Another school levy failed last night. Although the district has maintained that they are running out of cuts to make, I did some research that would lead me to believe otherwise.

According to public records, the average teacher salary for the Cardinal Middle School is $60,745. Please note that these are the wages in their pay check, and does NOT include pensions, annuity, health care, sick days, or any of their many benefits. For the sake of comparison, the average household income of the residents in the district is $38,981.

So, those teachers, on average, are paid over 55% more than the people who pay their salaries! I'd love to see the percentage once the benefits are figured in, how about you? I bet that would be a REAL eye opener!!

According to the same public records, the same teachers work 184 days in a year, and 7.5 hours per day.

Once you do the math, you will find that the average teacher, in that building alone, is making $44.02 per hour, not including their benefits package!

Now, I suppose that, when the economy is booming, and people can afford it, that would be acceptable (that is an argument for another time). However, that is not the case today. Businesses are closing their doors. More people are losing their homes than at any time since the great depression. The State of Ohio's unemployment fund went broke two years ago, and we are now "borrowing" from the feds. In today's economy, nearly 1 in every 10 employees are unemployed. Of those still employed, a good majority of those have had their benefits and salaries cut, due to decreased profit margins.

Meanwhile, the teachers have said that they will take a pay freeze for a while. Sorry, but that's not enough. The salaries of everyone that pays the teachers' salaries have been decreasing rapidly. Yet, I have yet to see the teachers' union come to negotiations offering to cut salaries across the board. No way!! Instead, they cry that they are actually "underpaid," and that, if we cared about the children, we would keep throwing money their way.

The time has come for a reality check. And, that reality is, people cannot afford it anymore. Cuts need to be made.

I know union electricians who are working (still through their union) for wages nearly 25% less than they were making three years ago. Yet, schools are asking them to cough up a few more tax dollars so that their teachers can still get their step raises. Shouldn't you be more concerned about your fellow AFL-CIO members?

Start searching around at http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/school-data to find out how much your districts' teachers are REALLY making, and then decide just how much of an "Emergency Levy" the next one really is. I'd bet good money that it's not as much of an emergency as you previously thought!