SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. – The Saranac Lake Teacher’s Association in upstate New York recently found a very clever way to recruit parents and community members to its ‘more-money’ perspective on education.

Union officials held a one-day bake sale at the town hall in Saranac Lake Saturday, and priced their cookies at $2,800 – the amount the district allegedly lost for each student through state K-12 funding changes in recent years, the Press-Republican reports.

“What we’ve been doing is having ongoing discussions about school funding and raising awareness of the financial challenges facing the district,” SLTA President Don Carlisto told the news site. “We came up with a $2,800 dollar figure for cookies at the bake sale because that is the estimated average amount per student taken through Gap Elimination Adjustment over the course of four years.”

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The $2,800 cookie price tag undoubtedly triggered a lot of attention, and helped union officials lead residents to buy into their “more-money” solution to all things education. But it’s doubtful union officials were fully transparent when discussing school finances with citizens.

The Press-Republican reports Saranac Lake Central School District faces a $1.2 million budget deficit despite dozens of layoffs and two school closures in recent years. The district’s state Gap Elimination Adjustment – cuts implemented in 2009 to help the state fill its revenue shortfall – is expected to be around $866,000 in 2014-15, the news site reports.

That obviously puts the district in a tight financial situation, but it’s hardly the fully story. What the crafty SLTA bakers aren’t telling the public is the union’s collective bargaining agreement likely contains many unnecessary provisions that are a significant drain on the district’s budget.

EAGnews recently reviewed spending practices in several New York school districts and discovered a lot of questionable and expensive provisions in union contracts.

Many teachers union contracts in New York (and across the nation) contain automatic annual raises for all teachers regardless of their performance, big bonuses for unused sick and personal days, release time for teachers to serve as union officials, and nearly free health insurance that costs school districts millions of dollars per year.

In Buffalo, one union contract provision forced the district to pay $2.9 million in 2012-13 for cosmetic surgery for employees.

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New York districts also spend heavily on travel expenses, hotel stays, absurdly high administrator salaries, and other expenses that have little bearing on student learning.

Rochester schools, for instance, paid a total of 314 employees more than $100,000 in salary in 2012-13, which came to a total of $37 million (the district’s deficit that year was $44 million). The district also spent $103,590 on restaurant tabs.

Syracuse schools cut 1,000 jobs from the district’s payroll in recent years, yet officials spent over $500,000 on legal expenses, about $150,000 on hotels and travel, $114,000 on employee cell phones, $32,000 on entertainment venues and about $18,000 on restaurant tabs.

The Buffalo district spent a whopping $348,148 on entertainment in 2012-13.

But instead of focusing on what the SLTA union can do for its district – such as helping to eliminate unnecessary labor expenses – the union is focused on what it always focuses on: increasing state funding.

The bake sale provided a great way for the union to get its message across to the community and parents about funding proposals currently under consideration at the Capitol. The SLTA, as well as others in the state’s education establishment, believe neither the governor’s proposed budget, nor the pending proposals in the Assembly or Senate, will be enough to prevent “deep cuts,” the Press-Republican reports.

“The Educational Conference Board – a statewide board made up of the School Board Association, the teachers union and state school superintendents board that develops opinion on policy – has said we need $1.5 billion more (than Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed education budget) so schools don’t have deeper cuts,” SLTA’s Carlisto told the news site.

In reality, what New Yorkers need is to gain a proper perspective on school spending from an unbiased source. What schools truly need is a better way to shed many of the expensive and needless expenses that have been dragging down district finances for years.