When it comes to school taxes, no one pays more per student than New York taxpayers. You can point to a number of reasons for that. One of them, according to watchdog groups, is the power of NYSUT – the New York State United Teacher Union.

EJ McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy said, “There’s absolutely no question that the existence of teacher unions drives up what taxpayers pay.”

It’s true that New York spends about $20,000 per student annually. The majority of those school budgets go toward teacher compensation. But beyond negotiating salaries, critics says NYSUT drives up the price of education by fiercely protecting things like tenure, making efforts to remove troubled teachers cost prohibitive.

The union, funded by the dues of its 600,000 members, also spends millions of dollars on lobbying lawmakers and political campaigning which some suggest contributes to legislation that impacts taxpayers.

NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said, “If NYSUT is powerful it’s because we have so many caring, dedicated professionals out there in the field who are fighting with us for what our public school students and colleges need.”

McMahon says the union exists to keep what it has and get more.

He says, “When NYSUT is for something, what NYSUT is there to be for is for NYSUT and for NYSUT’s members.”

Korn says, “That’s simply not true. We work very closely with parents, school boards, superintendents in a collaborative manner to improve public education.”

In doing that, NYSUT has a payroll of more than $56 million. According to the Department of Labor, more than 200 employees or officers of NYSUT are making at least $100,000 per year. Fifteen of them make more than $200,000. We took those numbers to NYSUT in Albany.

We asked what members are getting for that money.

Korn says, “NYSUT members understand that we are a professional union and they want professionals to represent them fiercely and strongly in the halls of the Capital and in the school districts all around the state.”

Charles Martelle says, “So NYSUT has some people making a couple hundred thousand. I don’t think it’s the end of the world.”

Martelle is a tenth grade history teacher in the Cal-Mum School District. He’s also the local union president. So naturally he supports what NYSUT is doing on behalf of teachers. He says members in his district pay on average about $700 dollars annually in dues.

Brett Davidsen: “How do you justify the salaries that you see at NYSUT?”

Charles Martelle: “I’ll put it this way: When I go to buy a gallon of milk, I don’t care what the CEO of the company makes. I want to make sure it’s a good deal. And right now I think the dues we pay are a good deal for what we get.”

But is that a good deal for taxpayers?

In Irondequoit, property owners pay the highest school taxes in Monroe County. Richard Barone of the Irondequoit Citizens for Better Government says those NYSUT dues are only strengthening the union at the expense of taxpayers and children.

Barone says, “They’re there to help the employees, the members and that’s what they’re there for. They’re not there to help the kids. I’ve never seen a union contract that says we’re going to give the kids so much money to give the kids a better education.”

Click here to view NYSUT union officers/employees salaries

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