Philadelphia schools cut thousands of teachers but kept staff farmers

June 10, 2012 JLabor, Education & Pensions

We all know that taxpayer dollars when used in any venue have some spending abuses.  This month we will most likely see more state budget cuts as we face uncertain economic times.  But who would have thought your tax dollars are going towards some very interesting positions within the Philadelphia School District.  EAGNews.org filed an open records request and the findings were more than eye-opening.

“Here’s an item from the “strange but true” file: One of the nation’s largest urban school systems, the School District of Philadelphia, has three farmers on its payroll.  Leftists will probably greet this news as evidence that “green jobs” actually do exist. But the rest of us are wondering why an urban school district that’s hemorrhaging money is employing any farmers at all. That’s just one of the questions raised from a recent open records EAGnews.org filed with the Philadelphia school district.

In the course of trying to determine how much money the district spends on things like teacher health insurance and step increases, we stumbled onto a treasure trove of information about the district’s extravagant spending practices.  While most of the items were discussed in our new report, “Sucking the Life Out of America’s Public Schools: The Expense of Teachers Union Contracts,” we felt that several details deserved a more thorough examination.”

For a list of all of the employees who are PFT members click here.

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