By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota’s largest teachers union is starting the new school year with a bit of a public relations problem.

A new report reveals that the president of Education Minnesota earns more than three times the average teacher’s salary, according to a story published by the Star Tribune.

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According to government records, union President Tom Dooher earned a salary of $168,530 in 2011, and received another $22,412 in other disbursements.  Dooher’s total compensation dwarfs the average teacher’s salary of $53,680.

Other union leaders did pretty well last year, too.

The newspaper reports that “49 Education Minnesota staffers and three elected officers were paid more than $100,000 in fiscal year 2011.”

Thirty of those union staffers – and all three officers – earned more than Minnesota’s Education Commissioner, a fact that might rankle some rank-and-file union members and more than a few taxpayers.

“Large pay differentials between union officials and those they represent are nothing new,” Blake writes. “The national teachers’ unions have come under fire recently for using compulsory union dues to give union leaders extravagant compensation packages.”

Earlier this summer, Fox News reported that National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel earned a salary of $362,644 in 2011, while American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten pulled in $407,323.

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Since Education Minnesota is an affiliate of the NEA, many of the state’s teachers are helping pay Van Roekel’s hefty salary, too.

Blake notes that “few if any of the union’s rank-and-file members will ever see comparable pay.”

He’s right, of course. It seems that unions exist primarily to enrich labor leaders, protect inept (and sometimes even predatory) teachers and to push a left-wing political agenda in public schools.

We’re not sure how the average, hardworking educator benefits from union membership.

Any Minnesota teachers who read the Star Tribune’s report will probably start asking that question, too.