people. Welcome to unintended consequences. Institute an LVT if you want, but don't expect low cost housing to spring up.

> trailers on quarter acre lots

That is an irrelevant counterargument, since the idea of dense housing leans towards tall apartment buildings, not trailers. No one should have to live in a trailer.

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#34
post #31
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely need to see what data you're citing with this statement. Until recently, I worked in education and often worked with urban schools. Starting salaries of 55-60k/year living in a major metropolitan area is not what I would call economically privileged.

The average CPS salary is somewhere around $75k, with 10+ weeks of vacation, but that undercounts it dramatically because CPS teachers get defined-benefit pension plans and often earn tens of thousands in additional cash comp for extracurricular work, and that's before what happens when you get a masters.

> the average is around $96,000

https://www.cps.edu/media/community-updates/2025/january/neg...

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#35
post #34
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average CPS salary is somewhere around $75k, with 10+ weeks of vacation, but that undercounts it dramatically because CPS teachers get defined-benefit pension plans and often earn tens of thousands in additional cash comp for extracurricular work, and that's before what happens when you get a masters.

> the average is around $96,000 https://www.cps.edu/media/community-updates/2025/january/neg...

What are you trying to say by posting this link?

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite a new deal and not one enjoyed by most people for most of history.

Is that not how the 95% of the population of farmers lived before industrialization? The only difference is the job being their own farm or trade.

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Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An LVT results in new McMansions getting built on quarter acre lots and being taxed at the same rate as SFHs and trailers on quarter acre lots. It's the perfect way to allow rich people to buy out poor people and pay the same tax as poor people. Welcome to unintended consequences. Institute an LVT if you want, but don't expect low cost housing to spring up.

> trailers on quarter acre lots That is an irrelevant counterargument, since the idea of dense housing leans towards tall apartment buildings, not trailers. No one should have to live in a trailer.

The idea of what should happen is irrelevant, because we have not seen this "dense housing" actually materialize in US LVT jurisdictions any time in the past 100 years.

The township of the Fairhope Single-Tax Corporation near Mobile, Alabama was originally conceived as an artist's colony but is now occupied by families with a median income of $95K. Density is almost exactly 1 housing unit per residential acre. The feds have built 140 Section 8 subsidized units, but there do not seem to be any privately built high density tall apartment buildings of the type you want to see.

Can you point to an LVT place in the US where developers have chosen to build large numbers of actual NON-LUXURY high rise apartment buildings for the benefit of non-rich people? That would be a big newsworthy success story if it actually happened.

There are developers that make their money building high rise apartment blocks. Are any of them lobbying for an LVT so they can build more low cost housing?

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite a new deal and not one enjoyed by most people for most of history.

Is that not how the 95% of the population of farmers lived before industrialization? The only difference is the job being their own farm or trade.

They didn’t own their own houses.

Re: To recruit teachers, school districts are building homes

#40
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is quite a new deal and not one enjoyed by most people for most of history.

What is the purpose of what you're saying? Because people lived like serfs and slaves for a lot of history, we should be okay with that? I don't mean to be shitty, and I fully understand that contrary takes are what HN is great at, but I genuinely fail to see what the point of your comment is other than a knee jerk nothing?

The first comment suggests that it was always like this and life has got worse. The second says it has almost never been like this, it was a short-lived condition only. That is in no way a normative statement on how it should be.
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