Walkers Plan continues to work.

[Superfreak]

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_1_scott-walker.html

What had the unions most up in arms, however, was a reform that ended mandatory dues for members. Wisconsin unions were collecting up to $1,100 per member per year in these obligatory payments, which they then spent on getting sympathetic politicians elected. In the last two elections, for instance, the state’s largest teachers’ union spent $3.6 million supporting candidates. Walker’s reform meant that government workers could now opt out of paying these dues—savings that could help offset those workers’ newly increased health and pension payments, the governor said. The unions knew that, given the option, many of their members would indeed choose not to write a check—and that this would strangle union election spending.

The unions’ battle against Walker’s reforms has rested on the argument that the changes would damage public services beyond repair. The truth, however, is that the reforms not only are saving money already; they’re doing so with little disruption to services. In early August, noticing the trend, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that Milwaukee would save more in health-care and pension costs than it would lose in state aid, leaving the city $11 million ahead in 2012—despite Mayor Tom Barrett’s prediction in March that Walker’s budget “makes our structural deficit explode.”

The collective-bargaining component of Walker’s plan has yielded especially large financial dividends for school districts. Before the reform, many districts’ annual union contracts required them to buy health insurance from WEA Trust, a nonprofit affiliated with the state’s largest teachers’ union. Once the reform limited collective bargaining to wage negotiations, districts could eliminate that requirement from their contracts and start bidding for health care on the open market. When the Appleton School District put its health-insurance contract up for bid, for instance, WEA Trust suddenly lowered its rates and promised to match any competitor’s price. Appleton will save $3 million during the current school year.

Appleton isn’t alone. According to a report by the MacIver Institute, as of September 1, “at least 25 school districts in the Badger State had reported switching health care providers/plans or opening insurance bidding to outside companies.” The institute calculates that these steps will save the districts $211.45 per student. If the state’s other 250 districts currently served by WEA Trust follow suit, the savings statewide could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the outset of the public-union standoff, educators had made dire predictions that Walker’s reforms would force schools to fire teachers. In February, to take one example, Madison School District Superintendent Dan Nerad predicted that 289 teachers in his district would be laid off. Walker insisted that his reforms were actually a job-retention program: by accepting small concessions in health and pension benefits, he argued, school districts would be able to spare hundreds of teachers’ jobs. The argument proved sound. So far, Nerad’s district has laid off no teachers at all, a pattern that has held in many of the state’s other large school districts. No teachers were laid off in Beloit and LaCrosse; Eau Claire saw a reduction of two teachers, while Racine and Wausau each laid off one. The Wauwatosa School District, which faced a $6.5 million shortfall, anticipated slashing 100 jobs—yet the new pension and health contributions saved them all.

The benefits to school districts aren’t just fiscal, moreover. Thanks to Walker’s collective-bargaining reforms, the Brown Deer school district in suburban Milwaukee can implement a performance-pay system for its best teachers—a step that could improve educational outcomes.

Over the summer, a sign surfaced that the public wasn’t as alarmed by the Walker agenda as the unions would have liked. In August, six Republican state senators who had supported the reforms were forced to defend their seats in recall elections. Democrats, in the minority by a 19–14 margin, needed to pick up three seats to take back the Senate. In the days before the election, Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate touted poll numbers showing Democrats leading in three races and in a dead heat in the rest. “Independents are moving towards the Democratic candidates in strong numbers,” he told a group of national reporters. Every race, he claimed, was “eminently winnable.”

The manner in which the public unions ran the campaigns was telling. Because they realized that public-sector collective bargaining wasn’t the wedge issue that they’d expected, not a single union-backed ad mentioned it— even though it was the reason that the unions had mobilized for the recall elections in the first place. Instead, the union ads cried that Scott Walker had “cut $800 million from the state’s schools.” This was true, but the ads neglected to mention that the governor’s increased health-care and pension-contribution requirements made up for those funds, just as Walker had planned. That the unions poured nearly $20 million into the races, by the way, validated another argument of Walker’s: that mandatory dues are a conduit through which taxpayer money gets transferred to public-sector unions, which use it to elect Democrats, who then negotiate favorable contracts with the unions. In this case, the newly strapped Wisconsin unions had to rely heavily on contributions from unions in other states.

In the end, Republicans held four of the six seats and retained control of the Senate. Democrats nevertheless bragged about defeating two incumbents, but that achievement was more modest than it appeared. One of the Republican incumbents was in a district that Barack Obama had won by 18 points in 2008. The other losing Republican had been plagued by personal problems relating to his 25-year-old mistress. Meanwhile, two of the challenged Republicans, Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf, won more decisively than they had in 2008, suggesting that the reforms might be strengthening some Republican incumbents. (The other two senators who kept their seats, Luther Olsen and Rob Cowles, ran unopposed three years ago, so it’s harder to tell whether their popularity has grown.)

The unions’ cause has been hurt by some widely reported stories of public-sector mischief. The most outrageous was the saga of Warren Eschenbach, an 86-year-old former school crossing guard from Wausau. After he retired, Eschenbach, who lives two doors down from Riverview Elementary, kept helping kids cross the road every morning; it gave him a reason to get up each day, he told a local TV station. But the Wausau teachers’ union didn’t see it that way: it filed a grievance with the city to stop him, since he was no longer a unionized employee.

Such stories of union malfeasance may not be enough to save Walker. If the governor’s opponents succeed in mounting a recall election, it would take place at some point between April and June. A poll conducted in October for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, where I work, found that Walker had a fairly low personal approval rating of 42 percent. Further, the public opposed recalling the governor from office by a troublingly slim 49 percent to 47 percent margin.

But if Walker’s task is to convince the public that the state hasn’t devolved into unfunded anarchy, he may have an easier case to make than you’d think. According to the same poll, 71 percent of Wisconsinites believe that the state’s public schools have either stayed the same or improved over the previous half-year. More than three-quarters of Wisconsinites expect the state’s economy either to get better or to stay the same in the next year, up from 60 percent during the height of the union tumult in March. And while just 23 percent of Wisconsinites think that “things in the country are generally going in the right direction,” 38 percent of them believe that that’s the case in Wisconsin, up from 27 percent in November 2010.

Seems like the evilz Mr. Walker implemented are doing quite well for the people of Wisconsin. Can't wait to hear the left wing spin on this.

[Thithicus]

Yeah but the people of Wisconsin are stupid. Walker will probably be recalled, and Wisconsin will return to budget deficits.

[Superfreak]

Yeah but the people of Wisconsin are stupid. Walker will probably be recalled, and Wisconsin will return to budget deficits.

I lived there ten years, there will certainly be a big push in Madison to tell everyone how evil Walker is. But if he takes the time and highlights the savings... both jobs and money... he will survive the unions attempt to re institute their mandatory 'dues to democrats' program.

[Bfgrn]

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_1_scott-walker.html



Seems like the evilz Mr. Walker implemented are doing quite well for the people of Wisconsin. Can't wait to hear the left wing spin on this.

We just heard the 'spin'.

For over 50 years, public unions have had collective bargaining in Wisconsin, since 1959...AND...there is no malfeasance. Teachers in Wisconsin make less than counterparts in the private sector; 25% less, and most have a higher level of education. The same for other public workers in that state. So WHERE is the malfeasance?

If what you say is true, and collective bargaining has been going on since 1959, then teachers and public workers should be making more, not less than private employees.

You are being fed right wing propaganda and 'spin', and you swallow every drop.

[Bfgrn]

Walker cut funding to public schools, about $600 per student. And this time teachers have been forced to take the brunt. So, according to Walker, all of Wisconsin's problems are because of teachers. But, class sizes will be increased and programs like art and sports will be cut. WHERE will the money come in the future? Is Walker the tooth fairy?


The budget bill and the budget repair bill require school districts to make big cuts and essentially directed the districts to compel their teachers to bear the brunt of the cuts.

School districts will have to repeat their cost-slashing exercises next year and every subsequent year until the state’s school funding formula is overhauled. It is quite unlikely that we’ll be able balance our budgets on the backs of our teachers more than once. So this isn’t anything close to a permanent solution to school districts’ annual budgeting challenges.

There are longer-term issues as well. While the Governor has wanted to send the message around the country that Wisconsin is open for business, the message that he indisputably sent everywhere, around the globe as well as around the country, is that Wisconsin has it in for its teachers.

If you’re a teacher, or plan to be one, we’re telling you that we’re not going to be very welcoming in this state. We’ll cut your take-home pay, worsen your working conditions and, by gosh, we’ll make you like it.

It’s puzzling the extent to which folks seem to think that we can cut teachers’ pay and load them up with new responsibilities and yet not expect that there will be any effect on their job performance. The world doesn’t work that way. Teachers, like everyone, react to incentives.

You get what you pay for. As we cut teachers’ pay, make their working conditions less attractive, and demonstrate in other ways that we don’t value their contributions to the educational enterprise, then, all else equal, teachers with other options will leave our employment. The teachers who stay won’t be as willing to go above and beyond their minimum obligations. We’ll be unable to attract as high a caliber of applicant for teacher vacancies as we have in the past. The quality of the teaching profession in Wisconsin will eventually but inevitably go down. Our students will learn less as a result.

Long term, we’ll have two options. We can try to address this problem or we can ignore it.

More...

Wisconsin’s Day of Impact

Eric Cobb is getting a lot of email today. Cobb, executive director of the Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin, has been hearing from members who are feeling the effects of Governor Scott Walker’s budget. For the first time, their paychecks reflect the cuts rammed through the legislature earlier this year.

“In February, people didn’t want to talk about what was going to happen with the cuts. People were in denial,” Cobb told me on the phone. “They can’t do it anymore. They got their checks today or yesterday. Now I’m flooded with email from them.”

The so-called budget repair bill requires most state workers and many other public employees to pay steep increases for pension contributions and health insurance.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for the average state worker making $50,000 a year, the deductions add up to a 9 percent cut, or roughly $4,400, in take-home pay. But many workers make less than $50,000 and for them, the cuts go deeper.

“Some took a $200 hit on the first check,” said Cobb. “I have some non-represented custodial workers whose checks are annihilated. Now, people are saying they may have to drop their health insurance in order to feed their kids.”

Ah, yes, the freedom of choice in FitzWalkerstan: healthcare or food on the table?

More...


A Letter to Scott Walker from a Wisconsin Teacher

• According to the 2009 estimate for the U.S. Census, 5,654,774 people live in the state of Wisconsin. Of those, 23.2% are under the age of 18, and presumably are not subject to much in the way of income tax. That still leaves about 4,342,867 taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin. If you wished to trim $30 million off of the budget, that works out to about $6.91 per Wisconsin taxpayer. So I must ask: Is it fair that you ask $3000 of me, but you fail to ask $6.91 of everyone? I know that times are tough, but would it not be more equitable to ask that each taxpayer in the state contribute an extra 13 cents a week?

• Though you are a state employee, I have seen no provision in your bill to cut your own pension or healthcare costs. The governor’s salary in Wisconsin was about $137,000 per year, last I checked. By contrast, I make about $38,000 per year. Somewhere in that extra $99,000 that you make, are you sure you couldn’t find some money to fund the state recovery which you seem to hold so dear? As you have been duly elected by the voters of Wisconsin, you will receive that salary as a pension for the rest of your life. I don’t mean to cut too deeply into your lifestyle, but are you sure you couldn’t live off $128,000 per year so that you could have the same 7% salary reduction you are asking certain other public employees to take?

•The average full-time worker puts in 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, with two weeks’ vacation time. That makes for a grand total of 2000 hours per year. Part of the teachers’ arguments regarding their time is that no one sees how many hours they work at home to grade papers, or create lesson plans, or things of that nature. I am in a rare state, in that I am not one of those teachers. I work an hour from where I live, and I like to keep my work at work. I, therefore, do not bring work home with me, but rather stay at school, or come in early, so that I can grade papers or create lesson plans while at school. So I am more prepared than most to explain the hours it takes to do my job. I also supervise an extra-curricular activity (as many teachers do), in that I serve as the Drama Coach for my school. The school year, so far, has lasted for 24 weeks. I have, in that time, averaged 78 hours per week either going to school, being at school, or coming home from school. If you remove my commute, of course, I still average 68 hours per week, thus far. That means I have put in 1,632 hours of work time this year, which works out to over 80% of what your average full time worker does in a calendar year. If you include my commute, I’m over 90%. If ikeep going at my current pace, I will work 2,720 hours this school year (or 3,120 hours if you include my commute). That means I work 136% to 156% as much as your average hourly worker.

•As to overpaid — I’m not sure I am overpaid in general, though I do believe I am underpaid in terms of the educational level expected to do my job. I have two Bachelor’s Degrees, and will be beginning work toward my Master’s this summer. By comparison, sir, you never completed college, and yet, as previously stated, you outearn me by almost $100,000 per year. Perhaps that is an argument that I made the wrong career choice. But it is perhaps an argument that we need to discuss whether you and others like you are overpaid, and not whether teachers are.

Much more in the letter...

Education is the cheap defense of nations.
Edmund Burke

[Superfreak]

We just heard the 'spin'.

For over 50 years, public unions have had collective bargaining in Wisconsin, since 1959...AND...there is no malfeasance. Teachers in Wisconsin make less than counterparts in the private sector; 25% less, and most have a higher level of education. The same for other public workers in that state. So WHERE is the malfeasance?

If what you say is true, and collective bargaining has been going on since 1959, then teachers and public workers should be making more, not less than private employees.

You are being fed right wing propaganda and 'spin', and you swallow every drop.

Please... do elaborate... show us where you are getting your statistic that they are making 25% less.

[Bfgrn]

Please... do elaborate... show us where you are getting your statistic that they are making 25% less.

http://www.epi.org/page/-/old/briefi...ngPaper290.pdf

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke

[PostmodernProphet]

http://www.epi.org/page/-/old/briefi...ngPaper290.pdf

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke

lol, apparently you didn't read page 6 of your link....it provides documentation of what Walker is working to stop......nice job......

[Superfreak]

Walker cut funding to public schools, about $600 per student. And this time teachers have been forced to take the brunt. So, according to Walker, all of Wisconsin's problems are because of teachers. But, class sizes will be increased and programs like art and sports will be cut. WHERE will the money come in the future? Is Walker the tooth fairy?

LMAO... thanks for the standard spin. As the article mentioned, all the dramatic 'cuts' that dems keep pretending will occur... HAVE NOT OCCURRED. AS the article stated, they already are saving on health care plans, they are already saving the funds cut by asking the workers to actually CONTRIBUTE as do their private sector counterparts.

The budget bill and the budget repair bill require school districts to make big cuts and essentially directed the districts to compel their teachers to bear the brunt of the cuts.

1) They reduced the cost of health care in Appleton by how much? Just by threatening the UNION insurance plan with competition?
2) Yes, employees of the state are now actually contributing more to their health and retirement accounts... what would you rather happen... that everyone else pay for their health and retirement? Is that what you think is a 'fair' solution? Do they pay any more now than the private sector?

School districts will have to repeat their cost-slashing exercises next year and every subsequent year until the state’s school funding formula is overhauled. It is quite unlikely that we’ll be able balance our budgets on the backs of our teachers more than once. So this isn’t anything close to a permanent solution to school districts’ annual budgeting challenges.

Please tell us... what is it EXACTLY that you think is 'on the backs of teachers'? did Appleton not just save $3million on the backs of the UNION INSURANCE COMPANY? did the other school districts not just save $200 per student in terms of reduced health care insurance costs (again on the backs of the UNION INSURANCE company, NOT TEACHERS). Do you honestly expect us to believe WI was better off with the UNION monopoly on insurance plans? Because they obviously had room to come down, yet they have instead been RAPING the state for obscene profits. (isn't that the phrase used when private insurance companies make money)

There are longer-term issues as well. While the Governor has wanted to send the message around the country that Wisconsin is open for business, the message that he indisputably sent everywhere, around the globe as well as around the country, is that Wisconsin has it in for its teachers.

If you’re a teacher, or plan to be one, we’re telling you that we’re not going to be very welcoming in this state. We’ll cut your take-home pay, worsen your working conditions and, by gosh, we’ll make you like it.

LMAO... please provide examples of your nonsense above. Because it looks to simply be more of the same Dem fear mongering that hasn't happened.

It’s puzzling the extent to which folks seem to think that we can cut teachers’ pay and load them up with new responsibilities and yet not expect that there will be any effect on their job performance. The world doesn’t work that way. Teachers, like everyone, react to incentives.

You get what you pay for. As we cut teachers’ pay, make their working conditions less attractive, and demonstrate in other ways that we don’t value their contributions to the educational enterprise, then, all else equal, teachers with other options will leave our employment. The teachers who stay won’t be as willing to go above and beyond their minimum obligations. We’ll be unable to attract as high a caliber of applicant for teacher vacancies as we have in the past. The quality of the teaching profession in Wisconsin will eventually but inevitably go down. Our students will learn less as a result.

LMAO... seriously... the above is nonsense.

Eric Cobb is getting a lot of email today. Cobb, executive director of the Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin, has been hearing from members who are feeling the effects of Governor Scott Walker’s budget. For the first time, their paychecks reflect the cuts rammed through the legislature earlier this year.

“In February, people didn’t want to talk about what was going to happen with the cuts. People were in denial,” Cobb told me on the phone. “They can’t do it anymore. They got their checks today or yesterday. Now I’m flooded with email from them.”

The so-called budget repair bill requires most state workers and many other public employees to pay steep increases for pension contributions and health insurance.

Steep increases? What does the private sector pay for their health and retirement accounts vs. the union members?

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for the average state worker making $50,000 a year, the deductions add up to a 9 percent cut, or roughly $4,400, in take-home pay. But many workers make less than $50,000 and for them, the cuts go deeper.

“Some took a $200 hit on the first check,” said Cobb. “I have some non-represented custodial workers whose checks are annihilated. Now, people are saying they may have to drop their health insurance in order to feed their kids.”

Yeah, its because of the budget cuts... I love how the left likes to go to extreme examples. Guess what. Non union custodial workers who make the same/similar also feel the effects of rising health care costs and rising insurance premiums. Welcome to the real world.

Ah, yes, the freedom of choice in FitzWalkerstan: healthcare or food on the table?

Again... you are asking the non union custodians to pay for the union custodians? Is that the other option? 'Someone has to pay for it and by golly it isn't going to be union members. We are going to bitch and whine about paying less than the private sector and we are going to make the private sector pay our share too.'

• According to the 2009 estimate for the U.S. Census, 5,654,774 people live in the state of Wisconsin. Of those, 23.2% are under the age of 18, and presumably are not subject to much in the way of income tax. That still leaves about 4,342,867 taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin. If you wished to trim $30 million off of the budget, that works out to about $6.91 per Wisconsin taxpayer. So I must ask: Is it fair that you ask $3000 of me, but you fail to ask $6.91 of everyone? I know that times are tough, but would it not be more equitable to ask that each taxpayer in the state contribute an extra 13 cents a week?

Tell you what Mr. Letter writer. Compare what YOU have been paying for your health and pension vs. what all those other WI taxpayers have been contributing. Is it fair to ask THEM to pay not only for THEIR health and retirement plans, but for yours as well?

• Though you are a state employee, I have seen no provision in your bill to cut your own pension or healthcare costs. The governor’s salary in Wisconsin was about $137,000 per year, last I checked. By contrast, I make about $38,000 per year. Somewhere in that extra $99,000 that you make, are you sure you couldn’t find some money to fund the state recovery which you seem to hold so dear? As you have been duly elected by the voters of Wisconsin, you will receive that salary as a pension for the rest of your life. I don’t mean to cut too deeply into your lifestyle, but are you sure you couldn’t live off $128,000 per year so that you could have the same 7% salary reduction you are asking certain other public employees to take?

That is a valid criticism.

•The average full-time worker puts in 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, with two weeks’ vacation time. That makes for a grand total of 2000 hours per year. Part of the teachers’ arguments regarding their time is that no one sees how many hours they work at home to grade papers, or create lesson plans, or things of that nature. I am in a rare state, in that I am not one of those teachers. I work an hour from where I live, and I like to keep my work at work. I, therefore, do not bring work home with me, but rather stay at school, or come in early, so that I can grade papers or create lesson plans while at school. So I am more prepared than most to explain the hours it takes to do my job. I also supervise an extra-curricular activity (as many teachers do), in that I serve as the Drama Coach for my school. The school year, so far, has lasted for 24 weeks. I have, in that time, averaged 78 hours per week either going to school, being at school, or coming home from school. If you remove my commute, of course, I still average 68 hours per week, thus far. That means I have put in 1,632 hours of work time this year, which works out to over 80% of what your average full time worker does in a calendar year. If you include my commute, I’m over 90%. If ikeep going at my current pace, I will work 2,720 hours this school year (or 3,120 hours if you include my commute). That means I work 136% to 156% as much as your average hourly worker.

1) NO, your commute time does not count. For one, you CHOSE to live far from where you work. For another, those non-teachers 40 hour weeks... they don't include THEIR commute time.

2) Please explain Mr. Letter writer. How is it that your lesson plans change from year to year so much? Most tea

•As to overpaid — I’m not sure I am overpaid in general, though I do believe I am underpaid in terms of the educational level expected to do my job. I have two Bachelor’s Degrees, and will be beginning work toward my Master’s this summer. By comparison, sir, you never completed college, and yet, as previously stated, you outearn me by almost $100,000 per year. Perhaps that is an argument that I made the wrong career choice. But it is perhaps an argument that we need to discuss whether you and others like you are overpaid, and not whether teachers are.

Please Mr. Letter writer... do tell us... What are your Bachelor's degrees in? What is your Masters going to be in? Does the Masters degree you will pursue help with your specific teaching... or does it just get you a bump in pay?

[Superfreak]

http://www.epi.org/page/-/old/briefi...ngPaper290.pdf

To summarize, our study shows that Wisconsin public
employees earn 4.8% less in total compensation per hour
than comparable full-time employees in Wisconsin’s
private sector.

Wisconsin
state and local governments pay college-educated employees
25% less in annual compensation, on average,
than private employers.

Obviously the teachers are going to be in the above category, but I would love to see an apples to apples comparison done with public and private school teachers total compensation packages.

I would also like to see how they calculate education levels? Are they truly comparing apples to apples. Why do they refuse to compare public teachers to private? That would be a true apples to apples comparison.

Wisconsin state and local government employees
on average are more experienced (22.5 years compared
with 21.3 years), more likely to be female (56% versus
46%), and work fewer weekly hours (42.8 versus 43.1).
State and local government employees are also less likely
to be black (3.1% versus 4.8%), or Hispanic (3.2% versus
5.8%); are more likely to be Asian (2% versus 1.8%); are
more likely to be citizens (97.9% versus 96.4%); and are
less likely to be disabled (0.9% versus 2%) than private
sector employees (King et al. 2009).

Are public unions racist or something?

Only an economic recovery can begin to plug
the hole in the state’s budget. Unfortunately, the state’s own
current budget balancing efforts may prolong the economic
downturn by increasing unemployment and reducing demand
for products and services. Thousands of Wisconsin
public employees have lost jobs, and more will follow,
causing considerable pain and disruption for their families.
Other public employees will have their wages frozen
and benefits cut. Not because they did not do their jobs,
or performed services no longer needed, or earned more
than they are worth. They too will join the list of millions
of hard-working innocent victims of a financial system run
amok and an economy operating far below full employment.
They do not deserve our anger or condemnation.

This is part of the 'conclusion' the EPI came to. Unfortunately for them, the reality is showing them to be quite wrong. Walker's plans are SAVING jobs. They are LOWERING health care costs to the schools.

On the other hand, public
employees receive considerably less supplemental pay and vacation time

I would love to see their data on that one.

[Superfreak]

So Bfgrn... instead of relying on talking points from the left that were issued PRIOR to Walkers plan being put in place. How about you discuss what the OP mentions... the FACT that it is working. That teachers aren't being laid off in mass numbers as the Dem/union fear mongers kept chanting. That health care cost declines have mitigated a third of the cuts to education spending... cuts that by the way were due to profiteering by the UNION to the detriment of taxpayers.

[Bfgrn]

So Bfgrn... instead of relying on talking points from the left that were issued PRIOR to Walkers plan being put in place. How about you discuss what the OP mentions... the FACT that it is working. That teachers aren't being laid off in mass numbers as the Dem/union fear mongers kept chanting. That health care cost declines have mitigated a third of the cuts to education spending... cuts that by the way were due to profiteering by the UNION to the detriment of taxpayers.

Oh, I see, I have to rely on right wing 'talking points' from Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a group fronting special interests started by oil billionaire David Koch?

Heath care costs are declining because teachers are paying more of the costs, the cost of providing health care to teachers didn't change, only who pays for it.

Teachers already make 25% less than the private sector, so now that is 34% less.

You can put as much spin as you want. After over 50 years of collective bargaining, there was no malfeasance. Teachers and public employees are not overpaid. And hundreds of thousands of citizens don't show up at Walker's door for nothing, and one million citizens don't sign a petition to recall Walker for nothing.

The American people know a rat when they smell one. And the rat is in the State house, not the classroom. Most people went to public schools and can probably name teachers that were mentors in their lives. And like me, they had children who went through public schools and got to know all their children's teachers. They came across dedicated professionals who genuinely cared about our kids, worked extra hard and were role models and mentors.


"Teachers are givers in a world dominated by takers, and they're also sharers. This collaborative instinct makes our profession unlike any other."
Barbara Keshishian

[sedan]

Tell you what Mr. Letter writer. Compare what YOU have been paying for your health and pension vs. what all those other WI taxpayers have been contributing. Is it fair to ask THEM to pay not only for THEIR health and retirement plans, but for yours as well?

If the health care benefits were negotiated in lieu of, say, salary increases, then obviously YES.

[PostmodernProphet]

If the health care benefits were negotiated in lieu of, say, salary increases, then obviously YES.

wouldn't that mean they aren't paying their fair share of income taxes?......

[Bfgrn]

Maybe Scott Walker should recall the words of a former President of the United States:

"Samuel Gompers believed with all his heart that if a worker was properly and fairly paid for his work, he could provide for himself without having to hold out this hand to a caseworker for government-provided benefits. He was a champion of collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining in the years since has played a major role in America's economic miracle. Unions represent some of the freest institutions in this land. There are few finer examples of participatory democracy to be found anywhere.

I can guarantee you today that this administration will not fight inflation by attacking the sacred right of American workers to negotiate their wages. We propose to control government, not people. Now, today I want to express again my belief in our American system of collective bargaining and pledge that there will always be an open door to you in this administration."


"But restoring the American dream requires more than restoring a sound, productive economy, vitally important as that is. It requires a return to spiritual and moral values, values so deeply held by those who came here to build a new life. We need to restore those values in our daily life, in our neighborhoods and in our government’s dealings with the other nations of the world.

These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland. The values that have inspired other dissidents under Communist domination. They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost. They remind us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. You and I must protect and preserve freedom here or it will not be passed on to our children."

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