Salary data way off

The March 31 Daily Herald article "The pluses, minuses of educators serving on school boards" describes the comments of Mr. Kenzo Shibata of the Illinois Federation of Teachers as follows in regards to Gurnee School District 56: "District 56 teacher salaries contradict the idea that a school board with a heavy majority of current or retired public education employees means a fatter union contracts, Shibata said. District 56 instructors' base pay is $38,000 to $58,000 annually."

However, salary information from the Illinois Report Card, Illinois State Board of Education, and the District 56 website shows that the IFT salary information is grossly understated.

The Illinois Report Card states that the average teacher salary in District 56 is $63,487. The ISBE data, although two years old, shows the lowest teacher base salary in 2012 as $33,345 and the highest base salary at $117,108. Obviously, two years later, these base salaries will be higher.

The District 56 website only shows salaries at $75,000-plus and their highest teacher base salary is $137,516.

So the IFT is claiming the highest base teacher salary is $58,000 yet the District 56 website itself shows the highest base salary of $137,516.

The District 56 website also shows that 11 percent of District 56 teachers have $100K-plus base salaries - a far cry from the $58,000 maximum base salary that IFT is reporting.

It is appalling that the Illinois Federation of Teachers makes such blatantly false statements in an attempt to brainwash the taxpaying public. Then again, this is the same teachers union that arranged for their union lobbyists to substitute teach for one day so they could "qualify" for a teacher's pension. So I suppose it is not surprising that they would grossly underreport their members' salaries.

After all, "it's for the kids."

Ken Hofrichter

Elk Grove Village