Teacher perks bleed budget dry

Teacher perks bleed budget dry
"The study conducted by analyst Kenneth Braun finds salaries for Michigan public school teachers are $12,000 above the national average.
If paychecks for the state's nearly 110,000 teachers were lowered to the average of other states, taxpayers would save $1.3 billion a year -- or exactly the amount of the deficit in the 2010 budget.
The salary discrepancy is a surcharge of $789 per pupil. And it keeps Michigan teachers the fourth-highest paid in the nation......
... Benefits for public school teachers cost taxpayers $2.6 billion a year or about $1,600 per pupil. That's 41 percent above the national average and consumes roughly 35 percent of school district budgets."

At least our bankrupt state is close to #1 in a couple of things!