Sycamore Taxpayer

Teacher Pension Payout over $59,000 a year

Teacher pro-rated pay averages over $132,000 a year

   Twenty Sycamore public school teachers, listed below, retired according to a May 27, 2011 school report.  Each will receive on average about $57,000 yearly payment for the rest of their life. The teacher’s average years experience is just twenty four (24.2) years.  “Teachers can retire with their full pension after 30 years of service.”
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   This group of teacher’s last three year highest pay averages about $86,000 for only nine months of work (7.25 hr work day; 185 days). It equates to an astronomical average $132,818 pro-rated amount. Not bad for an ‘underpaid’ unionized government worker.  “The pro-rated pay represents what the teachers would make for working a typical 2,080 hour job based on the hourly rate made for working the roughly 1,350 hours required in a 185 day school year.”
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   If that isn’t enough to rattle your mind, there’s more to the story.  Under the oversight of our elected board of education, the district makes a “3-year employer (taxpayer) pension salary match” averaging about $37,000 for each teacher in this group. The trusting taxpayers are paying this amount in addition to the exorbitant salary of these unionized workers.
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   We still haven’t reached the end of the public teacher compensation story. “These estimates do not include the significantly subsidized health care provided to retired teachers.  In addition, the Social Security Maximum Yearly Payout ($28,152) represents the maximum amount an individual could collect in one year in Social Security benefits no matter how much you paid into the system. Depending on your date of birth, you must be at least 65 years old to receive the maximum yearly payout.”
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   You may be asking, “When was the school district going to inform the community of this exorbitant compensation package?”  You would have to answer “never” based on past experience.
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   What role should the board of education have in making sure the community is fully aware of how their multi-millions of tax dollars are being spent?
   How will the passage of Issue 2 (SB5) impact the exorbitant growth in teacher compensation?   
   Are some teachers being ‘forced’ out as a technique to lower costs and realign the student/teacher ratio? Is the salary schedule too generous? 
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Ask your B.O.E. candidates these questions.

Data source: The Buckeye Institute, Teacher Salary (Pension Calculator). [http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/teacher-salary]