Teacher Union Boss to Receive $230K Taxpayer Funded Pension
Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, controls one of the most powerful teachers’ unions in America. On top of her $560,000 salary as the union leader, she may collect an estimated $230,000 over the length of several years from a New York taxpayer-funded pension — or $15,300 per year.
This is despite only three years as a full time teacher, according to the Freedom Foundation.
Weingarten was a classroom teacher for six years, three of which were as a per diem substitute teacher. Since she left the classroom in 1997, Weingarten has been classified as on “union leave” from her teaching position, which allowed her to continue to accrue union service credit towards her pension.
Documents obtained by the Freedom Foundation show Weingarten’s public pension will be calculated as if she has worked full time as a teacher for 15 years thanks to this trick, and will be based off of a salary of $64,313, her last reported salary as a New York City teacher.
Because of this, Freedom Foundation estimates, “If she retired at age 70 and collected the pension for 15 years, her total pension benefits would amount to $230,000, not including annual cost-of-living adjustments.”
The vast majority of this pension will come from New York taxpayers, since in New York City, teachers only contribute 3% of their salary, which in Weingarten’s case would have added up to a mere $7,200.
This dishonest loophole forces taxpayers to supplement the retirement of an already handsomely-compensated individual, puts additional stress on already-fraught pension systems, and takes benefits from the thousands of hardworking teachers doing it the right way.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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