Top 100 Teacher Salaries For 2009 Average $160,000

The Champion 19 February 2010 9 Comments

Music Teacher Pulls Down $189,434.

Number of $100,000 School Salaries Up 10% To 12,438 In 2009.

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. See “Top 100 Teachers Salaries.”

Apparently there is no tax money for the barren shelves at food pantries or the lack of beds at homeless shelters or to extend unemployment benefits but there is enough tax money to pay:

An Instrumental Music teacher $189,434 for a 9 month work year.
A Phys-ed teacher over $1,000/day to watch freshmen do push ups.
A second-grade teacher $17,000/month to teach coloring between the lines.
A Drivers-ed teacher $130/hr to teach teenagers how to parallel park.
Five teachers more than $20,000/mo.
4,706 Teachers more than the average family MD ($11,779/mo).

And all of that is for a 36-week work-year.

These Top 100 Salaries Do Not Include Massive Amounts of Fringe Benefits.

Add about $48,000 each for state pension contribution (30% of salary) and at least $15,000/yr health insurance benefits. Then include 15 days sick leave 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 what is 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 $200/hr 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.

Teacher Compensation By Subject Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2009

The Following Are All Paid For By The Taxpayer For The Benefit of the Teacher:

Subject	Number w/salaries > $100k	High Salary	Pension 29.99% See NOTE 1	OPEB 11.25% See NOTE 2	Fringes – Insur. See NOTE 3	Total Compensation	Rate per Work-Day See NOTE 4	Cost/hr 8 hour Work-Day
Music	231	189,433	56,811	21,311	6,500	274,055	1,612	202
Speech	92	189,247	56,755	21,290	6,500	273,792	1,611	201
Phys Ed	591	184,028	55,190	20,703	6,500	266,421	1,567	196
Librarians	111	179,467	53,822	20,190	6,500	259,979	1,529	191
Drive Ed	132	167,351	50,189	18,827	6,500	242,867	1,429	179
Consumer Econ	29	166,443	49,916	18,725	6,500	241,584	1,421	178
Dance	16	164,490	49,331	18,505	6,500	238,826	1,405	176
Drama	24	163,239	48,955	18,364	6,500	237,059	1,394	174
Auto Repair	24	162,119	48,619	18,238	6,500	235,477	1,385	173
English	430	161,796	48,523	18,202	6,500	235,021	1,382	173
Clothing/Apparel	7	153,973	46,177	17,322	6,500	223,971	1,317	165
Art	145	146,890	44,052	16,525	6,500	213,967	1,259	157
French	40	142,813	42,830	16,066	6,500	208,209	1,225	153
Latin	8	138,378	41,500	15,568	6,500	201,945	1,188	148
Foodservice	15	126,176	37,840	14,195	6,500	184,711	1,087	136

Average Comp For $100K Salary		100,000	29,990	11,250	6,500	147,740	869	109

SOURCES:
Salaries from ISBE, Teacher Service Records year Ending 6/30/09
NOTE 1: From CGFA (Commission on Gov’t Forecasting & Accountability) Actuarial Evaluation 9/30/09
NOTE 2: OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) per GASB 43, 45
NOTE 2: Includes Amortization of $24B Unfunded OPEB Liability (Retiree Healthcare)
NOTE 2: Using Chi School District Actuarial – State Calculation Nonexistent
NOTE 3: Life, Health, and Disability Insurance Paid At the Local District level, estimated from ISBE.
NOTE 4: Work-Days Calc: 182 Day Contract less 2 personal days, 10 sick leave days = 170 work days

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.

It’s time to end robbing the poor taxpayer and giving it to rich public employees.

Bill Zettler is the owner of a computer-consulting firm in Illinois and a contributor to ChampionNews.net. Click here to read more by Mr. Zettler.

9 Comments »

Mike F said:

This is going to set he populists on fire. For generations, the typical response to failing schools was “Fund our underfunded district!” and “Teachers should be paid more than plummers!”

I believe starting salaries at CPS are in the neighborhood of $35,000 which is actually pretty meager. I wonder how long it takes to get six figures at CPS.

# 19 February 2010 at 10:26 pm

Curious said:

If the pay is so great and the work is so easy, why doesn’t the author or anyone else go into the profession ?

# 21 February 2010 at 12:45 pm

Interested said:

If the author thinks the job is so easy why didn’t he get a teaching certificate? Not that bright? Not willing to work 12-16 hr. days? Oh, I get it, the author could be a lawyer and charge clients $300 hr. and only puts in 20 minutes an hour of work to get that fee and gets paid whether or not he loses the case. Or, how about a factory worker who gets paid double time? Or, how about the radiologist who gets 1 million a year for looking at pictures? Oh yeah, I get it, let’s pay the teachers minimum wage and then wonder why Little Johnny can’t add, spell or know where New York is? Give me a break. Don’t talk about winning schools if you are not willing to pay winning salaries. You get out of something exactly what you put into it. Tell me, author, where did your kids go to school?

# 22 February 2010 at 1:52 am

John Powers said:

Why should teachers get paid more than architects…more than electrical engineers…more than many other professions? Retire at age 52? Work 9 months a year?

If you don’t like you lawyer, you can hire another one. If you don’t like your teacher, how do you make a change? You still have to pay, whether you use the school or not.

Perhaps some people do not want to be in this job because it is run like a racket rather than a profession.

JBP

# 22 February 2010 at 2:51 am

Ferris said:

It’s time to start flushing out the overpaid teachers. First step dump the unions. Teachers should be paid on performance not a union scale. So when little Johnny can’t read I’m not paying top dollar. Every teacher I know thinks they are over worked and underpaid. Maybe the newbie’s are underpaid but NO teacher is worth 100K. The CPS is a mess and yet we keep feeding the system. What’s wrong with this picture? The rest of us in corporate America bust our rear ends YEAR round hoping to have a job next week. If we don’t perform we are tossed out on the street why should it be different for any other public employee? I just want to gag every time I hear teacher talk how bad it is…life sucks, get over it. I know the students are little animals try dealing with management in the real world. It’s almost to the point I want to set aside my work ethic and hop on the gravy train. It’s time the public takes a little interest in what are getting for the money.

# 24 February 2010 at 6:00 am

Paul McGrath said:

Great idea! Let’s go back to the time when the school system was just another City Hall department run by the real Mayor Daley and his cronies. Everything’ll be just fine then. Teachers and principals were just patronage employees. In addition to protecting and bargaining for the teachers, the unions provide a countervailing force to the politicians. Let’s stop dumping on the teachers. The Republicans are just trying to destroy the public school system.

# 24 February 2010 at 5:27 pm

John Powers said:

Paul,

Both Mayor Daley’s are Democrats. Rev. Meeks is a Democrat. The school reform movement is being led by Democrats; it is also being opposed by Democrats.

The proposition that the Republicans control much of anything in Illinois is absurd.

JBP

# 24 February 2010 at 7:40 pm

bill jones said:

I am a mathematician and a physicist with a master’s in mathematical physics.

I cannot duplicate these calculations.

They are not right.

Do not believe them, please.

# 15 June 2010 at 10:36 pm

bill jones said:

If by chance pay was this high, I would quit working at my tenure university position and go that high school and earn bank.

These figures are lies.

I cannot duplicate their results.

# 15 June 2010 at 10:37 pm

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