Education: It pays to be an “education advocate”

Education

It pays to be an “education advocate”

by NPRI staff

n a speech before the National Press Club in February, National Education Association Vice President Robert Chase unveiled a “new unionism” in which a greater emphasis would be placed on better teachers, better students and better schools. The question of whether Chase’s new unionism will actually come to pass is academic, because apparently the old unionism continues to pay very well indeed.

Chase has decried the fact that in 1995-96, the average teacher salary in the United States was $37,685. The value of benefits accounted for approximately $10,200 more. For the same period the average cash compensation to a member of the NEA staff in Washington, D.C. was $70,780 with an additional $26,230 in benefits. This amounts to a total package of $97,010.

Of the 587 people employed by the NEA last year, 130 (22 percent) recieved more than $100,000 in salary and allowances alone. Exactly 511 NEA staffers (86 percent) made more than the average teacher. Listed below are the top 10 NEA wage earners for 1995-96. These figures include salary, “fringe benefit allowance,” living allowances, companion travel and other taxable stipends. They do not include benefits such as medical, dental, retirement, life insurance or other payments not made directly to the employee.

These annualized figures may even be understated because, for ease of computation, the Education Intelligence Agency has assumed that all 597 employees worked full-time for the entire year. Here are the top 10 salaries. All numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred:

Keith Geiger, president Robert Chase, vice president Marilyn Monahan, treasurer Don Cameron, executive director Mary Elizabeth Teasley, director Kenneth Melley, executive director for programs Daniel McKillip, regional director Tony Rollins, assistant executive director Eugene Dryer, regional director Earl Jones, director

$309,400 $244,000 $239,600 $217,100 $155,600 $154,700 $152,600 $151,000 $146,900 $142,200

evada State Education Association staffers are not doing too badly either, compared to the average Nevada teacher salary of $36,167. Following are 1996-97 salaries of the top 10 NSEA staff members, as taken from its own “Staffing Cost Worksheet.” These figures include salary, taxes, travel expense allowance, retirement and health, life and auto insurance:

Ken Lange, executive director Dick Wilson, deputy executive director John Jasonek, assistant executive director Debbie Cahill, assistant executive director Karen Wilson, assistant executive director Fran Juhasz, ESEA executive director Randy Cahill, organization specialist Al Bellister, organization specialist (lobbyist) Joe Furtado, organization specialist Robert Stephens, ESEA organization specialist

$137,254 $127,024 $115,283 $120,477 $107,479 $112,625 $91,247 $118,774 $117,968 $91,958

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