As I wrote the title of this post, I have to admit that I cringed a little.  We grow up hearing teachers complain about how much work they do for such low salaries.  They’re public servants that we have never rewarded properly.  It is ingrained; unquestionable.  Are teachers overcompensated?  Of course not!  I’ve never met one who would say so in my entire life!

Then again, I’ve also never met someone with an office job who feels that he earns too much money.  We always want more.  That, too, is ingrained.

Sometimes it takes a heavy-hitting economic report to show that we actually spend too much on something (especially if the funding comes from the government).  In this case that report is brought to you by the Heritage Foundation, which pulls absolutely no punches in this report saying that public school teachers are overcompensated by 52%.

It’s okay to be a little shocked.  But go ahead and read at least the abstract.

I’ll let you form your own opinions about the report.  I’m not here to tell you that you should start writing to your congressman asking him to cut teacher salaries so that you can pay lower taxes.  I do, however, consider it my responsibility to point out a couple things gleaned from the report.

1) Much of the overcompensation teachers supposedly experience is actually thanks to pensions and benefits, not base salaries.

Teacher (and other public sector) pensions are becoming an increasingly sizeable share of our state and county spending.  With our aging population and with folks living longer, we’ll soon have more retirees taking money out of the system than employees actually paying into it.  It’s a problem that is already being faced by the Social Security administration and one that has led Rick Perry to compare it to a Ponzi Scheme (a la Bernie Madoff).

2) It’s actually the health benefits that really contribute most to the apparent teacher overcompensation.

I found a somewhat disturbing thing when doing my research for the Maryland Pension Map.  We knew that pensions were going to get expensive quick, so we started saving for them years ago.  Not nearly enough, mind you, but we did start saving.  Healthcare benefits?  Not so much.

Now what we have on our hands is something of a perfect storm situation.  Healthcare costs are on the rise, with the majority of demand created by the elderly.  And we have legions of retired (or retiring) teachers who have been promised open-ended health benefits.

Private corporations already faced this mess years ago.  Do you remember what the solution was?  Switching from defined benefit to defined contribution pension/benefit systems.  True, they’re not as cushy, but they are sustainable.