CHICAGO—The president of Illinois’ largest taxpayer group charged that the huge salaries received by teachers of High School Dist. 211, the state’s largest high school district, show that salaries of public school teachers are out of control and bear no relationship to the value of teachers’ contributions to society. He further criticized the Dist. 211 School Board for caving in to the teachers in order to avoid a threatened strike.
“Any discerning citizen who reviews the salaries of Dist. 211 teachers will realize that the purpose of public schools is not to education students, but to line the pockets of teachers and administrators,” said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI). “And to make matters worse, the Dist. 211 School Board was so chummy with the teachers that it gave them an unwarranted pay-raise in their new two-year contract. Teachers reportedly will get a base raise of 3.25%, plus a raise tied to the Consumer Price Index.”
“This fleecing of northwest suburban taxpayers occurs at the time when students in Illinois posted the lowest scores ever on the state achievement exam.”
“Not counting the Dist. 211 Superintendent and three Assistant District Superintendents, a listing of salaries for school year ending 2006, from www.thechampion.org, shows that of 937 employees, 317 of the 937-over a third-received salaries of over $100,000 per year.”
“The highest paid teacher in the district received an incredible salary of $160,135, and he was a driver education teacher. The next highest-paid teacher in the top ten received $152,474, for teaching physical education. The third highest-paid teacher in the system received $152,347. He taught Auto/Automotive Body repair.”
“Dist. 211 teachers can retire after 34 years at 55, and in the 20 years after retirement, each of those who made $100,000 or more will receive a total of over $2 million in retirement pension. This is an outrageous rip-off of suburban taxpayers. It’s time taxpayers held the school board accountable.”
Click here for the news release.

By on December 12, 2007   /   News Releases  
5 Comments
  1. John Parker
    3:02 pm on October 18, 2010

     The average pay of a District 211 teacher is $93,000.00 per year, 3rd highest in the state and 33% higher than in the surrounding high school districts. District 211 leads the state with 299 teachers drawing salaries in excess of $100,000 thousand dollars per year. These very generous salaries cost taxpayers $18,400,000 extra per year over the average salaries paid in the surrounding districts. Academically District 211 ranks 148th in the state. This is unacceptable.
     The average median house hold income of Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Palatine is $72,598.00 per year. The average teacher in D211 makes $93,000.00 per year. This means that he or she exceeds the average total income of these homes by 22%. The definition of average median house hold income includes wages, unemployment insurance, disability payments, child support payments, any personal business, investment, or any type of income received routinely by anyone over the age of 18 living in the house. This is unacceptable.
     Since the huge 2005 property tax levy increase our schools have fallen academically compared to the rest of the state. There is no data to support the assumption that a Physical Education Teacher in D211 with an annual income of $150,000 per year teaches three times better than a Physical Education Teacher elsewhere with an income of $50,000.00 per year. More money does not equal a better education. Simply put, we are not getting our money’s worth.

  2. Taxpayer
    12:43 am on April 8, 2011

    Drivers Ed and phys Ed. Two of the “joke” subjects in HS get paid the highest salaries!?!? Even if they been there for 30 years..BLAME THE UNIONS!!! AGAIN!!!! No company in the world can survive under that type of contract. GM went under because of it. Because of TAXPAYERS UNLIMITED SUPPLY of money, this continues. NO TAXPAYER FUNDED EMPLOYEMENT SHOULD BE RULED BY UNIONS!!! Get a pension FINE..keep drivers ed and phys ed salaries capped like ANY OTHER EMPLOYEMENT SECTOR. I NEVER FEEL SORRY FOR TEACHERS!!! can’t be fired, AUTOMATIC raises, AUTOMATIC pay grade, not increase, pay grade for masters. HOW DOES A MASTERS MAKE YOU A BETTER TEACHER teaching the same subject for 30 yrs with NO CHANGE IN THE CONTENT!!!!! ALL PAID BY YOU AND ME THE TAXPAYER!!!

    • Student Here
      9:11 am on October 31, 2014

      All of you are morons. While I agree that most teachers here are over paid, the gym and auto teacher salaries are varsity coaches here who get addition money for the time they spend out of school with the teams.

  3. Marz
    12:29 pm on March 17, 2017

    Public employees and their ridiculous pay, benefits and a pension is killing Illinois. These jobs are not that hard. Supers and assistants are way overpaid. They are not running a company, not stealing market share or because of tenure, not hiring the best. 30 years is not a career. And don’t forget the biggest scam. Retire, go back to work. Want to win the lottery? Be a public employee. Hardly work, easy work, short short career. Set for life. Public employees are America’s terrorists. Robbery without a gun.
    Put in $150K, get 2-3 million in retirement. SCAM.