As Illinois citizens struggle with the severe economic downturn plaguing the state, Illinois public school employees enjoy another record year of salaries, fringe benefits and pensions.
Apparently there is no tax money for the barren shelves at food pantries or the lack of beds at homeless shelters or for meals-on-wheels for seniors but there is enough tax money to pay for:
- A Special Ed teacher $209,957 for a 9 month work year.
- A Drivers Ed teacher who salary is $19,333/month ($174,279) to teach teenagers how to parallel park.
- 1,062 teachers making more than the Governor’s $14,791/mo. salary.
- Top 100 Teachers averaging $18,467 per month salary.
And all of that is for a 36-week work-year and retirement as early as age 54.
The average for the Top 100 Salaries is an unbelievable $165,000 per year.
These Salaries Do Not Include Massive Amounts of Fringe Benefits.
Add about $48,000 each for state pension contribution (30% of salary) and at least $7,500/yr health insurance benefits. Then include 12-15 days sick leave per year payable at retirement if not used, 2 personal days/yr and up to $300,000 payment to the Teachers Retirement System by the local school district if they decide to take early retirement (see “Anatomy of a Teachers Contract” here).
And that does not include the value of a guaranteed $100,000 job (called “Tenure”) for as long as you want it.
If we add all these benefits to salaries in order to determine “total compensation” then the Total Compensation for every one of “Top 100 Teacher Salaries” (see here) exceeds $200,000/year. We could stock a lot of food pantries with that kind of cash.
Rather than pay $1,000/day for teachers why not hire full-time consultants?
What was your favorite subject in school? Here’s a short list by subject I found interesting. Notice when we add in the cost of fringe benefits (not including tenure) to come up with a “Total Compensation” amount we have some teachers making $200/hr.
Illinois $100,000 Teacher Salaries by Subject 2012
| Subject | 2012 High Salary | Number of $100K Salaries |
|---|---|---|
| Art | $159,861 | 201 |
| Clothing/Apparel | $138,554 | 6 |
| Drama | $187,635 | 32 |
| Drivers Ed | $174,279 | 153 |
| Elementary Education K-5 | $179,000 | 1,154 |
| English | $173,613 | 764 |
| Foodservice | $141,557 | 20 |
| French | $175,848 | 63 |
| Latin | $141,938 | 11 |
| Librarians | $161,184 | 220 |
| Music | $166,488 | 337 |
| Nurse | $135,035 | 37 |
| Phys Ed | $189,523 | 845 |
| Speech | $151,971 | 217 |
SOURCE:
Salaries from ISBE, Teacher Service Records year Ending 6/30/12
See Top 100 Teacher Salaries here.
How do these salaries compare to Wisconsin?
Wisconsin has only four teachers with salaries over $100,000 so let’s just compare those four to the top four (out of 10,091):
| Illinois Top 4 Salaries | Wisconsin Top 4 Salaries | Difference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith, Celeste | $209,957 | Hansen, Gary | $108,152 | $101,805 |
| Vranas,Annette | $203,311 | Knackert, Anne | $101,343 | $101,968 |
| York, Tinaya | $196,768 | Stowasser, Mary | $100,460 | $96,308 |
| Myers, Carol | $189,523 | Derose, John | $100,042 | $89,481 |
Ask yourself why IL has to pay their teachers $100,000 year more than WI does.
Why do taxpayers have to pay these outrageous salaries and benefits?
Since the purpose of taxes is to “provide for the common good”, please explain to me what common good is “provided for” by making public employees millionaires? I would suggest that school districts that can afford to pay compensation of this magnitude should be paying for their own pensions rather than throwing it on the backs of all the state taxpayers. Doing that would save the state $1.6 billion a year. We cannot control teacher pensions unless we control teachers’ salaries.
The “wealth transfer” progressives’ talk about is not from the rich to the poor but from everyone to the public employees. There would be billions more dollars available for the poor if public employee compensation were equal to the private sector – and without raising taxes.
