Posted on 02/17/2011 11:44:54 AM PST by FredJake
On Wednesday, about 1,000 teachers in Wisconsin called in sick to protest Governor Scott Walker's proposal to end collective bargaining for state employees.
But the protesters may be doing more harm to themselves than good.
A website calls the governor a "Mini-Mubarak" - a reference to the Egyptian dictator who left office after violent protests in that nation.
The site claims that "Gov. Scott Walker says the Wisconsin National Guard is prepared to respond wherever is necessary in the wake of his announcement that he wants to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state employees."
But Politifact rates the claim "Pants on Fire" - meaning the claim is patently false.
Politifact asked the progressive committee Citizen Action of Wisconsin for evidence backing up its claim that Walker threatened to summon the National Guard in response to protests, but found that none of the reports provided quoted Walker directly.
After reviewing what the Governor actually said, Politifact concluded:
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee said Walker "threatened to call out the National Guard if workers protest against these cuts!" The governor spoke of possibly calling up the Guard if state workers didn’t show up for work, but he made no reference to using it in response to protests. And certainly none that would suggest the Guard is authorized to use force to impose anything on state workers.
As the saying goes, one is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.
Nevertheless, strikers were out in full force carrying signs calling Walker a dictator and comparing him to Mubarak.
One sign shows a target over the face of Governor Walker.
Remember the angst shown by liberals when Sarah Palin's PAC used clip art of targets on certain congressional districts?
Are these teachers calling for the murder...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Ever since public employees were allowed to unionize and collective bargain, state governments have been little more than a criminal conspiracy to defraud the taxpayers.
State legislators shovel taxpayers money to bureaucrats in the form of salaries and fat pensions. The public employee unions then shovel their union dues (involuntarily taken from those taxpayer-funded salaries) into the politican’s campaign coffers. And the cycle begins again.
I hope this IS the start of a revolution of citizens taking their state governments back from this kind of racket!
I call for civility!!!
Albert Shanker: “When school children start paying union dues, that ‘s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”
Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 – February 22, 1997) was President of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997.
if Walker is Mubarek, the unions are the Muslim Brotherhood.
The average Wisconsin teacher salary in 2009-2010 was $52644 …
http://www.teacher-world.com/statespages/Wisconsin.html
For Teacher Data go to the following link. About halfway down the page is a compilation of average salaries and fringe benefits for teachers in Wisc. The actual data is on page 2 of the report.
The fringe benefits are way above what is provided to employees in the private sector and it is my understanding that only the fringe benefits are the part that the governor wants to reduce by about 7%.
http://dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/newasr.html
Any posts I make regarding federal employees usually involves some general misunderstanding another poster has about the characteristics of the federal employee retirement system.
When it comes to issues involving labor and management I am your typical Freeper who thinks you should use "labor" statistics on labor and "management" statistics on management, not the other way around.
If you disagree and think we should target and beat up on "labor" because a county school superintendant makes $300,000+ per year, go ahead, but don't expect to get any sympathy for your arguments once your misuse of data is known.
Since we were discussing school teachers this afternoon let me assure you that the CORRECT and ONLY Conservative position on the matter is that the age of the public school has come and gone.
It's time to move on and use our edge in high technology to create home-schooling, and supplemental schooling that gives our kids the best opportunity possible in this world.
Instead of being all retromangent about school teacher salaries, you should be pushing for the adoption of totally new educational methodologies on the widest possible scale.
I'm sure he yakked enough over the years to have said something about everything, and from both sides of the issue.
Al Shaker soundbytes don't cut it ~ gotta' see the entire speech.
I did. Go discuss.
It's not up to me to make sure you get the right stuff to support the right thought.
BRING IT! JUST DO IT! I DARE YOU!
Just be careful when using the “average”. The union pay schedule is tremendously skewed against newer teachers. These n00bs are churned routinely to maintain the image of modest pay. They get crap for raises in the first six to seven years, if they last. Once you have “paid your dues” with about 8 to 9 years, the pay table increases rise dramtically. It is unlike anything I have ever seen in the private sector. So a n00b at $26,000 and senior at $86,000 average to the mythical $56,000. I saw this first hand as a school board member during contract negotiations.
There are a few other tricks the unions use to cry poverty and trick the public, but no time for an expalnation atm.
Have fun with your data. Toodles.
Parents need to put the teachers on notice.
The private sector in Wisconsin (and elsewhere) should DENY doing business with union thugs.
Don’t sell them gas, groceries, etc. Tell them to pound sand.
Like I said, they are a concept whose time has come and gone.
Getting all balled up in disputes with commie teachers is a waste of time. Better to put them out of business entirely!
Okay, how about this since you have a bug in your butt about “labor”: TO HELL WITH ALL PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS.
Clear it up for ya?
That post I agree with in its entirety.
That does not serve the public interest.
Sometimes you need a bottom up insurrection ~ on an ongoing basis ~ which is what you'll find most public service unions doing ~ to a degree.
Where you find the worst abuses are where the managers share the retirement system with the employees. Obviously they are going to turn the retirement system funds into a personal stash as they give away the show to the unions.
Back in the 1930s and 1940s postal unions served as Roosevelt's attack dogs to literally drive Communist party sponsored union organizers out of the country. In return for their efforts (lots of night time street fighting, etc.) Roosevelt promised them an Executive Order that would recognize their right to organize (which meant they could hold meetings in postal facilities rather than at otherwise insecure and dangerous Communist dominated union halls).
Knowing the history of federal labor unions fairly well I always assume first that any attack on them is coming from the Far Left!
You have to convince me with argument that you're not a Commie Batarde ~ then we can talk.
The noobies can be hired cheap, with immense savings for the senior teachers who get canned for demonstrating instead of reporting to work.
This can be a WIN WIN WIN (for the long term unemployed/underemployed recent graduates, the taxpayers, and the kiddies).
Who wants to bet the New York Times 'misses' that picture? I'll go a hundred to one...
Accepted. I stand corrected.
Always read thoroughly too ~ take a sound byte out of my stuff and I BYTE BACK!
Again, when it comes to public schools we are beating a dead horse. Technology is going to leave them behind sooner rather than later.
The teachers unions should be going for "buy outs now", not "benefits later'. Technological development is passing "later" by!
Check John Chambers, Cisco Systems Chairman ~ as far left as he seems to be he recognized what's going on ~ as did current Senator Warner of Virginia, another Lefty ~ and you'll find them over there looking to turn a substantial chunk of America's college landscape into something that looks like Momma's basement. Chambers has been a key player in the development of Indiana University's remote learning system, and Warner has joined with others in the Eastern states to put their money behind something similar for secondary education.
Even the Washington Post has become primarily an Educational Vendor called Kaplan.
When the new technology busts loose, it'll be everywhere and the public schools will collapse.
That doesn't mean folks won't need teachers ~ sure they will ~ but the teachers will go to the students, rather than the students to the teachers ~ and the primary mission for the teacher will be to instruct the students on how to use the system.
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