Chicago Public Schools Sick Day Fallout: Tribune Calls On Arne Duncan To Return Payout

Just four days after a scathing joint investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association found that the cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools system has paid out $265 million worth of unused sick and vacation days to outgoing employees, the fallout has only just begun.

On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune weighed in on the matter in an op-ed -- titled "Sick, Sick, Sick" -- that urged former CPS CEO and current U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to return the $50,297 payout he received for his unused vacation days when he left the system in 2009:

You want to do something good for the schools and set an example for everyone who works there?

Write a check for $50,297.

Make it out to Chicago Public Schools. On the memo line put "Re: unearned pay."

The Tribune editorial went on to describe CPS's policy as "maddening" and a "stealthy budget-buster" and goes on to accuse Duncan, who oversaw the system for over seven years, as taking "advantage of just the kind of boondoggle that has created deep financial distress for states and local governments and schools."

The report at the center of the controversy found that, since 2006, CPS has paid $265 million to some 19,000 former employees in exchange for their unused sick and vacation days. CPS teachers, who receive 10 sick days per year, are required to work at least 20 years or reach the age of 65 to qualify for the perk.

Payouts have averaged just under $14,000, while approximately 300 former principals and administrators received more than $100,000 -- and as much as $250,000 -- upon their exit from the system under the policy. Some former CPS employees reportedly used the payouts to boost their pension benefits.

Duncan responded last week to the report by stating that "people should take a good hard look at whether or not that policy makes any sense and whether it should be kept in place in these tight budget times."

The Chicago Sun-Times weighed in Sunday with a more nuanced response to the report. While it agreed that "CPS must reign in this benefit, a perk it can ill afford and is virtually unheard of in the private sector," the paper also urged the school system and the teachers union to work out an agreement on paid maternity or short-term disability leave, neither of which CPS currently offers its employees, to help alleviate system employees' primary need for banked sick days:

The CTU defends the benefit, saying the ability to stockpile days discourages teachers from calling in sick unnecessarily. Extra days, the CTU also notes, were offered in the early 1980s as deferred compensation and in lieu of raises. These are good points, but reducing the number of accumulated sick days, even significantly, would still be fair and prudent.

"Fix that problem," find a way to properly fund it and, the Sun-Times continues, "the arguments against reducing accumulated sick days disappear."

Kenzo Shibata, Chicago Union Teacher editor and HuffPost Chicago blogger, defended the payout policy in a Tuesday essay. Shibata took issue with the popular claim of "That's not how it's done in the private sector" in his response to the BGA's report.

"Private-sector workers should not tear down teachers, police and firefighters for some of the benefits received for having fought collectively," Shibata wrote. "They need to organize and demand a fair wage and benefits in their workplaces."

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[panko]

10:13 AM on 02/09/2012

There are hard working principals in CPS, who don't take sick days because they are passionate about their jobs. Principals work the whole year, no summer breaks for them. It is wrong to take this benefit from them. Many of these principals haven't received a raise in three years. Where is the outrage articles about that? Many hospital employees receive their vacation days as "PTO" or personal time off. If they leave their job at the hospital, they receive unused PTO in a salary based payout.

[Xhyphennegro]

02:00 PM on 02/08/2012

Arne Duncan [whom is married to Daley’s niece]—National Secretary of Education, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools has been rewarded for work he did with Renaissance 2010 [and elevated to the National Secretary of Education by U.S. President Barack Obama.] Renaissance 2010 was a program implemented in Chicago where on the West Side of Chicago they took African students out of Crane H.S. and then literally forced them [out of their own schools]. He is talking about having everything resolved—you talking about someone returning to the scene of the crime—this Arne Duncan is the same one that set it up and then will come back and tell you how to deal with it. I mean that was a literal slap in the face to the community.

[changing]

11:57 PM on 02/07/2012

No, he doesn't need to return it and educators need to continue to be paid for unused sick leave. How stupid take away the pay and the teachers will make sure to use every sick day and the district willl have to hire a sub. Now Arne can resign as DOE head and pay back all his salary because he has been trying to destroy public ed from the day he took over.

[eceresa]

10:24 PM on 02/07/2012

This policy absolutely makes sense for teachers. It saves taxpayer money, since a sick day for a teacher necessitates a substitute, and maximizes education for the students, since that substitute is probably just going to be babysitting rather than teaching. There are a bunch of people, from Rahm on down, trying to spin it into something bad, but it's actually the best possible thing in the situation.

Of course, that's with regard to teachers. Bureaucrats like Duncan was don't need subs when they take a day off, and they get paid a lot more than teachers, so their sick days are presumably assigned a higher value. Trying to justify the practice in their case is on much shakier ground. Though of course, if we're going to talk about unearned pay that should be returned, we should be more concerned with every dollar Duncan has collected as Secretary of Education. He's been a disaster. Really, he should have to pay back every bit of pay he's received for that job, as well as extra to compensate for the damage he's done to the US education system.

[anonanonanon3]

09:23 PM on 02/07/2012

The Illinois Wage Payment Act requires all employers to pay accrued but unused vacation time despite "use it or lose i" policies. It is simply untrue that payment of vacation pay is a public sector boondoggle. "Unless otherwise provided in a collective bargaining agreement, whenever a contract of employment or employment policy provides for paid vacations, and an employee resigns or is terminated without having taken all vacation time earned in accordance with such contract of employment or employment policy, the monetary equivalent of all earned vacation shall be paid to him or her as part of his or her final compensation at his or her final rate of pay and no employment contract or employment policy shall provide for forfeiture of earned vacation time upon separation." 820 ILCS 115/5.

[lukylip98]

08:43 PM on 02/07/2012

Since he works for Obama, I think he deserves to keep any ancillary money--he has earned it.

[psmo]

07:17 PM on 02/07/2012

Use or lose it

[robodawa]

05:58 PM on 02/07/2012

If he had sent his kids to a neighborhood CPS school or a school of choice, I would say 'yes'.
But he chose to send his kids to an elite private school. If you are going to work as school super, you should really see and experience what the rest of the parents already know. So, I say 'no' to the$$$ for him.

[MissMichelleP]

12:01 PM on 02/08/2012

My school's superintendent doesn't send her children to our school. In fact, they're not in public school at all. They're homeschooled. Doesn't that say a lot about her confidence in her faculty? Of course, they'll all come back to the public school for middle school because the middle school teachers are awesome.

[citizenlegisators]

05:44 PM on 02/07/2012

again,,,,,,, no one ,,,NO ONE is saying you should not get sick days,,,,, BUT THE SICK WAY the Illinois , Cook County, Chicago Democrats robbed the taxpayers by letting them accrue UNUSED SICK DAYS AS A PERK IS REVOLTING