MEA President Gets 15 Percent Pay Hike

The average salary of the 346 employees of the Michigan Education Association increased 19 percent - to more than $89,000 each - since 2005, according to the Lansing State Journal. Union President Iris Salters was paid $239,000 in 2009, the State Journal reported, which is more than four times the average pay of the classroom teachers the MEA represents. Salters received a 15 percent pay increase over the previous year.

Teachers pay more than $770 a year in dues to the union. The State Journal noted teachers are paid with public money.

"Every dollar that we spend on union representation for public school employees is one less dollar that goes to educate public school children," Mike Van Beek, director of education policy, told the State Journal.

And, as Paul Kersey, director of labor policy, has noted, there are plenty of questions surrounding how the MEA and other unions do spend the dues money that members are forced to pay.

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