9486 in the collection
Teachers union's pay a surprise to many
Check out the pay of the
national leaders as well as your own reps. And
remember: these are the people who lambasted
the Educator Roundtable for calling for an end
to NCLB.
By Bill Bush
The average salary for Ohio teachers dropped
last year for the first time in at least seven
years, but that's not the case for most
employees of the state's largest teachers
union.
Counting everyone from receptionists up to the
executive director, the median salary for the
234-person staff of the Columbus-based Ohio
Education Association is nearly $82,000.
The OEA pays 102 employees six-figure salaries,
including 34 who made more than $120,000 for
the fiscal year that ended in August.
The highest paid employee is Executive Director
Dennis Reardon, who was paid $176,317,
according to the union's annual report on file
with the U.S. Department of Labor.
OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks was paid
$172,574, and the union's vice president and
treasurer each were paid about $151,400.
"My gut feeling is that the average school
teacher in our district has no idea what the
average (union representative) is making," said
Kevin Fourman, past president of the Bucyrus
Education Association.
In all, three-fourths of the OEA staff make
more than the $53,410 the average Ohio teacher
was paid last school year, and almost one-third
made more than the $113,890 average salary of
the state's superintendents.
The OEA's officers and employees also were
reimbursed a total of more than $2 million for
business expenses, which the annual report
doesn't detail. Almost half the staff were
reimbursed more than $10,600 each, with the top
reimbursement of $40,463 going to Vice
President William Leibensperger.
The union says these reimbursements cover
expenses including travel and supplies.
Spokesman Mike Mahoney said the salaries are
appropriate for a staff that provides lobbying,
research, education-improvement initiatives,
legal services and communications comparable to
other similar-size affiliates of the National
Educational Association.
In response to the teachers' pay falling last
year, the OEA froze the salaries of five top
officials, Mahoney said.
Members pay $477 in annual dues to the union,
which represents 130,000 people statewide,
including Columbus public teachers.
"It's a very democratically run organization,"
Mahoney said. "We don't keep (the salaries) a
secret."
But the leaders of some OEA locals contacted
across the state said they had no idea that
state union officials were paid so much.
"I am a little shocked," said Lima Education
Association President Lori Ruschau-Will, whose
local signed a new contract last year that
included no pay raises.
"I was not aware that they made that much
money.
"I think the classroom teachers have a problem
with any management person making six figures.
That's because they're not in the trenches
dealing with the students day to day. Education
is supposed to be about the students."
New teachers in Bucyrus are paid about $28,300
a year, and the top salary is a little more
than $57,800, said Fourman, of the Bucyrus
Education Association.
He said the state union officials' salaries
would "raise an eyebrow" among teachers.
"I certainly think that somewhere out there,
there would be an educator who would be
surprised or resentful that (OEA officials are)
making a lot more than the teachers in the
classrooms," Fourman said.
The state's second-largest teachers union, the
16,250-member Ohio Federation of Teachers, paid
President Susan Taylor $22,733 for the fiscal
year that ended in June.
At the same time, the union reimbursed
Cincinnati Public Schools, where Taylor is on
leave from her teaching job, $100,700 for her
salary and benefits.
The benefits account for about one-third of the
reimbursement, Taylor estimated.
None of the federation's employees is paid more
than $100,000.
The OEA does not report individual employees'
benefits.
— Bill Bush
The Columbus Dispatch
2008-11-29
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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