Posted on 03/03/2011 6:33:39 PM PST by Nachum
Just days after Gov. Scott Walker introduced his budget repair bill, public-sector-union leaders said they would accept Walker’s financial demands as long as he kept collective bargaining intact. However, in the time bought by the flight of 14 Democratic state senators, local governments have been quickly adopting new contracts in advance of Walker’s bill becoming law. In effect, the unions are spraying their benefits with Walker repellent. (In fact, an investigative report shows that there may have been collusion between the missing state senators and City of Madison officials to delay the bill so contracts could be signed.)
Three days after the governor introduced his budget, the Milwaukee Area Technical College ratified a new three-year contract that preserves no-cost pensions and contains no layoffs for its teachers (average pay: $95,000.) Union leaders called an emergency meeting at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday night to vote on their new contract — yet their president said that had “nothing to do” with Walker’s budget-repair bill.
State employees tried to pull a similar trick in December. In a Hindenburg-like fiasco, Democrats tried to use the pre-Walker lame-duck session to pass state union-worker contracts with microscopic concessions. To get their deciding vote in the assembly, they even pulled a legislator out of jail, where he was serving time for drunk driving. The contracts unexpectedly failed by one vote in the senate when the Democrats’ leader inexplicably switched his position at the last minute.
Also before Walker took office, the Milwaukee Public School board quickly adopted a four-year teacher contract that runs through 2013. It contains pay increases of 2.5 to 3 percent, and requires teachers to begin contributing to their health insurance for the first time — although in amounts well short of what Walker is proposing (1 percent of salary for single coverage, 2 percent for family). The contract also extends health benefits to domestic partners, which will offset a good portion of the $50 million in savings the district expects to realize from the teachers’ contributions.
For other school districts that ram through generous contracts, the results could be disastrous: Walker just announced a budget that reduces state aid to local school districts by $834 million; much of that cut was going to be offset by teachers’ increased benefit contributions, but districts that capitulate to their teachers won’t have that option. Instead of having a full complement of teachers paying slightly more for their benefits, they will have fewer teachers, but teachers with jewel-encrusted retirement and health packages. Then they will blame Scott Walker for the massive layoffs their districts will see.
The president of the state’s largest teachers’ union has already set the stage for a “Blame Walker” campaign. “There’s no way that school districts in this state are going to be able to address this kind of budget shortfall without layoffs and program cuts that will damage the quality of education,” said WEAC’s Mary Bell on Tuesday.
Yet many of her bargaining units are trying to guarantee as many layoffs as possible. In rushing to the negotiating table, teachers’ union leaders are picking their own bank accounts over kids. This should be no surprise to anyone in Wisconsin whose child sat at home for a few days when teachers walked off the job over a week ago.
This rush to ratify new contracts is why Scott Walker didn’t take the union leaders up on their “deal” almost two weeks ago — there’s no way the AFSCME and AFL-CIO big shots could control the contract machinations of over 1,000 local governments. While protesters roared that their objection to Walker’s plan wasn’t “about the money,” their bargaining units were working furiously behind the scenes to grab as much cash as possible before Walker dropped the guillotine.
Furthermore, these new contracts demonstrate why declaring public sector “collective bargaining” to be sacrosanct is so preposterous. In places like the City of Madison, there’s very little “bargaining” happening. Public employees and elected officials are sitting on the same side of the table. The only actual negotiating taking place is from city employees deciding which Applebee’s they’ll crash to celebrate their fat new contracts.
— Christian Schneider is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
Thanks - the Michelle Malkin link was (snap!) fabulous!
There’s a whole lotta 6-figure salaries (plus benefits being paid by taxpayers just in WI. Just imagine the waste in all 50 states.
It’s hard to determine the number of Administrators on MM’s link but appears to at least a few hundred.
I couldn’t do the teaching but I could sure find funds to send my kids to a private school. Stop the cable, stop the cellular phone contract and stop eating out. Use the savings to pay the school bill.
All of the teachers in the district I live in have received lay off notices...it is looking like 20% of them will actually be laid off. I can live with that for the first year...maybe we can do this again next year...
“That would require the parents to ‘give up’ quite a bit. Let’s say you are in a 2 parent family and have three kids.”
The average family no longer has three kids...try one or two...I have seven of my own.
“Both of you work.”
We both work, but I am the only one bringing in a paycheck. My wife manages the house and educates the children...this used to be called a housewife...before the feminists made it a bad word.
“you must deal with 3 hungry mouths at home to feed ALL DAY LONG, and you must provide them with quality education.”
You make it sound like it is a terrible thing to take care of your own children...and to be with your children “ALL DAY LONG”. This is part of the reason that we are in this mess. In the Scriptures we are told that children are a blessing but our modern culture looks upon children as a burden.
I also know people that both mom and dad are working but they are able to home school their children...when it is important enough to you...you find a way. And your comment about 90% of parents would fail miserably at teaching their children misses the mark. I assume that you have never seen the statistics about home schooling that shows that they regularly rank well above their peers in both public and private schools...most parents are actually the best teachers for their children. What is known is that public education does not educate...see “Waiting on Superman” documentary.
I would advice all parents to seriously consider home schooling their children...their is a wealth of resources available and they are not all that expensive.
You make it sound like it is a terrible thing to take care of your own children...and to be with your children “ALL DAY LONG”.
Nah. But one must deal with the fact that the food and utility bills will rise if the children are home all day instead of at school.
I would advice advise all parents to seriously consider home schooling their children... their there is are a wealth of resources available and they are not all that expensive.
You know, it's probably a good thing your wife is doing the educating.
": )
Would you? Really? I think the kids might revolt about becoming Quakers.
Some of us don't have cable, or cell phones, or eat out. What would you suggest we do ?
There are non contract phones. Stop new car payments. Let the kids live by parental controls or grow up by being taught by socialists.
Bottom line. Sacrifice for your values. Listen to Dr. Laura. She says that any family can live on one income. The second income usually pays for WANTS not needs.
I’m not saying it can’t be done. There are plenty of families who ‘home school’. Those that do should be commended.
What I am saying is , it is one thing to find or have a way to home school, it is another to expect EVERYONE in the state to do so at the drop of a hat.
The original question stands. Given that your expenses will go WAY UP and your INCOME will be cut in half, would you ask everyone in the state to immediately start home schooling their children, just to try and solve this problem?
It’s always easy to DEMAND EVERYONE ELSE do something, when you are not them.
Hey, I never said home school. I am promoting sending children to private schools, church schools or nonpublic alternative schools. Home school if you can. It is our children’s future and that of America as we know it. We have become indoctrinated to send our children to government schools because we are told they are good as long as we keep giving them more funds. The funds are going to salaries, healthcare and pensions.
You are correct. Both home school and private schooling were mentioned in various places on the thread, and I mixed my response.
Same question still applies.
Would you ask, and expect, everyone in the state to take their children out of public school, and pay for private schooling ? What if you could not find a way to pay for it ?
Considering there aren't enough private school 'seats' or 'teachers' to take on the public school roles, many children will just get no schooling at all, unless the 'change' caused a plethora of private schools to appear out of nothing.
Whether it be home schooling or Private schooling, I am with you on the likelihood it is better for the children.
However, the concept that WE could just ALL INSTANTLY remove all our children from public schools, and still provide them with a good education, is unreasonable, and highly unlikely.
I would still decide to home school since it is the best option for educating a child. Would that mean that I would have to “give up” things to make that happen? YES, and I am alright with that...my children are much more important then the “stuff” I would be giving up. I don't “expect” anybody to make the decisions that I make, they need to make their own decisions.
“Nah. But one must deal with the fact that the food and utility bills will rise if the children are home all day instead of at school.”
Why? Is the child going to eat more because he is home? Or is it that he is now eating “free” food that the tax payer is paying for? In most cases that I am aware of the food bills actually go down for the family when one parent stays home to home school their children. If you make meals from scratch it is much cheaper then the processed meals.
“You know, it's probably a good thing your wife is doing the educating.”
I know that this was meant as a “jab” but it is a good thing. She is better then I am at grammar...I did graduate from a public school so it is understandable. The other more important benefit is that none of my children are learning to become socialists or atheists...and that is the most important thing.
This is a false starting point. Just because you would be educating you own kids does not mean that your expenses would go up let alone “WAY UP”. Your expenses would be under your control. And who stated that home school would have to be the only option? I do strongly lean towards home school but there are other options. In the school district I live in there are two private schools that have tuition that is less then half of what the public schools need to educate a child...and both have room for more students. There is also the option of “virtual academies” that several public schools are offering. The actual cost to the tax payer is extremely low compared to the $11,000 per student cost that we are now paying. If the majority of parents took these options: home school, private school (maybe with public help), or virtual school, we could cut a huge amount of cost out of educating our children...which would put more money into the pockets of the tax payer since the government would no longer need the high property taxes.
Conservatives see their freedom and rights as being free from government usurpation.
Liberals always seem to see their “freedom and rights” as coming from Government’s ability to raid your pockets (and freedom) on their behalf.
That is what is so disgusting about the labor union protesters. They are protesting to extort the people out of their money.
municipalities can declare bankruptcy under chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code.
If we could ever elect a true patriot president he could appoint an AG who’s not afraid to charge people with crimes. It’s been a while since we had one.
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