Teachers Unions Get A Free Lunch, Taxpayers Foot The Bill
Tax dollars for schools are being used to pay the salaries & benefits of union employees
Teachers unions loudly insist that collective bargaining agreements are necessary to ensure teachers receive fair wages and benefits for the important work they do educating children. However, they fail to mention that many unions use those legally-binding contracts to compel school districts to underwrite the salaries and benefits of their own employees — i.e., tax dollars meant for the classroom are instead being used to pay full-time union officials.
For obvious reasons, school districts and teachers unions don’t advertise these arrangements, but there are efforts underway in several states to bring attention to the problem and end it. Below are three recent examples…
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse resident Michael Hunter filed a lawsuit last month over a clause in the Syracuse Teachers Association’s current contract that requires the school district to pay the salary of the union president. Hunter and his lawyers estimate the arrangement has cost the Syracuse City School District approximately $1.1 million over the past nine years.
Pennsylvania
A bill from State Senator Patrick Stefano (R - Fayette County) that would ban so-called “ghost teaching” is working its way through the Pennsylvania legislature. The proposal would prohibit districts from allowing educators to work full-time for teachers unions while they receive salaries, pension credits, and seniority rights from the school system.
A recent survey says about 22% of school districts in the Keystone State currently authorize these “ghost teaching” arrangements. The problem is particularly acute in large, urban districts like Philadelphia, where the practice cost taxpayers an estimated $1.7 million in the last year alone.
Hartford, Connecticut
It was recently revealed that Joshua Hall, vice-president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, has been receiving salary, benefits, and pension credits from the local school system ever since he left the classroom to work full-time for the union in 2008.
A clause in the district’s collective bargain agreement with HFT states:
“[T]eachers on detached service shall enjoy all the rights, privileges and benefits of the collective bargaining agreement between the Hartford Board of Education and the Hartford Federation of Teachers. Upon return to service, he/she shall be placed on the assignment which he/she left if the position had not been eliminated.”
