'Real School Employees of Buffalo': Taxpayers Pick Up Tab for Plastic Surgeries, 5-Star Hotels and Limousines

Check out this jaw-dropping story from EAGnews.org :

Just call them the “Real School Employees of Buffalo.”

Like the rich folks in the famous television show with the similar name, employees of Buffalo Public Schools routinely spend a great deal of money on extravagant things like plastic surgery, airline travel, expensive hotels and limousines.

The only difference is that the wealthy people in “Real Housewives” are spending their own money. In Buffalo they’re throwing around taxpayer dollars.

EAGnews recently completed an inspection of credit card records and the check registry for the City of Buffalo School District in 2011. We also filed a freedom of information request to measure the latest cost of the district’s infamous employee cosmetic surgery program.

The dollar figures we found were breathtaking, and not in a good way.

The amount spent on cosmetic surgery for teachers came to $2.7 million. The total cost for hotels, airline tickets, limousines and the like came to $196,986. You read it correctly. A struggling public school district with a budget deficit of nearly $50 million spent almost $3 million in one year on plastic surgery and travel. District officials declined an invitation to explain these expenses before publication of this story.

One local media outlet, WGRZ-TV (NBC 2), already picked up this story and ran a report last night.

We don’t suppose the taxpayers of Buffalo will be too amused the next time they are asked to approve a tax increase for general operations. School officials have already demonstrated they can’t handle large sums of money in any sort of responsible fashion. Who in their right mind would give them any more to waste?

Union negotiated facelifts

What’s more amazing than a struggling public school district paying the total cost of elective cosmetic surgery for employees?

The fact that the program has been public knowledge for a few years now, and nobody has done anything to stop it.

As the Atlantic put it in a 2010 story, “Hair removal. Microdermabrasion. Liposuction. If you name the procedure, it’s probably covered. This is a city where the average teacher makes $52,000 a year. The plastic surgery tab would pay salaries for 100 extra educators.”

The program is the result of a negotiated provision in the Buffalo teacher union collective bargaining agreement , dating back to the 1970s. In later decades cosmetic surgery boomed in America and doctors began advertising to Buffalo teachers in their union newsletter, according to the Atlantic.

Video: Buffalo Schools Spent $2.7 Million On Cosmetic Surgery

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new report from a conservative non-profit says Buffalo spent nearly $3 million last fiscal year on cosmetic procedures for district employees who receive the free coverage.

The so-called cosmetic rider has drawn national media attention in the past.

The Education Action Group (EAG) started investigating the Buffalo School District earlier this year and filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the district. It showed Buffalo "spent $2,728,201 on cosmetic procedures for members of the Buffalo Teachers Federation for the period of June 2011-July 2012."

The $2.7 million figure is a drastic decline from previous years. In 2009, cosmetic costs skyrocketed to nearly $9 million . In 2010 it dropped to $5.9 million. And the latest figure was a further 54% drop.

Kyle Olson, founder of EAG , said that's still way too much to be spending on things like tummy tucks and Botox.

"You've got a school system that in my judgment has its priorities out of wack," Olson said.

He called on the union to give up the cosmetic coverage.

Reached by phone, BTF President Phil Rumore told 2 On Your Side this is "old news" and that the rider will not be included in a new contract; however, the union and district have been without a contract for nearly a decade.

"We're more than willing to part with this," Rumore said.

Olson said the union shouldn't wait for a new contract to, as he put it, "do what is right" and forego the cosmetic coverage.

"To me, it would be a good faith effort (to give up the rider)," Olson said. "It would be a good step forward to showing the community that the union is concerned about the welfare of children."

However, doing so would take away a critical piece of leverage for the union, whose members say they are among the lowest paid in the region and state.

EAG also examined the district's spending on travel and found it spent $164,764.35, mostly on hotels and airfare. However, Olson was critical of expenses listed as limousine and chauffeur services.

2 On Your Side first learned of this report late Tuesday afternoon, and by the time we contacted the school district , no one was available for comment. We will continue to follow this story in the coming days.