The same Ann Arbor, Mich. school board that is butting heads with a teachers' union turns out to be providing union officials roughly $250,000 to conduct union business during the school day.

Under the district's "release time" arrangement, Ann Arbor Education Association President Linda Carter doesn't teach but still receives a full-time teacher's salary of $77,502, Michigan Capitol Confidential reports. Although the district and union split the cost of her salary, Ann Arbor Public Schools cover all of her health care and pension benefits, which total approximately $40,000.

The union's vice president, Frederick Klein, spends half of his time teaching at an elementary school and the other half completing union business. Aside from receiving the same salary as Carter, he receives $30,000 in benefits from the district.

The district further adds onto taxpayers' load by hiring teachers to fill in for the union leaders' classes.

Not only are these union representatives paid to work outside the classroom; they also make more than the average Michigan teacher. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the average 2013-14 teacher's salary was $72,500.

Michigan Capitol Confidential obtained the teachers' salary information from a Freedom of Information Act request. In 2011, the publication revealed that Michigan school districts spent millions on "release time."

Ann Arbor union and school administrators have been quarreling since April, but ironically not over "release time." The two parties filed unfair labor practice charges against each other and entered mediation July 9 over a teachers' contract dispute, Mlive reported.

Despite these arguments, both sides think that teaching duties burden union leaders who work on union affairs during the school day.

In an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential, union member John Ellsworth argued that union business works to improve public education, maximizing taxpayer benefit. "Giving teacher union leaders the ability to focus on improving the school district is good for students and the community," he wrote.

Not everyone accepts that logic. Michigan state Sen. Mart Knollenberg, R-Troy, introduced a bill in April to ban taxpayer funding for "release time," asking for the money to return to classrooms. He first presented a version of the bill in 2011 after learning that many schools in his district had employees who used taxpayer money for union activities.

Of course, not all teachers participate in these wasteful activities. But the few who do put union activities before teaching can give all teachers a bad reputation.

Emily Leayman is an intern at the Washington Examiner