I realize that this is a sports blog but the topic I am about to address touches on everything from sports, to law, to politics, to religion. In Wisconsin, sometimes it's very difficult to separate any of those four things from each other.
The term "collective bargaining" is normally reserved for professional athletes. It's almost impossible to turn on ESPN without hearing the latest update on the NFL's collective bargaining agreement (or lack thereof). Lately, however; in the state of Wisconsin, the term "collective bargaining" has taken on an entirely new meaning.
This past week, newly elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has launched an assault on collective bargaining by calling for legislation designed to strip the teacher's union of its power. At the same time, teachers throughout the state of Wisconsin have called in "sick" to protest the new legislation in Madison, essentially sacrificing the children they are responsible to educate in order to make a political point. I am very interested to see how many of these teachers will sacrifice their personal time and continue to protest in Madison over the weekend.
I actually think that both sides are wrong; however, one side is clearly more wrong than the other. First, I will address the lesser of the two evils. Each and every teacher who called in "sick" to protest the newly proposed legislation should first of all be ashamed and secondly should examine why they decided to become a teacher. If they decided to teach for the money or for the summer vacations, they should have given up the occupation long ago because teachers work way too hard for their salaries and the good teachers don't get a summer vacation because they are too busy improving their classrooms for the next school year.
More disturbing than the behavior of the teachers is the behavior of our Governor. For those of you who have supported him blindly because he ran as a Republican, Scott Walker is no conservative. Instead, he is one of many pseudo-conservatives masquerading a malignant political agenda around and calling it "fiscal conservatism." Politicians like Walker are the reason a smooth talker without any real substance, like Obama, can find a way to get elected to public office.
The barometer for every true conservative on any issue should always be "what would Reagan do?" The answer, in this case, is certainly not this. Although Reagan refused to compromise on his principles, always sought ways to unite the country by compromising on how his principles were implemented. Instead of chasing Democrats south of the border he reached across the aisle to develop diverse solutions that required a bi-partisan perspective.
Instead, Walker's tactics resemble the far left approach that Saul Alinsky advocates for in his book Rules for Radicals. Walker is attempting to use Wisconsin's economic crisis to force citizens to surrender their individual rights for the good of society as determined by Walker's ideology. More importantly, Walker has failed to account for the devastating effect his decisions will have on Wisconsin's children for years to come. Taking away rights from Wisconsin's teachers in an attempt to balance the state's budget will further divide the "haves" from the "have nots" in terms of education.
The most basic law of Economics holds that when any econimically motivated system is forced out of equilibrium it will always regain equilibrium when substitutes exist. In this instance, what that means is that the best teachers in the state of Wisconsin will find a way to regain appropriate compensation for their abilities and either leave the public school system or leave the state. Either scenario would devastate a public educational system that is already strapped for resources.
Similarly, the best and the brightest students entering college in Wisconsin will no longer consider an Education Degree as a viable option since it typically takes between one semester and one year longer to complete than other degrees due to Wisconsin's stringent student teaching requirements.
No matter how one dissects this issue, the conclusion is the same. Wisconsin is headed for disaster in terms of its public education system if Walker's legislation passes. I, for one, hope that it does not.
I am proud to call you my husband! It is a great blog that speaks the truth!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your view. Keep up the fight, will get him out! Hope the family is well.
ReplyDeletePs. I ran into "L" from L.PJ. today.
-J
I'm really glad you found this J! It's been way too long. We need to get together again soon. I hope you and your family are doing well.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Paul!
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see read a view that truly can see both sides of the disagreement.
Some of it was so well written that it is hard for me to understand. It is obvious you are headed for great things in your future.
We need to talk politics some day, I could learn a lot from you as long as we don't talk football.
THE GREEN BAY PACKERS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS.
No matter what you or anyone says you can't take that away from us true Packer fans!!!
Teachers should not be paid for the days they missed. 14 DEM Senators should be disciplined. Citizens pay both to show up for work and do their job. I am not living in WI anymore, but agree with the will of the people, who elected Walker. Teachers and public workers....welcome to the recession and the real world! Where do you think the money would come from. WI is broke! I think Walker is being very reasonable, compared to what people in the private sector have to pay.
ReplyDeleteSo we should just keep spending money we don't have and pretend like nothing is wrong?
ReplyDeleteWalker's tactics may be suspect, but the end goal is the same and there really is no way to sugar coat it. Government needs to run leaner and meaner before the budget situation really gets out of control. Some people would say we are already there.
Education in the state of WI is very important, yet if you combine the state education system and the UW-system, it accounts for almost 60% of the state budget. Under this proposal, no one would lose their job in the immediate term. If something is not done now, WI could end up like the L.A. school system and have to cut 5,000 teachers at the drop of a hat. What would that do to class size and prep time?
Collective bargaining is a privelege, not a right. Unions had their purpose, but now, most workers are protected by state and federal laws. Unions serve to function the higher ups in the system. Even WEAC and Obama admit that in some cases, unions directly inhibit the education of children because teachers lower on the union totum pole may be more effective teachers, yet are the first to get cut if cuts need to be made while some older, possibly less effective teachers just go through the motions without putting maximum effort in because they are protected by the union. Admittedly, not all teachers are this way. There are some great experienced teachers who put in lots of extra time and effort to make their classroom a great learning environment.
The key is to cut wasteful spending in education. Does a school district really need to pay 3 coaches to coach a 7th grade basketball team? What about requiring each teachers to take on one extra curricular activity (e.g. coaching, after school duty, dance team, student council) as part of their contract without additional pay similar to what private schools do? That would save school districts thousands of dollars per year. Yet, the union has "bargained" that any extra time at school that is required, should be paid with the "you can't make me be here longer than my contract says" attitude. Again, I realize that a ton of teachers put in extra time without pay, but a number of them are just punching the clock.
What about charging tuition to students? Maybe $250 a year per student. You could do a means testing similar to the free and reduced lunch program that would allow low income families to attend for a free or reduced cost? Also, parents would maybe be a bit nore vested in their child's education if they have some skin in the game outside of property taxes and hold their children more accountable for performance.
If we keep the status quo, education will suffer more in the long run when we realize as a state that we cannot keep up the charade cooking the books and rearranging tax dollars to make the situation seem less dire than it really is. Deeper cuts will then have to be made and the children will suffer even more.
We can just keep on pretending like there is nothing to see here and see what happens in our state. I think that scenario is much worse than the current proposal.
Aaron, u raise some great points but as a parent of two children in school I must tell you that we already pay for band insturments and many many other things that our kids need for school. Public education is not free, things have been getting cut for years already, and even though I understand why you say unions are no longer needed consider this.
ReplyDeleteAny teacher who is both very good at what they do and has the ability to move would have no reason to stay in Wisconsin where they are no longer valued. They are going to go where the better deal is.
We can't let our best teachers move to other states and overseas the way so many good businesses have. If the quality of education in Wisconsin goes down our state will become less attractive to everyone.
The only way to get out of the current mess is to cut spending AND raise taxes. Even though it would hurt the economy even more I think a raise in sales tax is necessary. Property tax does not work because the wealthy people always find the loopholes.
Let's start cutting spending by taking away perks from the politicians. Does the govener really need to live in a mansion?
Wisconsin public schools have increased our per student expenditures from $4,956 per student in 1998 to $10,791 per student in 2008. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator the $4,956 our state spent per student in 1998 dollars equaled $6,546 in 2008 dollars. This means that from 1998 to 2008, Wisconsin public schools increased our per student spending by $4,245 in real terms yet did not add a single point to the reading scores of our eighth graders and still could lift only one-third of our eighth graders to at least a “proficient” level in reading.
ReplyDeleteThrowing more money at the schools is not the answer. Raising taxes is not the answer. Have you ever looked at a "rich" person's tax return? They pay a boat load in taxes every year.
My brother-in-law is a perfect example of why taxing the rich is already sufficient and almost unfair. He came from a broken, dysfunctional family where his dad was an alcoholic. He went to public high school and got his bachelor's degree from UW-La Crosse. He went on to the Medical College of Wisconsin and racked up almost $175,000 in student loans. After medical college, he did his 5-year residency at the University Hospital in Madison. He worked an average of 90-110 (not an exaggeration) hours a week for about 40K a year during those five years. He then did a fellowship in Minnesota for another year and a half before accepting a position in Appleton as a surgeon, but also enlisted in the Navy and serrved four months in Germany as a Navy doctor pretty much right after he started his practice. So between schooling and residency, he pretty much gave up 15 years of his life to be a doctor. He missed a ton in the life of his family to pursue his career as a doctor.
Now, he is a successful surgeon with 2 years in his practice. He makes good money, but works long hours again. Probably brings in about 350K a year, but gives about 130K a year back in state and federal taxes. 130K per year!!! That is more than my wife and I make combined easily. How would you like it if all things were equal and you made 50K a year and had to pay 15K in taxes alone? Wouldn't feel to good would it?
So he has sacrificed years of his life and spent countless hours dedicated to his career to have over 1/3 of his money taken away in taxes and yet, people complain that he doesn't pay enough instead of saying THANK YOU!!! If you raise his taxes more, people are going to have no incentive to work as hard as he did to get where he did today and the net result is going to be less qualified, less motivated people in the workforce.
Eliminate government waste, reduce spending and encourage businesses to move to the state to create jobs, thus increasing tax revenue because of increased business tax revenue and individual worker revenue due to increased employment opportunities.
Your brother sounds like a great guy who does NOT cheat the system like so many do. Thank You to him and others like him. I agree with your last paragraph and respect your numbers from the top but I still have two major issues with what Scott Walker is doing.
ReplyDelete1. Adding the whole union thing to this plan
2. Trying to jam this through so quickly, it is what Obama did with health care and it just divides people and causes anger. He needs to show state workers a little respect, mainly the teachers who are as important to the state as doctors! Teachers don't work as many hours as doctors but also get less pay.
Aaron you make some great points. Too many of the people on Walker's side with this issue lack the solid facts that you have. Thank You.