They're talking about cutting teacher salaries in Michigan now

[Bozita]

The union busting continues.


http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/08/pay_for_michigan_educators_rai.html

Pay for Michigan educators raises questions: Can state afford high salaries? Should pay be linked to performance?
Published: Monday, August 09, 2010, 8:25 AM Updated: Monday, August 09, 2010, 9:22 AM
Julie Mack | Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — Long before he was a state senator for Michigan’s southwestern corner, Ron Jelinek was a teacher, and, in 1967, he was a first-year teacher in Berrien County earning $5,600.

It was a good salary at the time — equivalent to about $36,000 in today’s dollars — but Jelinek knew factory workers who made even more.

Yet Jelinek had those blue-collar jobs to thank for his own generous salary. For decades, Michigan has had among the best-paid K-12 educators in the country, a perk of living in a high-wage union state.

In an economy where an assembly-line worker could earn enough to support a family and own a house, not to mention a boat or a cabin up north, it made perfect sense that teachers should share the wealth.

Although that wealth has evaporated with the collapse of Michigan’s manufacturing base, public educators’ pay remains above the national average — but it’s a compensation system under severe financial pressure.

The dilemma for policymakers such as Jelinek, now a Republican lawmaker who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee: At a time when many Michigan residents have lost their jobs or seen their paychecks slashed, is it fair to consider tax increases so schools can maintain their current pay and benefits? On the other hand, is it wise to cut pay when creating a well-educated, skilled work force is a top priority?

“When you track what’s happened to the state’s unionized work force in the private sector, it’s been largely turned on its ear” in terms of compensation in recent years, said Craig Thiel, an analyst with the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan. “The public sector has been trailing the private sector in that transformation. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, it’s simply the way it is.”

more...

[dkf]

1. The other choice is laying off teachers.

All political losers.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Republicans really do want to get rid of the middle class and

have us be like the masses of people in third world countries. Can't read, can't write, living in tents etc. That way they think the rich will keep them in power for ever.

[dpark08w]

8. MIDDLE CLASS

I don't think that's true. Without a middle class our economy could not function. I'm more inclined to think
our present government wants the majority of people to be dependent on the government. It's scary to see the public
employee unions have so much clout. I honestly think that this economic mess were in is "in part" a result of the
incredible pay and benefits we taxpayers fork out.

[Bozita]

3. ... and a Detroit teevee station is airing this story today ...

It's about greedy, sex-crazed teachers ... in Milwaukee, WISCONSIN.


http://www.clickondetroit.com/health/24535022/detail.html

Milwaukee Teachers Seek Viagra Coverage
Drugs Were Excluded In '05 To Save Money
RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer
POSTED: Friday, August 6, 2010
UPDATED: 7:58 pm EDT August 6, 2010


MADISON, Wis. -- With the district in a financial crisis and hundreds of its members facing layoffs, the Milwaukee teachers union is taking a peculiar stand: fighting to get its taxpayer-funded Viagra back.

The union has asked a judge to order the school board to again include Pfizer Inc.'s erectile dysfunction drug and similar pills in its health insurance plans.

The filing is the latest in a two-year legal campaign in which the union has argued, so far unsuccessfully, that the board's policy of excluding erectile dysfunction drugs discriminates against male employees. The union says Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and others are necessary treatment for "an exclusively gender-related condition."

But lawyers for the school board say the drugs were excluded in 2005 to save money, and there is no discrimination because they are used primarily for recreational sex and not out of medical necessity.

The filing last month comes as the union, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, is also protesting hundreds of layoff notices issued to teachers for the coming school year. Citing a "financial crisis" caused by exploding benefit costs and revenue shortfalls, the district's outgoing superintendent proposed laying off 682 employees in April.

more...

[Hannah Bell]

5. oh, those pervy sex-crazed teachers! probably want it for their pedophilia parties.

i'm sure that viagra wasn't the only drug that was excluded from coverage in 2005, but of course that's the only one the papers report on.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. They're going after our health benefits now

Joe Scar mentioned this on his show today.

Just another attack front on their war on teachers.

[MichiganVote]

4. If you review the disparities among the school districts in what teachers

pay into their benefit package, you'll note there is a huge disparity from plans in which teachers pay as little as 1% and others that require teachers to contribute 19% or more. Michigan Politicians Do Not Take Those Diverse Numbers Into Account And Mandate An Across The Board Contribution From All Education Employees. Why? Because they are too goddamn lazy to do the work they should be doing.

It is a common complaint among some in state government to complain that state gov. employees have carried the greatest burden in terms of cuts. That is simply not true and has resulted in apples vs. oranges comparisons. The majority of the state workers do not have a Bachelor's or Master's degree and do not require continual coursework to maintain a license.

In this state at present, administrator salaries are greatly inflated. Superintendent's in some locale net the equivalent of CEO salary and benefit packages.

So long as we continue to kiss the asses of the insurance industry---who has not been required to rein in costs---the cheap, dirty and erroneous way out of the blame game is to criticize teachers for lobbying for a working wage.

[knitter4democracy]

11. This. This a million times.

If you cut our salaries (which aren't huge if you compare them nationally, compare them to what lawmakers make, compare them to our bosses' salaries), then you're cutting your own tax base. We can't move easily, and we help create the next year's tax base, but why in the world would you pay what we should get? :silly:

[dpark08w]

7. teacher pay

Teachers being public employees are earning 30% more in pay and benefits than a teacher in the private schools.
Question - If we pay teachers more will they really teach better? I don't think better pay equals better teaching.
I think the key to better teaching is the possibility of losing their job if their students don't perform.
I also think politicians better get a handle on the public employee unions as the amount we pay public employees is
a big cause of our economic problems

[Bozita]

9. Even though you're new here, I'd like to nominate you to head DU's ...

... "Circling The Drain, Chapter Five Committee."

Welcome to DU.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. pepperoni?

[knitter4democracy]

12. I've taught in both public and private schools.

It's a mistake to think that the private schools are better. Trust me. The stories I could tell . . .