Teachers’ Union Gives Finger to Taxpayers
This reaction was expected.
West Bend School Board members crossed a line when they sent a letter to teachers about labor negotiations Friday, according to the representative of the West Bend Education Association.
Contract negotiations for teachers in the West Bend School District started last fall, and moved into mediation in February. If a voluntary settlement cannot be reached through mediation, which can take place over a series of meetings, the terms of the contract will be settled through binding arbitration.
“The approach taken by the board was disrespectful to the membership,” said Jeff Wickland, who is representing the West Bend Education Association and is executive director of Cedar Lake United Educators Council.
The two-page letter, which was signed by each School Board member, stated that the “current collective bargaining process is going to directly impact the amount that has to be reduced for next year’s budget.”
Superintendent Pat Herdrich recently recommended $2 million in cuts for 2010-2011 school year budget. The cuts are necessary to bring the budget under the revenue caps, and as a result of reduced state funding for schools, she said.
“To target our members, their wages and benefits is unfair,” Wickland said. “We are not the problem. The school funding formula is the problem.”
In other words, “FU, give us more money.” Personnel costs constitute roughly 85% of the district’s budget. You CAN NOT seriously address the district’s finances without addressing those costs. The reason that the union doesn’t like the school funding system is that it prevents the board from jacking up taxes to pay higher personnel costs.
Look, here’s the reality. Even if the school district taxes to the max again, which will draw even more fire from the public, they will come up short. The school board does not have the power to change the school funding formula. It has to play the hand it’s dealt. And if the union insists on increases in this economy, that money has to come from somewhere. It will come from programming, teacher jobs, or the other 15% of the budget.
The school board is doing the right thing here. There will be consequences if the teachers’ union insists on an increase. We don’t live in a fantasy land of endless resources here.
If you are a teacher in West Bend and disagree with your union, it is your responsibility to tell them AND the school board that they don’t speak for you. Silence is acceptance.
Talk to any public school district representative in West Bend, Wausau or MPS. Anywhere.
The response is always the same: “We can’t balance our budget because the school funding formula with the State is screwed up”
It never occurs to them to live within their budget. It is always the “aid formulas”.
Educators—-there is a finite pot of State money. If your district takes more aid, then other districts will lose money.
Good post Owen—-these groups just need to learn to live within their budget.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 0921 hrs
Wickland is just towing the company line. WEAC has no interest in local economies. They just want to get theirs. Keep in mind that WEAC does not necessarily equal local union wants, needs and beliefs.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1054 hrs
Anon—
“Keep in mind that WEAC does not necessarily equal local union wants, needs and beliefs.”
Bull!, then put it to a vote with your brothers and sisters. Or, walk among us raise your chin, pull back your shoulders
And proudly proclaim “It’s for the kids”!-Thugs!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1120 hrs
As a union member I can tell you that WEAC does not represent me fully and I ask for my PAC money back. I do walk among you and I do teach for the kids. i am not alone in my beliefs.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 1231 hrs
Talk to any public school district representative in West Bend, Wausau or MPS. Anywhere.
The response is always the same: “We can’t balance our budget because the school funding formula with the State is screwed up”
Why is this not taken at face value? Would folks rather believe in a huge perfectly executed conspiracy across union organizations and other associations of educational professionals than to believe that it might be true? I know its a whole lot easier to perpetuate the greedy lazy public official trope, but the facts remain all these districts are being crippled by the funding structure in the same way.
The conservative forces that aligned to deal a death blow to public education were well-informed, powerful, and right on the mark when it came to the destructive effect of this suite of laws.
Posted by Mike on March 03, 2010 at 1800 hrs
@Mike….get a grip, dude. The teeachers unions have been ripping off the taxpayer since I was a kid. I know…my mom was a member.
Posted by Steve on March 03, 2010 at 1856 hrs
Define “ripping off the taxpayer…”
Posted by Mike on March 03, 2010 at 1859 hrs
Seriously, Mike. In what universe is a 9-month employee worth that kind of money. Especially considering the state of the public schools.
Really.
Posted by Steve on March 03, 2010 at 1913 hrs
So “ripping off the taxpayer” means working the job my negotiated contract tells me to work for the salary the elected officials who are my bosses settled on with my union leaders?
What is it a hard working teacher needs to do to NOT “rip off the taxpayers”?
Maybe work twelve hour days? I do that. Maybe give up four lunches a week to meet with students who have special interests and want to work beyond their classes to make their school community a better place? I do that. Maybe create new learning opportunities for students and spend weeks in planning over the summer, limiting my time off to a 5-6 weeks. I do that too.
I should stop ripping off those poor taxpayers. I should learn my place, shouldn’t I?
Shit.Posted by Mike on March 03, 2010 at 1950 hrs
Wickland is just towing the company line. WEAC has no interest in local economies. They just want to get theirs. Keep in mind that WEAC does not necessarily equal local union wants, needs and beliefs.
This is a fairly accurate statement.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2110 hrs
RE Post #8
191 contract days/180 school days vs 257 8hr worker days.
257 days - 10 days vacation x 8hrs = 1,976 annual hrs.
1,976/191 = 10.4 hrs daily a teacher should work to be “equal”.Questions:
-Do 51+% of teachers work 52 hrs per week?
-When are assignments, quizzes, tests, & exams given grades and written feedback?
-When are lesson plans for a variety of student needs created and modified? (Children are not 2x4s, bricks or channel steel))
-When are presentations prepared?
-When are grades entered?
-When is professional reading done?
-When are professional improvement plans created?
-Do teacher contact parents/students outside of school?
-When are parent/teacher conferences held?
-When do teachers create supply orders?
-What effect do daily duties, weekly meetings, discipline/accident situations and reports have on the work day?
-Why is it that teachers are not generally paid by the hour?
-When teachers state they will only work building hours, why is it that such actions are generally viewed as a subdued strike?On Mr. Robinson’s note that the school board has no power to change the school funding formula and should accept the hand it’s dealt, if no one complains, why should the elected state representatives not think there is no issue with the current formula and not give less and less in the following years? As with his correct comment about union members’ disagreements with union leadership, silence is acceptance.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2215 hrs
On Mr. Robinson’s note that the school board has no power to change the school funding formula and should accept the hand it’s dealt, if no one complains, why should the elected state representatives not think there is no issue with the current formula and not give less and less in the following years?
You miss the point. Yes, they can complain, and to their credit, they have. But they can’t change it. Certainly it is obvious that nothing will be changed before this budget has to be written. So again… they must play the hand they are dealt.
I grow tired of union hacks telling me that I should give up more of my money when they are unwilling to do so themselves.
Posted by Owen on March 03, 2010 at 2221 hrs
JP,
You have the horrible misconception that professionals making well in excess of $110,000 total compensation per year only work eight hours per week…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2224 hrs
or even per day
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2236 hrs
Mr. Robinson, I am considering giving up WB money entirely.
If your tired of union counterarguments, you have many solutions at ready.The budgeting formula can be changed. No, not immediately, but it can be.
Play the hand that’s dealt? I recall Ayn Rand writing people generally tolerate government (mis)dealings, but they sure as hell go into an uproar if the rules suddenly change during a football game.
Smeety, my intention was not to insult 40+hr professionals; it was only to counter the misconception in post #8 that teaching is 8-straight. I apologize if I came across that way.
Two more hypothetical question:
Why is it that in the following cities the 2009 school district property tax levies exceed the 2009 City/Villa/Town tax rates by so much compared to WB?Menomonee Falls +$6.28, Brown Deer +$5.45, Whitefish Bay, Village +$5.11, Germantown +$5.07, Brookfield +$4.68, Oconomowoc +$4.50, Hartford +$4.27, Green Field +$4.00,
Grafton +$4.00, Sheboygan Falls +$3.40, Saukville +3.22, Glendale +3.20, Kewaskum +$3.12, Slinger +$2.64, Watertown +$1.88, Plymouth +$1.50, Campbellsport +1.15, West Allis +0.99, West Bend +0.53, Waukesha +0.35, City of Milw -$1.76Why have the number differences remained relatively constant from 2007-2009?
It would be a single cause fallacy to say the teachers’ unions were the sole reason for such differences.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 03, 2010 at 2334 hrs
jpenterman
I have no clue why the various tax rates differentials among local communities is germane to this discussion. There are so many variables associated with those rates to make comparisons useless. Spending, and average salaries, things like that are easily comparable.
I’m still not feeling sorry for a “professional” that works 12 hour days for 9 months of the year for 130K fully loaded. Every place I’ve ever worked a 60 hour week is the norm. I haven’t been able to use all the vacation I theoritically get in years, and I work a lot more weekends than I have off, and I I’m reachable by blackberry all the time. Heck just got off a conference call with India at midnight, and I have a meeting in the office at 7am tomorrow. And I consider myself very fortunate.
There is a market for teaching positions. Private schools have no problem finding teachers, and they pay a small fraction of the salary and benefits that we pay our public school teachers. I’ve never understood why we think it ok for governent to waste our money on paying wages that are twice what the market rate for a similar position is.
The worst part is, having said that I think there are a lot of underpaid teachers. The young teachers, including the flat out best teacher my son has ever had, make a pittance for the exact same job that the gym teacher and the football coach (that watches game films rather than teach during class) Those teachers make in excess of 80K a year in salary.
In the real world, we pay by what the position is worth. We don’t pay more for the same work, because someone has worked x years, or has three degrees. They get paid for what they do, and how well they do it.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 0139 hrs
Let’s not forget that we also pay what we can afford. In the real world, most employees are receiving cuts, freezes and layoffs, not raises. Ridiculous raises, at that.
Posted by GAMazy on March 04, 2010 at 0759 hrs
re:15
Don’t forget Menomonee Falls has to pay for the Superintendent’s car & expenses. You see, although he is in charge, he can’t seem to figure out how to afford a vehicle on a six-figure income. Now wonder the Menomonee Falls School District is in such a mess!Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 04, 2010 at 1325 hrs
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