The cold weather in Buffalo, N.Y., must have frozen the brain cells of those in charge of finances. The state-appointed authority overseeing the city's school finances says that taxpayers paid nearly $9 million in 2009 for city teachers and their dependents to get cosmetic surgery. Officials say teachers and their dependents accounted for 90 percent of the approximately 500 people who received cosmetic surgery last year, the vast majority of which consisted of elective procedures. About 10,000 district employees are eligible for the benefit. The teachers' union president says the union will give up the benefit in the next contract. He suspects that teachers know the benefit will disappear and are using it while they can, which is why the numbers are so high. There isn't any money for improving the school system, but there is money for improving the looks of schoolteachers and their children? Talk about focusing on the wrong thing. We try not to cuss at The Root, but this situation here is a damned shame.
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