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Report Finds Teachers' Pay Is More than Adequate Across the Country

From School Reform News:

The long-lived conventional wisdom is that teachers are underpaid. That belief is virtually unanimous. But it runs contrary to many respectable research studies that conclude teacher salaries are at least equal to, if not in excess of, compensation for comparable occupations.

In their article "How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?" researchers Jay P. Greene and Marcus A Winters come to some surprising conclusions. According to their findings, "The average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, and the average public school teacher was paid 36 percent more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11 percent more than the average professional specialty and technical worker."

Does your employer contribute $69,000 a year to your 401K retirement plan?

By Bill Zettler

To answer the question posed in the headline – I don’t think so. And it’s not because your employer is greedy but simply because it would be impossible to pay that amount and stay in business. They would be bankrupt.

But that’s in the private sector where most of us work. In the public sector this is possible because state governments cannot go bankrupt. They just keep raising taxes to pay whatever exorbitant retirement contribution amounts are needed.

The specific case I am talking about involves an employee of the public school system Linda Jedlicka, campus manager of the Lake County High School Tech Campus whose employer pension contribution will be more than $69,000. And the employer is you the taxpayer.

Is $224,000 per Year Too Much Compensation for a Driver’s Ed Teacher?

By Bill Zettler

How about $1,174 per day for an Art teacher or $149/hr for an English teacher?

As you can see from the attached spreadsheet, it is not only Drivers Ed, Art and English teachers we should be talking about. There are many subjects being taught by very highly compensated public employees that could be easily outsourced to the private sector for much less.

Another way to look at this issue is how much could these public employees make in the private sector with their education and experience. For example how much do people with BA degrees in art make? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Chicago area the salaries range from $24,000 for Floral Designers to $58,000 for Painters, Sculptors and Commercial Designers working 12 months a year.

Is $224,000 per Year Too Much Compensation for a Driver’s Ed Teacher?

By Bill Zettler

The Following Are All Paid For By The Taxpayer For The Benefit of the Teacher:

NOTE 1: From TRS Actuaries, Employer Contribution to Trust Reserve Schedule XIIB.
NOTE 2: $10 Billion borrowing under PA 93-002 April, 2003 TRS Portion as % of Teacher Payroll.
NOTE 3: State Annuitant Health Insurance payments as % of Teacher Payroll.
NOTE 4: Life, Health, and Disability Insurance Paid At the Local District level, estimated.

26 Million Reasons Why We Need to Reform Illinois Public Pensions

By Bill Zettler

Gary Catalani District 200, $9.49 million, James Hintz Stevenson District 125, $8.63 million, and Mary Curley Hinsdale District 181, $8.20 million: total $26.32 million due in pension payments over their expected lifetimes.

Starting pensions beginning at age 56? Catalani $214,000, Hintz $209,000 and Curley $189,000. Ending annual pension at age 83 (their life expectancy at age 56) is $484,000, $472,000 and $423,000 respectively. How does that compare to your 401K?

Average salary increase over the last 3 years of their employment ending at about age 56? Catalani 74%, Hintz 99% and Curley 80%. And keep in mind in those last 3 years neither their title nor their responsibilities changed. Sounds better than cost-of-living increases doesn’t it?

Pension Contribution: Employee 8.4%, Employer 31% (or maybe 46%)

By Bill Zettler

How do we value a pension for a public employee? We think it is fair and reasonable to compare the value of that pension by using the dollar amount needed to purchase a pre-paid annuity from a financial institution. In our example we use Vanguard Mutual Fund Company, the lowest cost option we could find.

A teacher’s pension is an annuity. How do I know that? Because the words “annuity” and “annuitant” are used over 20 times in the Teachers Retirement System’s (TRS) Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2006. Therefore it makes sense to use an annuity value to compare it to a private sector pension. Apples to apples so to speak.

Excessive pay increases for teachers and administrators do not improve student academic achievement

By Mike Davitt

As a former school board member in Naperville CUSD 203, I have long been an admirer of The Champion Foundation and its use of clear facts to enlighten Illinoisans about their education system. The Champion’s recent August 24 article, “Over 200 Illinois public school systems post above average pay increases,” is a timely and important piece.

The reason for this alarming statistic is quite simple: not enough people vote during school board elections which results in union-endorsed school board members getting elected who are going to cater to, or cower to, the teachers’ union that helped them get elected.

Back during our 2005 negotiations with the District 203 NUEA, our board was comprised of five fiscal liberals and two fiscal conservatives. After months of negotiating, our fiscally-liberal board majority had bid against themselves to the point where they were offering the union an unbelievable three-year 15% offer.

Over 200 Illinois public school districts post above average pay increases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 24, 2007

An ongoing study being conducted by The Champion Foundation has found that full-time public school teachers and administrators in Illinois receive average pay increases and estimated pensions far above those seen by private sector workers.

“National compensation surveys continue to show average annual pay increases hovering in the low single digits, yet only occasionally do we see such modest increases in the taxpayer funded public schools,” said John Biver, president of The Champion Foundation. “While the schools cry poor to the Illinois General Assembly, our research shows they pay themselves as if they’re rich.”

One example is Bloom Township High School District 206, where the lowest one-year average pay increase for teachers in that district was 7.9% (1999 to 2000) and the highest was 14.8% (2003 to 2004). Administrators’ average increases ranged from as low as 9.5% (2003 to 2004) to as high as 20.8% (2001 to 2002).

“Moral Imperative” – Public Pension Tax Relief for All Illinois Families

By Bill Zettler

Recently the Champion received an email from Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Finance. In his email he questioned the assumptions made in some of the projections of Illinois Taxpayers Pension Liability for the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) as calculated in some of my spreadsheets...

The real issue is not investment return rates. It is the inherent unfairness of one group of people having to guarantee that rate for another politically connected group of people, i.e. public employees. Common sense fairness dictates all citizens should share the risk of economic benefit or detriment equally...

Tenure for public employees salaries while they are working is bad enough but pension tenure guaranteeing them an investment return is unfair, unacceptable and financially impossible long term. Social Security and 401K’s for all employees, public and private, is what’s fair and necessary.

The Surprising Truth About Teacher Pay

When adjusted for cost of living, pension contribution, and experience, teacher compensation in Illinois ranks 3rd in the nation.

Education researchers Jay Greene and Marcus Winters said it best: “Few clichés permeate our culture more thoroughly than that of the underpaid schoolteacher.” And nobody perpetuates that cliché better than the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union.

In November 2006, the National Education Association released its annual estimates of teacher salaries for the 2005-06 school year. Over the past 10 years, the education establishment has been using teacher salary reports from the NEA and the American Federal of Teachers (AFT) to support a campaign that portrays teachers as victims of miserly, unappreciative, and ignorant taxpayers.