School districts nationwide are always looking for ways to find new ways to attract quality instructors to teach their students.

But free Botox, liposuction, and laser hair removal?

Since 2003, teachers in Buffalo, N.Y. have received those and various other elective cosmetic procedures paid for at tax payer expense. The benefit has evolved since the 1970s, which was included in the city’s teacher contract to cover reconstructive surgery. For nearly a decade, however, teachers have used the rider in the contract to pay for cosmetic surgery.

In 2004, the school districts paid approximately $1 million, according to The Atlantic, which broke the story in its most recent edition. Since 2009, that amount jumped to $9 million. Since 2003, the annual tax-payer cost averaged $5.4 million, The Atlantic reported.

The most popular procedures, all of which were elective, were skin treatments such has Botox, according to a report by The Buffalo News.

Apparently summers off aren’t the only benefits for Buffalo teachers.

The benefit was nearly cut from the teacher contract in 1996, but was saved after the daughter of a district employee needed major reconstructive skin surgery following a near-fatal car accident, according to The Business Insider. Cosmetic surgery was necessary to repair scarring on her face and body.

It wasn’t until 2003 that cosmetic surgeons began promoting the benefit to district employees. According to The Atlantic, nearly 500 employees in 2009 used the benefit for elective procedures. Physicians used the teacher union newsletters to advertise the benefit.

Buffalo teachers have been working without a contract since 2004, but because of New York state law, public employees can continue to work under the terms of the most recent contract. District contract negotiations with the state have been stalled for years, thus allowing the benefit to persist.

Besides the cosmetic surgery benefit, teachers receive a 2.5 percent raise annually, The Atlantic reported.
Strangely, the Buffalo School District laid off 117 staff members due to budget cut backs. According to The Buffalo News, the $5.4 million average spent on elective cosmetic surgery would have saved at least 100 jobs. The district encompasses 65 facilities and approximately 37,000 students, according to the Buffalo School District Website.

Although the public and members of the state’s Board of Education have called the benefit inappropriate, the teachers’ union and the district have tabled the topic until they agree on a new contract.

“The urgency of negotiating a new contract isn’t really there,” Amber Dixon, interim-superintendent for Buffalo’s schools, told The Atlantic. “You get to keep your benefits. You get to keep your cosmetic rider. You get to keep your 2.5 percent step increase. It makes getting back to the table difficult.”