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Union Bosses Received 20% Pay Increase Last Year, Making 10 Times the Average Teacher Salary
posted by: Colin | July 14, 2012, 04:34 PM   

“Are teachers or anyone in the private sector experiencing those increases in times of financial hardship?"

AAE Executive Director Gary Beckner featured in FoxNews.com article about union boss salaries being nearly 10 times that of the average teacher:

Average teacher makes $44G while their top union bosses pull in nearly $500G
By Perry Chiaramonte | Published July 14, 2012

Teachers across the country face pay freezes and possible layoffs, but the heads of the two biggest teachers unions saw their pay jump 20 percent last year, to nearly half a million dollars apiece.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten's pay jumped to $407,323 between 2010 and 2011, while her counterpart at the National Education Association, Dennis Van Roekel, got a raise to $362,644. Factor in stipends and other paid expenses and Weingarten took in $493,859 and Van Roekel $460,060 for 2011.

The big salaries drew jeers from many educators and their advocates in the U.S., where the average nationwide salary for teachers is a scant $44,000 a year. By contrast, nearly 600 staffers at the NEA and AFT are raking in six-figure salaries, according to Association of American Educators Executive Director Gary Beckner.

“In terms of salaries, union executives rake in nearly 10 times the average household income and far more than any teacher," Beckner told FoxNews.com. “Are teachers or anyone in the private sector experiencing those increases in times of financial hardship?"

The union bigwigs are well-insulated from the paycheck-to-paycheck lives of most schoolteachers, said Tracie Happel, a elementary school teacher in Lacrosse, Wisc., who has spoken out in the past against the practices of the unions.

“It’s always about the union. It’s never about the teachers or students,” Happel said. “When you’re a teacher, you know you will not always be able to have the money for renovations on a house or go away on vacation, but it’s a tough pill to swallow when you can’t do those things when the people who are supposed to represent us get paid more and more every year.”

Happel added that while she is safe for now, many of her colleagues in worse situations.

“They are finding it hard to pay their bills. They are having trouble with basic monthly bills.”

Officials for the NEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Last year, I and the other two AFT officers, as well as all management took a voluntary pay freeze," Weingarten, president of AFT said in a statement.

"We did so because no one knows better than we do the economic distress our members are experiencing. Unlike in the corporate sector, all of my salary, benefits and expenses are fully disclosed," Weingarten said.

But John Ellsworth, a teacher in the Michigan's Grand Ledge Public Schools, told the Mackinac Center, a Michigan-based think tank, that teachers deserve the best advocates union dues can buy.

"Public education is vital for the preservation and growth of our nation and its economy," Ellsworth said in an email. "Leaders of the national teachers' union try to rally people behind this truth. I wish we had people serving in government who recognized the importance of public education, but instead children and teachers need their own advocates since politicians abandon public education so readily."

Tony Amorose, a history teacher with the Dearborn School District in Michigan, said no one begrudges union officials fair salaries. But he said the steep increases are out of step with what the rank and file see. After 21 years of teaching, he earns $74,000 a year. He said he gets by just fine, but worries about the pay younger and less experienced teachers get.

“It would be nice if the unions held the line a bit in a show of solidarity,” said Amorose, who is campaigning for state office. “I don’t mind paying dues, but I don’t see them going down with my compensation. They keep going up. I find it a bit frustrating that they would give themselves such significant salary and compensation increases.”

Michael Van Beek, Mackinac's director of education policy said the problem isn't necessarily high pay for union leaders, it's the way they get it.

“These compensation levels are not based on market demand," Van Beek said. "This pay largely relies upon monopolistic collective bargaining privileges these unions enjoy, which forces school employees to financially support them. This is why transparency of these unions is so important.”

The significant raises of the two union leaders salaries came at a time when the saw memberships dwindling.

“They [the unions] want us to be seen as laborers and not professionals,” said Kristi LaCroix, an English teacher from Kenosha, Wisc., who added that the unions did not want to use Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial reform plan because it gave teachers the choice to be represented by a union which would give them the ability to avoid paying mandatory dues.

“They want us to be seen as laborers and not professionals. I get nothing for my dues except them going to keeping ineffective teachers employed and treated like a servant.”

Comment below.




Comments (4)Add Comment
...
written by Jules Yak, February 24, 2018

Ok, but they are not asking for public money, its private money Vladimir Lenin!
For Comparison's Sake
written by Steven Mitchell - Suffolk County, NY, July 16, 2014

So now the heads of the major teachers unions make almost as much as the lowest paid derivatives trader on Wall Street? That is an interesting contrast.
AMEN
written by Jon Federal Way, July 17, 2012

I think more folks would support the union if they were paid the AVG of who they represented. Unions need to change their focus to job creation and retention. They keep forcing wages up and up and up and it forces more businesses to close or go bankrupt. My fathers business of 35 years went bankrupt becuase he became a union shop the last 5 years. He couldnt afford the wages and they ended up all getting laid off and he lost everything. Meanwhile the union doesnt care. All they care about is lining their pockets.
Teacher
written by Lorraine-Suffolk County, NY, July 17, 2012

I am shocked that this bias report from Fox "News" has been printed here. As usual not ALL of the facts have been represented. Corruption in unions does exist, but that is not the whole story. Without unions this country will be swallowed up by corporate greed and we will no longer have a middle class. Unions need to be saved and reinvented, NOT abolished, which is exact ally what the "Fox-propaganda machine" would have. How can an organization that is supposed to represent teachers, union bash so unashamedly? I will be discontinuing any/all connection I have had with this company. I will not be a part of the problem.

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