Posted on 05/24/2023 11:50:18 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Despite only spending a few years in the classroom, taxpayers could end up shelling out over $200,000 in a public pension for AFT president Randi Weingarten.
Randi Weingarten has spent only a small portion of her career in the classroom despite leading the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest national teachers union in the United States. Trained as a lawyer, Weingarten taught full-time for just three years and was a substitute teacher for three more.
However, according to a report by Freedom Foundation, a think tank, she will collect over 15 years' worth of public pension when she retires. That sum could total well over $200,000.
Weingarten worked as a per diem substitute between 1991 and 1994 and then became a full-time teacher for three years. Weingarten was also employed as legal counsel for United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Sandra Feldman until 1998, after which Weingarten became union president.
But according to public records, Weingarten is listed as having collected over 15 years of "service credit" as a teacher—meaning she can expect the pension benefits of someone who worked in the classroom for well over a decade longer than Weingarten has.
How has Weingarten earned 15 years' worth of pension benefits? Per Freedom Foundation's Maxford Nelsen, it's due to the UFT collective bargaining agreement, which allowed her to have over 11 extra years counted toward her "service" even though she wasn't in the classroom. This likely came from "time spent…on union leave as treasurer and then president of UFT from 1997 until her election as AFT president in 2008," Nelsen notes.
"Employees who are officers of the Union or who are appointed to its staff shall, upon proper application, be given a leave of absence without pay for each school year during the term of this Agreement for the purpose of performing legitimate duties for the Union," the collective bargaining agreement said. Public records from November 2022 show that Weingarten was one of several dozen such "teachers" out on union leave.
While Weingarten's union leave is unpaid, the New York City Department of Education used tax revenue to pay her pension contributions for over a decade.
Weingarten wouldn't have been eligible for a pension in the first place without the extra service credit from her union years, as teachers need five years of service credit to be eligible for a pension. Including 12 months of credit she received from substitute teaching, Weingarten only had four years of service credit from her time actually spent teaching.
It's unclear how much taxpayers will shell out for Weingarten's pension. Assuming her average salary was $60,000 (public records show that her last salary as a New York City teacher was $64,313) and she collects her pension for 15 years, taxpayers could end up paying Weingarten $230,000 total, Nelsen estimates—not including any cost-of-living adjustments.
Weingarten has disputed this, telling the New York Post that his calculation is "completely wrong," adding that "I would have to check with UFT and TRS [Teachers Retirement System] on the other or find a quarterly statement, none of which I have right now." UFT did not respond to a request for comment.
Students are hardly Weingarten's top priority. Despite recent attempts to rehabilitate her image, Weingarten was a vocal supporter of extended COVID-related school closures, advocating for such ridiculous policies as forgiving all teacher student loan debt and suspending teacher evaluations as requirements for "safe" reopening.
"Weingarten's case is a prime example of how government unions around the country have managed to force taxpayers to subsidize their extreme, one-sided political advocacy," Nelsen wrote, "and it's high time federal and state lawmakers stand up to union influence."
That’s because unfortunately, the time she spends as the elected head of the teachers union, counts towards her total service years. It’s like that for most unions. It was for the one I had to belong to.
She needs to be locked up.
How can someone who was in the profession such a short time effectively represent them?
Chicago can top that. A teacher’s union rep collected a full teacher’s pension after subbing for one day. Think I’m making stuff up?
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/illinois-pension-substitute-teacher-david-piccioli.html
How can they claim to represent teachers?
Presidents get a pension for four years. That should stop too. We’re still shelling out a monthly check to Jimmy Carter. Ridiculous! And he’s getting way more then a thousand a month this teacher will get with a sunset provision.
It's not about teaching, it's not about educating children, never has been. It's about political power, leftist activist causes and teacher benefits and job protections (i.e. no competition).
Did she yell and wave her arms wildly (gesticulate) when teaching in the classroom also? Please roll her out at election time Democrats.
> While Weingarten’s union leave is unpaid, the New York City Department of Education used tax revenue to pay her pension contributions for over a decade. <
I wonder how true that is. I live in a very union-friendly state (not New York). In my state both the teacher and the school district pay into the retirement fund.
But when a teacher is on union leave, the union pays the teacher’s salary AND the retirement portion normally paid by the district. The district pays nothing.
I’d be a little surprised if New York was different.
She must have been a real loser of a “teacher”. Probably got hung up on the tranny toddler program and got sidetracked.
I think we started doing that with Truman. It’s said he was basically broke when he left office. (I do know if this is true, but I’ve heard it a number of times!) Congress (A Rat Majority at the time!) decided that a former Prez shouldn’t live in poverty, so the voted e-Presidents a pension. Now they get to live in splendor!
Great point! Teachers obviously aren't as smart as they'd like everyone to think.
Typical of a Facist Marxist.
The joys of communism...
I have mentioned this elsewhere. Teachers do not get to vote on their state and national leaders. That’s done at conventions, where only hand-picked delegates can gain admission.
These teacher unions are always huffing and puffing about democracy. But they are among the most rigid and centrally-controlled organizations in the country. They operate kind of like how the old USSR used to operate.
You mean like the FBI, CIA, etc. operate today.
This is how the so-called unions work. The chosen few form their own elite complete with privileges unavailable to the members, and in time begin to work for themselves as just another elite, and so against their own members.
One is seeing this with some unions in Germany now, as the union elite sellout the rank-and-file for their own connections and betterment. One observes that this sort of thing in endemic in PUBLIC sector unions.
I remember an NBA strike a number of years ago. The negotiations were run by top players and their agents. The lesser players, and especially the bubble player were thrown under the bus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.