HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania lawmakers want to prevent school districts from using taxpayer dollars to pay the salaries and benefits of educators who take extensive time off to work for their teachers union.

Clauses for union release time written into collective bargaining agreements forces more than 100 Pennsylvania school districts to foot the bill for one or more educators to take time off to serve as union officials. The practice, which is also known as “ghost teaching,” is common practice in many other states, as well.

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The Tribune-Review reports:

The biggest sticking point is whether unions fully reimburse retirement contributions — particularly as districts lament mounting pension costs and the state grapples with a $50 billion unfunded pension liability.

Under Pennsylvania’s retirement code, teachers may receive paid leave only if the union reimburses the district for the full cost, including salary, health benefits and retirement contributions.

Proponents identify the biggest problem areas to be large, urban districts such as Pittsburgh Public Schools, which authorizes full-time release for as many as seven teachers each year, and the School District of Philadelphia — where 18 teachers on union leave reportedly cost the district more than $1.7 million a year .

State Sen. Patrick Stefano introduced Senate Bill 494 to outlaw the practice. A similar bill passed the House Education Committee last year but did not get a vote from the full House.

Stefano’s legislation bans Pennsylvania school districts from signing a collective bargaining agreement that offers more than three consecutive leave days or more than 30 days off in a year to perform union work.

“These ghost teachers receive taxpayer-funded salaries, health benefits and pensions, yet they may never return to the classroom or engage in actual teaching,” Stefano told the Tribune-Review. “This should not be allowed or tolerated because it is a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars and drains money and resources away from our classrooms and our students.”

SB 494 cleared the Senate Education Committee this month despite opposition from Democrats, who benefit from an alliance with the state’s teachers unions.

“This is a good bill, a taxpayer-oriented bill,” said John Eichelberger, chairman of the education committee.

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“These are people that are going to work for a private organization, and they’re doing it on taxpayer time with taxpayer funding,” he said. “They’re supposed to reimburse the school for that activity, but from what we learned, they are not always reimbursed. And we’re not sure if they’re ever reimbursed for the full impact.”

Penn Live reports union officials are defending the taxpayer-funded perk, of course.

Pennsylvania State Education Association spokesman Wythe Keever contends that extended union release time “doesn’t exist very often, it’s not widespread and it’s negotiated.”

“Full-time release doesn’t exist anywhere in Pennsylvania where a local school board did not sign off on it,” he said.

The Tribune-Review points out that some public school “teachers” have worked for their unions for more than a decade at taxpayer expense.