Posted on 04/29/2005 8:19:42 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Vote No: Schools must live within means
Friday, April 29, 2005
BY KEN MOILANEN
Special to The News
Those proclaiming the "critical" need for additional school funding tell only part of the story. Here is a different perspective. Here is ... the rest of the story.
Thomas Watkins, recent state superintendent of public instruction, had it right when he stated in his Dec. 6, 2004, Michigan School Funding report that "calls to raise taxes to fund education without a systematic overhaul will only serve to maintain the status quo. For our children's sake, this is unacceptable." He further said that "escalating labor costs, primarily health care, pensions and minimal inflation-related salary increases, exacerbate the financial situations of local districts."
These are exactly the same burdensome costs that are driving the Livingston County millage request. How did they occur? They certainly didn't appear overnight. They are, in large part, the direct result of the local school boards' inability to negotiate effectively and to control spending over the years.
School boards are given various general powers by the Michigan Revised School Code, among them the power to negotiate salaries and other conditions of employment and to control the expenditure of school funds. Implicit in these powers is a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of their respective school district. Unfortunately, extravagant and expensive employee and health care packages have been negotiated over the years which, along with pension costs, now consume from 80 percent to 86 percent of the local school districts' budgets.
Statewide, health care and pension costs now account for 14.9 percent of school payroll expenses and are expected to jump to 20 percent by the 2007-2008 school year. Even more troubling, the state retirement system reported that as recently as 2003, Michigan's unfunded health and pension liability for public school employees totaled $21.75 billion.
State funding has not been as serious an issue as some would argue. Following the passage of Proposal A, schools have seen a 41 percent increase in funding while inflation increased only 27 percent. Interestingly, the Howell school budget grew from $33,064,713 to $61,303,644 over that period, an increase of 85 percent.
Let's look more closely at the costs. The most egregious of them is health care.
MESSA, an organization who functions as the administration insurance arm of the Michigan Education Association, repackages benefits that are actually provided by Blue Cross-Blue Shield. MESSA sells these health care plans to school districts, collects the premiums, administers benefits, and returns a portion of their revenue to the MEA.
The two local plans, known as SUPER CARE 1 and MESA Choices II provide similar coverage in health, prescription, long-term disability, dental, negotiated life, vision, and preventative care. Prescription co-pay and deductibles are minimal. These extravagant and expensive plans are provided to teachers throughout the county at costs ranging from $11,514 to $13,465 per year per employee to the respective school district.
Three of the five local districts require no employee contribution. The two others have embarrassingly low annual employee contributions. These health care costs are approximately double the $6,400 that Michigan private-sector employers paid for full family medical benefits for their workers. Jack McHugh of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy stated that "these aren't just Cadillac health plans - they are veritable Rolls-Royces. It is estimated that schools could save approximately 25 percent on health insurance costs if they just offered the same coverage given to state employees." These savings are projected to be approximately $225 million annually.
Why hasn't this been done? Quite simply, MESSA hasn't been cooperative with needed claims information, and the MEA has successfully brought political and labor pressure to bear on the school districts. The MEA and MESSA ... a very curious relationship indeed.
Other troubling questions remain:
Why were raises awarded in the midst of the schools' financial problems?
Why haven't other bargaining units come forward (other than Hartland's) in an effort to relieve some of the financial burden?
What about the local economy? The three-year millage would remove an estimated $65 million from the local economy, having a chilling effect.
How much of the millage revenue will actually reach the classrooms? The Citizens Research Council reports that most of any new tax revenues will go towards teachers' health care and pension benefits.
In summary: Schools must control costs and negotiate fiscally responsible contracts. Even though teachers and administrators are engaged in the noble work of educating our children, they should guard against a sense of personal entitlement.
Livingston County families have to live within their means, even in the face of rising costs. They have a reasonable expectation that their school districts will do likewise.
Taking a stand against the millage will, hopefully, begin the process that will lead to meaningful and equitable changes (the systematic overhaul recommended by Thomas Watkins) that will ultimately benefit everyone in Livingston County.
Ken Moilanen is a retired sales and service representative who lives in Genoa Township and the Brighton school district.
It takes a millage to educate a child........
Has this been in the Argus?
Family just did its annual vacation, went south to Mobile, New Orleans, and the west parishes. Much easier place to make a living.
Like, who cares what happens to the midwest anymore? Let the MI schoolteachers figure out how to maintain the second highest pay scale (AFT website) in the country. Wisconsin, except for the I39 corridor, is rotting out.
Once Great Lakes water is piped to the south, the midwest will look like the Colorado ghost towns. Yawn.
I guess there's a little boom on Broad Ripple, had dinner at La Peidad (sp?), it's run by immigrants who really want to make it.
I'm curious; since most of the teachers seem to be getting good health care packages, how would they really feel if forced into a Hillary-Care socialized system? Are they stupid enough to think it would be an improvement? Are they stupid enough to vote for it because it's another step towards Socialism, even if they would be deprived of good health care? Do they think they would be part of the elite who would have access to real health care while the rest of us peasants had to suffer under the system?
This article hasn't, but there's been a lot of coverage there.
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