No apple for Wisconsin's teachers

Raise your hand if you're disgusted with the Wisconsin school teachers who selfishly left thousands of school children and their parents in the lurch to demand protection of their contractually guaranteed goodies.

Those professional educators and role models called in sick and even picked up fake doctor's notes during rallies to avoid trouble with school administrators while on their field trips to Madison to protest.

The teachers were cheese-brained for walking out of work, denying schooling for four days to the very students they profess to care so much about — even after the head of the state's largest teacher's union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, asked them to return to their classrooms.

I'm a former teacher, current teacher spouse, parent of public school students and infuriated that these teachers so blatantly perpetuated the myth that educators are spoiled, entitled crybabies who don't work as hard as others for their salaries and — as the stereotype goes — care more about their paychecks than they do their students.

I've been in the trenches at election time when struggling school systems try to move heaven and earth to convince voters to approve referendums that would allow a few extra pennies of their tax bill to fund schools.

You go door-to-door and ask people to support the schools and the first thing they spit at you is that if the teachers weren't paid so much for only about nine and a half months of work, the schools would have more money.

And does it hurt that they sort of have a point — which is why the nation's eyes are on Wisconsin.

The Badger State has a $3 billion two-year budget deficit and spends about $5 billion per year on education, about 80 percent of which goes to salaries and benefits. Mirroring the rest of the country, the system is breaking under the costs. And as painful as it is — and as much as I revere the unique contribution teachers make to society — there's no question that sacrifices are necessary.

Gov. Scott Walker's proposed reform would allow state employees to negotiate wages up to a ceiling that would trigger a referendum, and require workers to contribute almost 6 percent of their pay to their pensions. (Most pay less than 1 percent now.) Workers would also be required to pay at least 12.6 percent of health care premiums, roughly double what they contribute now but still about half what workers in the private sector contribute.

I agree it is a financial hit. But to anyone who is lucky enough to work 50 weeks a year, isn't guaranteed a cost-of-living increase, pays out the nose for employer-based medical insurance and might make a little more money but has to save it all in order to have a retirement fund, the state worker revolt looks bad.

Plus, as a teacher, once you get back to your classroom, what do you say to students who might have seen protesters on TV waving signs comparing the state's governor to Adolf Hitler?

What heated denunciations will your students have heard about you during the time parents scrambled to find adequate child care so they could get to the job where calling in sick is not an option? If their parents are lucky enough to be employed, that is.

What average person, now, will take seriously the very real crisis of teacher retention? Half of all lower-paid, untenured new teachers — many of whom who put in nights, weekends and holidays to provide the very best educational experience for their students — burn out and leave teaching within five years. It's difficult to consider their issues after seeing close-to-retirement teachers angrily storming the capital to keep what's theirs, financial realities be damned.

It kills me that decades of defending teaching as a noble profession — undertaken not for the summers and long holidays, but for the desire to educate children — are so easily eroded by the TV spectacle of teachers, holding sometimes misspelled posters, storming the capital.

The Great Wisconsin Teacher Walkout of 2011 might have won the hearts of TV and Twitter pundits eager to make insulting comparisons to the ongoing democracy protests in the Middle East being waged by citizens with few basic human rights. But in the court of public opinion, it is a failure.

“spends about $5 billion per year on education, about 80 percent of which goes to salaries and benefits.”
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Two-Thirds of Wisconsin Public-School 8th Graders Can’t Read Proficiently—Despite Highest Per Pupil Spending in Midwest

“The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/two-thirds-wisconsin-public-school-8th-g

PLEASE SEE THE LETTER BELOW FROM A WISCONSIN PARENT.

My middle schooler came home upset from school as two of his classes were interrupted for more than 1/2 the class to get the students to sign the KILL the BILL petition. All students were given a paper (my son gave me his copy) stating why they should sign the petition and then the students who were going class to class (I guess they did not have to be in class themselves) asked all the kids in the class to sign. In both classes my son refused and he was asked multiple times why he would not sign (he was the only student in both classes to say no) and he stated he supported the bill.

This is upsetting to me on several fronts. First, due to my fiscally conservative votes and statements over the past few years my children and I have been attacked in the paper and in person. While I understand that it is par for the course for me, I do not understand how and why my children are not protected from this bull y ing. In fact last year our Superintendent pulled my two children out of school for an entire week in March as he felt it was too dangerous for them to be in school. Keep in mind at the helm of the bull ying was the Principal (who left our district in June for a new job in IL). While begged to stop, the Principal continued to allow and also commit bulling of my two boys. He failed to stop the educators from bullying them as well. After a week I told the Superintendent I can not teach French nor Algebra and my boys needed to return to school. For the remainder of the year, per directive of the Superintendent, both boys had to be escorted from class to class by an administrator.

While I am way off topic, I am afraid that by refusing to sign this petition, coupled by my statements in paper from a meeting with our Legislators that I fully support the bill, and that it is exactly what is needed for education, my son will again be bullied in his school. Just last week one of the educators who had bullied my older son last year began to bully my younger son. In talking with the new Principal Thursday night he suggested I withdraw my son from Spanish class. Due to the fact that he had come home Wednesday and Thursday in tears from the actions of this educator I agreed. He is now repeating a class he had last term as there were no other classes available for him. He now will not be able to take Spanish this year, and he now has his friends, other students and other educators questioning him as to why he was removed.

Plain and simple, political agendas do not belong in the classroom.

At the high school some educators are requiring that their students write letters to the Senators regarding the bill. This is for a letter grade. Others are allowing / supporting walk outs by our students. Some have made protest signs and left them in the front of the room and told students that she can not stop them from walking out and then dropped the protest signs on the floor stating she had no idea what the signs were or how they got there but the students should feel free to use them. So much class time is spent on organizing walkouts and protests that it is disrupting the educational process.

I am certain that there is so much more going on that my boys are not verbalizing as they would rather endure than have the focus on them.

As a mom it is heartbreaking to know that in advocating for better schools it is at the price of the educational opportunities of my own children.

The average dental insurance plan nationwide provides for 100% coverage for preventive services (check ups, x-rays, etc.), 80% coverage for basic services (fillings) and 50% coverage for major services (crowns, root canals, etc.). The average deductible is $50.

Guess what Wisconsin teachers have?

100% / 100% / 100% with a $0 (zero) deductible.

Some in the private sector don’t even have the option to purchase dental coverage. Many that do, pay 100% of the cost (voluntary dental plans). State workers pay practically nothing.

They also enjoy $5 RX copays and low deductible medical plans.

What benefits do you have?

Heard on the radio today a democratic consultant argue that Walker needs to negotiate. He suggested a 1/2% sales tax increase for Wisconsin rather than take “drastic actions” like increasing benefit contributions or ending collective bargaining.

Sure, that makes perfect sense. Let the general public pay more in sales tax to help state workers retain their 100%/100%/100% $0 dental plans.

I wanted to tell that consultant to “Eat $hit bozo!”

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