By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

HAMMOND, Ind. – Patrick O’Rourke has been receiving a full teachers paycheck from the School City of Hammond for about 50 years, and he’s never taught a class.

Now school officials have finally decided that enough is enough.

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O’Rourke is the longtime president of the Hammond Federation of Teachers. As part of the union’s collective bargaining agreement, he served in that role while his salary and benefits were picked up by the district and taxpayers since the 1970s.

Schools paying union officials to do nothing but work for the union is an unfortunate leftover of the Big Labor era in public education. The irony is that these officials spend most of their work hours devising plans to fight local school boards over a host of issues and drive labor costs through the roof.

That irony was not lost on the current Hammond school board, which recently informed O’Rourke that his salary will be cancelled within 60 days, according to a story published by the Hammond News. A recent audit of the district’s finances by the Indiana Board of Accounts questioned the wisdom of maintaining the union president’s salary.

The school board seems to finally have its priorities straight. The members decided that it made absolutely no sense to pay someone $73,412 per year to not teach when it was recently forced to lay off nearly 100 teachers.

We’re guessing that O’Rourke’s salary, plus the cost of his benefits, would probably equal enough money to hire two entry level teachers. And schools exist to teach students, not to fund union activities that have no connection to student learning.

Hammond officials are wise to bid a fond farewell to Mr. O’Rourke.