Public Schools Have a Spending Problem

When the Congress passed the Public School Bailout, it was akin to slapping a band-aid on a bleeding head wound. American public school systems spend somewhere around a half-trillion dollars a year, and another $10 billion is going to make everything alright? Hardly.

Public schools have a serious spending problem. When a local teachers union bargains with the school district over a new teacher contract, the new contract typically includes all kinds of hidden expenses. Collective bargaining agreements typically put school districts on the hook for sick leave pay, cash payouts for unused sick days, release time to conduct union business, and other embedded costs that cause school districts to hemorrhage huge amounts of money.

News coverage of teacher contracts, if there is any, is rarely controversial or in-depth. It usually covers the general raise every employee receives, as well as the modest increase in health insurance co-pays. But dig beneath the surface, and a different story emerges.

Education Action Group is dedicated to pointing out the huge spending problems plaguing our schools. We recently conducted an analysis of nearly 20 teacher contracts in southwest Ohio and uncovered some shocking numbers. For example, Cincinnati Public Schools spent $7.5 million on sick leave in last year. How many teacher salaries would that cover?

And how about this? The state of Ohio has an unfunded mandate requiring every school employee be given 15 sick days per year. Last year, an Ohio school district that has 308 teachers used 4,187 sick days last school year. Once the costs for substitute teachers are factored in, paying for those sick days becomes a major expense.

Using these themes, the Education Action Group recently posted 25 billboards in the greater Cincinnati area to draw attention to some of the most egregious examples of wasteful spending that are written into teacher contracts through the collective bargaining process.

Our most provocative message: “Did you get a raise for not dying this summer?” This refers to “step raises” – pay increases given simply because a teacher has another year of experience, not because any sort of improvement was made. Step raises cost Cincinnati schools over $3 million last year alone.

Of course, that is just a microcosm of what’s going on across the country.

Milwaukee Public Schools spends nearly $24,000 per employee on health insurance. The union sued to put Viagra coverage back in the plan, and that will cost the district another $700,000 a year.

Indianapolis Public Schools spends nearly $25,000 a month on cell phones.

If that is how school districts are spending precious tax dollars, it’s little wonder why districts nationwide are being forced to lay off teachers, delay the purchase of new textbooks, and strip classrooms of necessary supplies such as Kleenex.

EAG will continue to raise awareness of the wasteful spending plaguing our public schools until they stop putting the needs of adults ahead of the children, get their spending under control and live within their means.