Nearly Bankrupt School Pays $400k in Unused Sick Time

September 19, 2012:

Over the summer, one of the ideas floated to close the hole in the Harrisburg School Districts budget was to eliminate kindergarten. While it didn’t quite come down to that, the school district ultimately did opt against transporting kindergarten students from school (saving $162,000).

Against a backdrop of "tight" financial conditions, it is rather shocking to learn that the district paid over $410,000 to retiring employees for sick time that was accumulated and never used. According to a report on the matter from WGAL (emphasis added): "One retiring teacher received a taxpayer-funded check for unused sick days totaling more than $34,000.

"That’s just $4,000 shy of the average annual salary for a Pennsylvania worker.

"Other district retirees received checks for $22,000, $23,000 and $25,000 just for bankrolling hundreds of sick days and cashing out at retirement."

The vast majority of taxpayers, who are ultimately picking up the bill, don’t have the ability to save up their sick days. Unfortunately, this is only one example of an absurd benefit that teachers (and other public sector workers) have accumulated at the expense of taxpayers. Furthermore, these are the types of benefits that teachers’ unions will strike to keep.

Across the state, there are teachers’ unions laying the groundwork for strikes
Although, they may lack the drama of the Chicago teachers’ strike, the reasons are the same:

Why are Chicago teachers on strike?

The next time you hear a teachers’ union representative say "it’s for the children", don’t believe it for an instant.

##

Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania (CAP) is a non-profit organization founded to
raise the standard of living of all Pennsylvanians by restoring limited government,
economic freedom, and personal responsibility. By empowering the Commonwealth’s
employers and taxpayers to break state government’s "Iron Triangle" of career
politicians,
bureaucrats, and Big Government lobbyists, this restoration will occur and Pennsylvania
will prosper.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania | P.O. Box 6726 | Harrisburg | PA | 17112