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Chicago—Taxpayers United of America (TUA) responds to Prospect Heights SD 23 Strike.
“It is incomprehensible that the teachers of SD 23 could actually strike at this time. By no measure are these ‘civil servants’ underpaid in employment or retirement,” stated TUA executive director, Rae Ann McNeilly.
“These teachers are effectively demanding that their neighbors take another pay cut, which will come in the form of even higher property taxes, so the teachers can make more today and in retirement. The reality is that these striking teachers must look their neighbors in the eyes and say, ‘I don’t really care if you can no longer afford to live in your home, as long as I get what I want.’”
“Government school teachers make more than their counterparts in the private sector in both wages and benefits, they enjoy virtually iron-clad job security, and are only active for about 8 months out of the year,” added McNeilly.
“In any case, the State of Illinois is near implosion, financially speaking, and it is just irresponsible for any government employee to expect compensation increases when the taxpayers who fund them can barely keep their own heads above water.”
“The most recent report indicates that the Prospect Heights Education Association, the union at the heart of the strike, expects taxpayers to cough up pay increases of 4.5% for the first two years of the three year contract and 4.25% for the third year. How many taxpayers have received comparable pay increases recently or expect such huge increases over the next three years? Most of our members are worried about hanging on to their homes and keeping up with their property taxes as is, yet Illinois tries to tax its way out of the financial debacle, the same way bureaucrats created it.”
“It’s about time for teachers, and any other government employees, to suck it up and live on the very fair wages they are already getting and give the taxpayers a break.”
“If they really want to do what’s best ‘for the children,’ they will let the kids’ parents keep more of their hard-earned money and hopefully continue to afford their property taxes.”
“The following data shows taxpayers what a few of these ‘poor civil servants’ are making in retirement; we can only imagine what kind of salaries warrant these pensions.”
Click here to see the complete list of SD 23 pensions.
“Although many of the top pensioners retired as administrators, they were all teachers first,” concluded McNeilly.