PAX Centurion - March / April 2014

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • March/April 2014 • Page 29 There is now an education incentive for new officers By Dennis Murphy, D14 Representative S o now what?Well each Officer has to take stock of their individual circumstances. Depending on the time you have left before mandatory retirement, it may not make economic sense for you to spend the money to go back to school if you’re not going to see an increase on your return. However if you have more time left, than time already on the job, it may be financially beneficial for you to look at the options. Many new Officers have a degree, however if that degree is in a non-CJ program, or a CJ degree from a school not qualified under the new rule, you will not be able to take advantage of the new pay incentive. I have listened to a few who have voiced their dis- pleasure that, for example “my Masters in Nineteenth Century French Literature” does not qualify for the Education Incentive. One stated, “the Union” just does not care about us, “my degree is harder to get”. Well I will agree that your Doctorate in Theoretical Physics andApplied Mathematics with a concentration in Quantum Chromodynamics may very well be more prestigious than a Bachelor fromAnnaBanana in CJ. However, if your goal in life was to become a Cop, you should have studied subjects like Community Corrections or Digital Crime and Criminal Justice. To be perfectly clear for those new Officers, the Union was and always is completely behind Officers receiving Education Incentives. It is not the BPPA that is balking. The Quinn Bill began in the 1970s and it was decades after that the BPPA membership was allowed to benefit.Yet in just over a decade, that benefit was cut. So if you are looking to blame anybody for lack of education pay, Shetland Street is not the place to look. It is counter productive to waste your time figuring out why you are not getting the pay.You need to spend your time productively, on getting that pay. If you have a Masters, or Bachelor in an unqualified degree the best course of action is to get with an admission adviser of the school that granted you the degree if that school is on the ap- proved list. Speak to them about taking courses to convert that degree to CJ. If your school is not on the approved list, go to a school that is and speak to an adviser. Have a sealed transcript of your current degree sent to you and open it with the adviser, so you both can audit your courses.You want to see how much it would cost (both in time and money) to obtain a Masters (MA) in CJ if you have a MA in another subject. Then you want to find out the same information for a Bachelors (BA) in CJ and decide which is better for you. Since you will only get paid the max amount for a BA under the new incentive, it may be better to get the BA rather than MA. Especially since, while in the BA program for CJ, you will qualify for theAA pay in CJ for 60+ credits. If you are converting a MA, you will have to wait till you finish the MA to get the BA pay. For the purpose of this article, I called Curry College today and spoke to the Continuing Education Division. They have a very liberal credit transfer policy. A three-credit course is $1,290 ($430 per credit). The next semester available at Curry begins May 19th to July 5th then starts up again July 7th throughAug 23rd. If you sit down with them, they will go over your transcript and tell you exactly where you stand. I spent a few wasted years at UMass Boston chasing classes years ago before transferring to Curry and ended up finishing a BA at night rather painlessly. They had plenty of required courses scheduled in a logical order during each semester period. (Unlike that monster out on the point) I was graduated before Morrissey Blvd. even knew I dropped out. I was going to UMass for peanuts on the G.I. Bill, but cheap was never so expensive. You have to take a self-assessment, don’t be the type of person that will piss and moan about your situation without doing something to change it. Get out there. See what’s available. School will take at most a couple of years if you don’t want to take a full bite of courses. Less time if you forgo a few details a week in lieu of a few classes. After all you are paying yourself by taking the classes. Pay that will continue years after your done, week in week out. List of Approved Programs The following programs have been approved under the Policy Career Incentive Pay Program as of May 2012 and February 2014. ASSOCIATE IN SCIENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE Bunker Hill Community College* Cape Cod Community College* BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE Anna Maria College Bridgewater State University Curry College Endicott College Fitchburg State University Lasell College* Salem State University University of Massachusetts Lowell Western New England University Westfield State University BACHELOR OFARTS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE University of Massachusetts Boston MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE Anna Maria College Bridgewater State University Westfield State University MASTER OFARTS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE Curry College University of Massachusetts Lowell